Paper 4: Spoken Language and Social Groups
General advice:
Read sample answers and practice
Social groups:
1. Context is important (whether in an office, between friends or family)
2. Might be a sales context (advertising) => Trying to persuade the
reader
3. Social class (different languages for the poor and the rich)
4. Dialect (different language for specific regions in a country) =>
Dhaka, CHittagong, Barisal, Khulna
5. British people do not pronounce the last ‘r’ => wate(r), rumou(r),
6. Grammatical rule:
Third person singular number (Meena,she, he, it) => The verb is
plural
Third person plural (they, Reena and meena) => Verb singular
e.g. She sleeps
He eats
They sleep
7. British vs American => colour vs color =>
8. Jargon (technical words) => army
9. Non standard features vs Standard
10. Peter Trudgill (1988) => Dialect (different features of Norfolk
region)
11. Robin Lakoff (1975) => deficiency model of feminine speech
Details of this model:
The Deficit Model conclusions are:
● Women use hedging (sort of, kind of, it seems like...)
● Women use (super)polite forms (would you mind, if you don't
mind...)
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
, ● Women use tag questions (isn't it?...)
● Women speak in italics (giving emphasis on adverbs like 'very')
● Women use empty adjectives (divine, adorable, lovely...)
● Women use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation
● Women use direct quotations (she was like: "...")
● Women have a special lexicon (more wide vocabulary)
● Women use question intonation in declarative sentences, expressing
uncertainty
● Women use 'wh' imperatives (why don't you open the door?...)
● Women speak less frequently
● Women overuse qualifiers (I think that...)
● Women apologize more (I'm sorry, but I think that...)
● Women use modal constructions (can, would, should...)
● Women avoid coarse language
● Women use indirect commands
● Women use more intensifier (I'm so glad...)
● Women have a lack of a sense of humor
Some observations:
Lakoff says that women use super-polite forms. It could be right
in 1975, but now it happens less frequently.
12. Prosdic = related to rhythm and intonation
13. Dynamic shifts of interaction = quick changes from one speaker to
another
14. Repetition => ‘mixed mixed race’ => a funny statement to
emphasise that his parents are mixed race too
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
General advice:
Read sample answers and practice
Social groups:
1. Context is important (whether in an office, between friends or family)
2. Might be a sales context (advertising) => Trying to persuade the
reader
3. Social class (different languages for the poor and the rich)
4. Dialect (different language for specific regions in a country) =>
Dhaka, CHittagong, Barisal, Khulna
5. British people do not pronounce the last ‘r’ => wate(r), rumou(r),
6. Grammatical rule:
Third person singular number (Meena,she, he, it) => The verb is
plural
Third person plural (they, Reena and meena) => Verb singular
e.g. She sleeps
He eats
They sleep
7. British vs American => colour vs color =>
8. Jargon (technical words) => army
9. Non standard features vs Standard
10. Peter Trudgill (1988) => Dialect (different features of Norfolk
region)
11. Robin Lakoff (1975) => deficiency model of feminine speech
Details of this model:
The Deficit Model conclusions are:
● Women use hedging (sort of, kind of, it seems like...)
● Women use (super)polite forms (would you mind, if you don't
mind...)
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
, ● Women use tag questions (isn't it?...)
● Women speak in italics (giving emphasis on adverbs like 'very')
● Women use empty adjectives (divine, adorable, lovely...)
● Women use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation
● Women use direct quotations (she was like: "...")
● Women have a special lexicon (more wide vocabulary)
● Women use question intonation in declarative sentences, expressing
uncertainty
● Women use 'wh' imperatives (why don't you open the door?...)
● Women speak less frequently
● Women overuse qualifiers (I think that...)
● Women apologize more (I'm sorry, but I think that...)
● Women use modal constructions (can, would, should...)
● Women avoid coarse language
● Women use indirect commands
● Women use more intensifier (I'm so glad...)
● Women have a lack of a sense of humor
Some observations:
Lakoff says that women use super-polite forms. It could be right
in 1975, but now it happens less frequently.
12. Prosdic = related to rhythm and intonation
13. Dynamic shifts of interaction = quick changes from one speaker to
another
14. Repetition => ‘mixed mixed race’ => a funny statement to
emphasise that his parents are mixed race too
Prepared by Ridwan Abrar
