labov department store study - cannamike -...

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

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Which three department stores and why?

Saks Macy's

S. Klein

Representation of three socioeconomic classes

UpperMiddle

Working class

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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