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LABOV DEPARTMENT STORE STUDY
2009 1986
1966
Dr. William Labov
10
Labov's New York Department Store study:
What is the big deal?
Societal factors ignored
Focus of study in rural areas
Urban accents too heterogenous
Ultimately, social factors most critical in variation
12
MethodRapid Anonymous Speech SurveysExtensive interviews in Martha's study not applicable
/r/ variable, elicited quickly, in first spontaneous, then careful speech
Task achieved by:
Three NYC department stores chosen
Asking for departments already known to be on fourth floor
Seeking clarification enabled each word said twice
Once carefully, once spontaneously
13
Which three department stores and why?
Saks Macy's
S. Klein
Representation of three socioeconomic classes
UpperMiddle
Working class
14
Results Use of [r]
%
0
25
50
75
100
store
Saks Macy's S Klein
alwayssometimesnever
first and second utterances
%
0
25
50
75
100
store
Saks Macy's S Klein
fourth Ifourth 2
floor Ifloor 2
Use of [r] corresponded to higher class of store
use of [r] increases in careful speech
Management & Salespeople
15
Prestige
• Positive vs negative – positive: seeking prestige by adopting some feature – negative: seeking prestige by avoiding some
feature
• Overt vs covert – overt prestige: seeking prestige by assimilating to the
standard – covert prestige: choosing to differ from the standard
16
Another Factors
• Labov had expected results to reflect prestige, but difference between careful and casual pronunciation suggests other factors at work
• Follow-up study looked at use of [r] in different styles of speech by different social classes
17
Pronunciation and style• Adoption of
prestige form increases with formality of style, in each case with a higher baseline for higher classes
• EXCEPT in one case
[r] pronunciation by class and style
%
0
25
50
75
100
style
casual careful reading word listminimal pairs
012,34,56,89
18
Hypercorrection• middle class
outperform upper middle class on word lists and minimal pairs
• this cross-over due to hypercorrection (according to Labov)
• not sure whether results are statistically significant though
• Labov reported group means, but did not indicate how much variance there was
[r] pronunciation by class and style
%
0
25
50
75
100
style
casual careful reading word listminimal pairs
6,89
19
Other studies
• Labov studied other phonetic indicators such as pronunciation of th, ng, and h-dropping
• Similar resultsPronunciation of th by class
th in
dex
0
23
45
68
90
style
casual careful reading word list
0,12,45,67,89
20
Conclusion• Labov established that a number of factors were
involved, not just locale (sociolinguistic factors) not just socio-class but also style of speech from casual to more careful
• Component of prestige complicates picture further
Sources: W Labov (1963) The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19:273-309. W Labov (1966) The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics W Labov (1970) The study of language in its social context. Studium Generale 23: 66-84 R Wardhaugh (1986) An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell J Holmes (1992) An introduction to sociolinguistics. London: Longman http://www.hamline.edu/personal/aschramm/linguistics2001/4casestd.html http://coral.lili.uni-bielefeld.de/~ttrippel/labov/node4.html
WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
11
New York City study (1966)
• Labov wanted to test his theory with a bigger population New York City
• Incidence of final and post-vocalic /r/ – While most American accents are rhotic, New York
(and Boston) have distinctive non-rhotic accent – Post-Depression, such urban accents lost prestige,
and rhotic midwest accent emerged as standard • Labov showed that rhotic use of /r/ reflected
social class and aspiration, and was more widespread in younger speakers