Age and Language Variation
This page explores the relationship between age and social interaction in language variation, highlighting key theories and studies in sociolinguistics.
Eckert's Three Forms of Age:
- Chronological: How long someone has been alive
- Social: How someone interacts socially e.g.,marriage,birthoffirstchild
- Biological: Physical maturity
Reading Study Findings:
- Examined children's use of non-standard forms, including multiple negation and "ain't"
- Boys were more likely to approve of criminal activity
- Children approving of criminal activity were more likely to use non-standard forms
- Link between covert prestige and use of non-standard forms
Vocabulary:
- Expletives: Swear words
- Multiple Negation: Using more than one negative in a sentence e.g.,"Iain′tdonenothing"
- Standard forms: Socially accepted way of saying things usingStandardEnglish
- Overt Prestige: Social value gained from using standard forms
- Covert Prestige: Social value gained from using non-standard forms
Language and age theorists provide valuable insights:
Parrott: Teenage identity is characterized by rebellion, forbidden behavior, exclusion, and idolization.
Eckert: Teenspeak distances teenagers from adults.
Tagliamonte: Teenagers use more intensifiers online, with no evidence of grammar decline.
Definition:
- Convergence: Language becomes more similar
- Divergence: Language becomes more different
- Code: A form of language
- Genderlect: The language of a gender
- Sociolect: The language of a social group
- Ethnolect: The language of an ethnic group
- Teenspeak: The language of teenagers
Bernstein's Code Theory:
- Two types of codes: Restricted and Elaborated
- Restricted code: Uses conjunctions, context-dependent language, and non-standard syntax
- Elaborated code: Uses more standard English
- Research findings:
All children understand both codes when spoken to
Working-class children speak using restricted code
Middle and upper-class children speak using elaborated code but can use restricted code
This disadvantages working-class children in formal situations
Highlight: The language group examples presented here demonstrate how social groups language diversity impacts communication and identity formation across different age groups and social classes.
Sexuality and Language:
- Leap coined "lavender linguistics" to study language and sexuality
- Lakoff: Gay men adopt deficit features to mirror women's language
- Baker: Gay speech uses puns, acronyms, and specific lexical items
- Kulik: Language alone cannot determine sexuality
- Butler: Language use and behavior can perform an identity
Stenstrom's Teenspeak Features:
- Slang
- Expletives
- Contractions
- Name-calling
- Insult battles
Zimmerman's Teenspeak Influences:
Labov's Studies:
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New York Stores Study:
Examined presence of post-vocalic rhotic /r/ in different class stores
Found class-based differences in pronunciation
-
Martha's Vineyard Study:
Younger members converged to older members' vowel pronunciation when tourists arrived
Multicultural London English MLE:
- Variety of English popular among young Black teenagers in London
- Features:
Lexical: "peng" pretty/good, "creps" shoes
Grammatical: Unique sentence structures
Phonological: th-stopping
Example: In MLE, "Why you eating that for?" demonstrates a unique grammatical structure.
Theories on MLE:
- Kerswill: MLE will replace Cockney
- Rampton: MLE spreads through friendship groups
- Drummond: Identified Multicultural Urban British English MUBE in Manchester
- Khan: Ethnicity is a central factor influencing language
- Rampton & Harris: Four ways to categorize ethnolects: Deficit, Difference, Dominance, and Crossing
Quote: "Does the language you speak affect your identity?" This question is central to understanding the complex relationship between language and social groups.
