LIN256H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Sociolinguistics, Hypercorrection
Document Summary
In fischer"s 1958 study of schoolchildren in new england, he found that g-dropping" wasn"t random (ex: saying jumpin" instead of jumping) There were probabilistic constraints (the opposite of categorical, probabilistic constraints are not absolute but rather tendencies in one direction) of what happened; g-dropping was more likely used in some contexts. Fischer found linguistic constraints on g-dropping it was less common with formal verbs (i. e. criticizing) than with informal verbs (i. e. verbs (i. e. criticizing) than with informal verbs (i. e. running) He also found social constraints; boys g-dropped more often than girls and working- class students g-dropped more often than middle-class students and everyone g- dropped even more during formal conversations. Most societies are divided into groups with different status. Some linguistic functions are variable and can be expressed in variants (two or more ways) Sometimes linguistic variation seems to have no social meaning.
