WIlliam Labov

William Labov

William Labov is a famous professor, who was the founder of sociolinguistics and questioned the idea of how social class affected language and dialect. He used several theories to reinforce his ideas and prove evidence for his theory.

 

Martha’s Vineyard

Martha’s Vineyard is a popular tourist destination, lying just on the fringe of the East Coast of the USA. Martha’s Vineyard is a small island, meaning the population is fairly small; however there is a consistent influx of tourists every year. The local people whom live on the island are labelled as the ‘islanders’; these people live on the island all year round and are regarded as the ‘middle class’ people of the island.  There was another group of people who were called the fisherman; these people were hard workers who followed the traditions and old fashioned values of everyday life. The fisherman were known to be in the ‘working class’ area, and spoke with an accent based around old fashioned received pronunciation and non-standard grammar use. This certain accent is known as ‘diphthong’, this is where a sound is made by two vowels being merged together.

On this island, the island was dissected into labels of how populated it is, ‘down island’ is the most populated part of the island, where the tourists and islanders are mostly based. Then there is the ‘up island’, the less populated part of the island, with this area being where the fisherman lived.  The tourists actually had their own name on the island, with them being known infamously as ‘the summer people’, as these tourists often visited in the summer.

Summer people – middle class

Islanders – working class/middle class

Fisherman – working class

Labov’s findings

Labov found that the islanders shifted to speaking as a fisherman, with them frequently using the ‘diphthong’ accent. This could be suggested because they are trying not to be like the summer people, they are using this accent to distance themselves from the summer people. This would be called divergence, as they are accommodating their language to distance themselves from the summer people by using the diphthong accent. This means that the summer people are using the language as a tool to reinforce their island identity. This is an interesting observation to find, as although a fair majority of the islanders are middle class and well educated, they would talk with a diphthong accent which is usually associated with a working class status. This would be called covert prestige, which means that they are deliberately using non-standard language and trying to elevate their status on the island.

 

 

Department store theory

William Labov analysed a theory of how employees used language in 3 different department stores. This theory was based in New York, Manhattan, which is widely remarked as a place with upper class people. The theory looks at the link between department stores and social class. Labov tested these language patterns and linked them to class and prestige.

 

The 3 Department Stores;

Sak’s 5^th Avenue – High status

Macy’s – Middle status

Klein’s – Lowest status

Labov looked at how employees would utilize ‘the social stratification of the post vocalic r’, this is the idea of individuals actually pronouncing the ‘r’ at the end of words. Labov suggested that if you actually pronounce the ‘r’, then this will mean that you are intelligent and wealthy. In order to test this with the employees, Labov asked the employees a question in which the answer will always be ‘Fourth floor.’, he then pretended not to hear in order for the employee to repeat the answer. By the employee repeating the phrase, this could show signs of the employee converging their language and speaking in a different way.

Labov’s findings

The results told Lakoff that the pronunciation of ‘r’ was stratified by class, and that those with higher socioeconomic status pronounced the ‘r’ more frequently.

RESULTS:

Sak’s – 62%

Macy’s – 51%

Klein’s – 20%

However it could be argued that these results are flawed, as it could be argued that just because somebody works in Sak’s, it does not mean that they are more prestigious and are of a higher class. It could also be argued that this data and theory is outdated, meaning that this theory cannot be reflective of today’s society.