10. Education, class and vernacular awareness on Tyneside
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Marie Møller Jensen
Abstract
This chapter reports on a questionnaire study investigating Tyneside residents’ vernacular awareness and attested language use. Participant performance is interpreted on the basis of a cross-tabulation of participants’ social class as determined by their level of education and participants’ own identification. The results indicate that participants’ self-identification is at odds with the classification based on education and, furthermore, that the group of participants who identify as middle class but have low educational attainment behave significantly different from the other participants. This group consisted of mainly older female speakers and results are interpreted in light of first wave studies on the patterning of language use by class, age and gender. Finally, the issue of vernacular awareness is linked to social indexicality and it is suggested that an interpretation of participants as agents allows these two factors explanatory power.
Abstract
This chapter reports on a questionnaire study investigating Tyneside residents’ vernacular awareness and attested language use. Participant performance is interpreted on the basis of a cross-tabulation of participants’ social class as determined by their level of education and participants’ own identification. The results indicate that participants’ self-identification is at odds with the classification based on education and, furthermore, that the group of participants who identify as middle class but have low educational attainment behave significantly different from the other participants. This group consisted of mainly older female speakers and results are interpreted in light of first wave studies on the patterning of language use by class, age and gender. Finally, the issue of vernacular awareness is linked to social indexicality and it is suggested that an interpretation of participants as agents allows these two factors explanatory power.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- 1. Introduction 1
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I. Enregisterment
- 2. Northern English and enregisterment 17
- 3. Dickens and northern English: stereotyping and ‘authenticity’ reconsidered 41
- 4. The linguistic landscape of north-east England 61
- 5. Lenition and T-to-R are differently salient: the representation of competing realisations of /t/ in Liverpool English dialect literature 83
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II. Phonology
- 6. External and internal factors in a levelling process: Prevocalic (r) in Carlisle English 111
- 7. Scouse NURSE and northern happy: vowel change in Liverpool English 135
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III. Syntax and discourse features
- 8. Are Scottish national identities reflected in the syntax of Scottish newspapers? 169
- 9. Final but in northern Englishes 191
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IV. Sociolinguistics
- 10. Education, class and vernacular awareness on Tyneside 215
- 11. Changing domains of dialect use: A real-time study of Shetland schoolchildren 245
-
V. Language and corpus
- 12. New perspectives on Scottish Standard English: Introducing the Scottish component of the International Corpus of English 273
- Index 303
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of figures and tables ix
- 1. Introduction 1
-
I. Enregisterment
- 2. Northern English and enregisterment 17
- 3. Dickens and northern English: stereotyping and ‘authenticity’ reconsidered 41
- 4. The linguistic landscape of north-east England 61
- 5. Lenition and T-to-R are differently salient: the representation of competing realisations of /t/ in Liverpool English dialect literature 83
-
II. Phonology
- 6. External and internal factors in a levelling process: Prevocalic (r) in Carlisle English 111
- 7. Scouse NURSE and northern happy: vowel change in Liverpool English 135
-
III. Syntax and discourse features
- 8. Are Scottish national identities reflected in the syntax of Scottish newspapers? 169
- 9. Final but in northern Englishes 191
-
IV. Sociolinguistics
- 10. Education, class and vernacular awareness on Tyneside 215
- 11. Changing domains of dialect use: A real-time study of Shetland schoolchildren 245
-
V. Language and corpus
- 12. New perspectives on Scottish Standard English: Introducing the Scottish component of the International Corpus of English 273
- Index 303
