A plea for help to British English speakers
(Note to self: no getting distracted by shiny tags until you've finished your homework.)
LJ, I need help. I DESPERATELY need help. And you're the only one I can turn to.
I'm studying English at the University of Amsterdam, and am currently working on a Phonology project. My research group needs to interview native speakers of British English, and we ( Read more... )
LJ, I need help. I DESPERATELY need help. And you're the only one I can turn to.
I'm studying English at the University of Amsterdam, and am currently working on a Phonology project. My research group needs to interview native speakers of British English, and we ( Read more... )
A http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/received-pronunciation/harrow-school/ (RP male 1)
B http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/received-pronunciation/hexam/ (RP female 1)
C http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0900X09636X-0100V0.xml (Lincolnshire male 1)
D http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0900X09555X-0100V0.xml (Lincolnshire female 1)
E http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0900X00650X-0200V0.xml (Bristol male 1)
F http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0900X00509X-0200V0.xml (Bristol female 1)
1 -A
2 -B
3 -C
4 -D
5 -E
6 -F
Do you often use ‘tags’ at the end of a sentence (like “Heather arrived, didn't she?” “You didn’t close the door, did you?”)? And if so, why do you think you use them a lot?
No I don't - sometimes I say "is it?" but that is because I'm now always surrounded by welsh people!
Do you feel you talk different when speaking to a man than speaking to a woman? If so, why do you think this is?
No
Do you/Would you ‘clean up’ your pronunciation when speaking to... (your) children? ...(your) boss? ...(your) employees/subordinates? And if so, why?
I think I might
Do you/Would you ‘clean up’ your pronunciation when addressing or being addressed by a random person on the street (e.g. about the time)? Do you think you would be more conscientious about your pronuniation when this person were a man, or when this person were a woman? And why?
No
Do you feel that a person’s accent influences other people’s judgement of that person? Do you think this is more important for men or women?
Yes - neither
Do you think there are different attitudes toward ‘correct’ pronunciation between men and women?
...No but I'm not really aware of the subject
Do you feel that the pronuniation of British English has deteriorated any over the course of your life? If so, less/worse among which gender?
...Not in my lifetime
Is the dominant speaker in groups (i.e. friends, family, colleagues) more often male or female?
...Depends which group it is.
When it comes to spoken language, who do you feel is more conscientious about phrasing things politely and using non-offensive words: women or men?
...Women
Do you feel any assymetry of labels and names applied to women and men? (i.e. swear words, nicknames, off-hand characterisations, when repeating the person’s name over and over again gets tiresome)
...I'm not sure I quite understand this question so I won't answer
When someone says: “A child goes to school when he is six years old.”, do you think of a boy or a girl?
...Boy
Similarly, when someone says: “Man should not eat too many chocolate cakes.”, do you think of a woman or man?
...Both
‘He’ or ‘man/’men’ often gets used to refer to people in general, or mixed groups which include women. Animals are also standardly referred to as ‘he’. What would you think of introducing a new word for people, creatures or groups the gender of which is either unknown, ambiguous or mixed? (e.g. gender-neutral pronouns, like ‘hir’, ‘ze’, ‘xe’)
...Horrendous and unnecessary
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment