Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introductory note
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition: forty years later
- I Problems and methods of analysis
- II Social differentiation
- 7 Class differentiation of the variables
- 8 Further analysis of the variables
- 9 Distribution of the variables in apparent time
- 10 Other linguistic variables
- III Social evaluation
- IV Synthesis
- Glossary of linguistic symbols and terminology
- Appendix A Questionnaire for the ALS Survey
- Appendix B Anonymous observations of casual speech
- Appendix C Analysis of losses through moving of the MFY sample population
- Appendix D Analysis of the non-respondents: the television interview
- Appendix E The out-of-town speakers
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Class differentiation of the variables
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introductory note
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition: forty years later
- I Problems and methods of analysis
- II Social differentiation
- 7 Class differentiation of the variables
- 8 Further analysis of the variables
- 9 Distribution of the variables in apparent time
- 10 Other linguistic variables
- III Social evaluation
- IV Synthesis
- Glossary of linguistic symbols and terminology
- Appendix A Questionnaire for the ALS Survey
- Appendix B Anonymous observations of casual speech
- Appendix C Analysis of losses through moving of the MFY sample population
- Appendix D Analysis of the non-respondents: the television interview
- Appendix E The out-of-town speakers
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The original problem which we faced in the opening pages of this study was to discover in the apparently irregular fluctuations in the speech of New Yorkers, a coherent linguistic structure. So far we have found evidence of a regular pattern of social variation and a regular pattern of stylistic variation. These were first viewed in isolation, in the speech of small sections of the community (Chapter 4). In this chapter, we will use the results of the survey of the Lower East Side to describe the double pattern of variation in a representative section of the community. Instead of studying one axis of variation at a time, both will be seen together as part of a two-dimensional structure. Instead of a rough indication with a few examples, we will have quantitative statements where the sources of error can be estimated and minimized.
The meaning of stylistic variation has been defined and illustrated in Chapter 3, and the independent variable of contextual style has been given an operational definition within this study. Now it will be necessary to examine the concept of social variation and give the independent variable along this dimension a correspondingly precise operational definition.
Social class as a measure of social stratification
The social stratification of New York City is considered here as a structure in two dimensions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Social Stratification of English in New York City , pp. 129 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006