Gender, group identity and variation in usage of the Berlin Urban Vernacular

The relationship between gender, group identity and variation in usage of the BerlinUrban Vernacular (BUY) is explored empirically, with particular attention paid tomethodologies applied for the analysis of gender differences in sociolinguistic research.The study is based on a network of 24 native Berliners (13 men and 11 women),referred to as the "Berlin group" Friendship ties and activities within the group areexplored qualitatively and the findings quantified in the form of a "Group IdentityScore" (GIS) allocated to each informant. 21 hours of speech were then recorded bymeans of the participant observation method over an eight-month period. The linguisticcorpus is analyzed in terms of potential correlation between gender, GIS and variationin usage of 15 phonological variables of the Berlin Urban Vernacular. No differencesare found in the actual quantity of dialectal variants used by men and women, thougha number of differences emerge in the way men and women appear to use variants ofthe BUV in order to identify with the Berlin group as a whole.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

1991

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, SA

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1338507

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1338507