Kate Burland. Triangle, September
From Pride to Prejudice: speakers’ perceptions of their vernacular identity.
Research Question
How do speakers with a distinctive regional dialect perceive their vernacular to be part of their identity, and how do these perceptions manifest themselves as attitudes and stances which could impact upon communicative practice and linguistic styles?
Aims
The study is focussed on the attitudes and perceptions of speakers in relation to the negotiation of their identities in communicative encounters. Many sociolinguistic studies have considered folk attitudes to vernacular varieties but few have a central focus upon the perception of speakers’ own dialect. This investigation seeks to make this the main focus in order to begin to gain an insight into the ways in which speaker perceptions of their own distinct vernacular can influence linguistic identity and practice. Attention will also be paid to the ways in which vernacular speakers’ perceptions of identity can be affected by a variety of conflicting influences which include early socialisation into linguistic norms, awareness of circulating stereotypes and media representations of regional linguistic identities and speakers’ own life experiences.
This investigation is designed to act as a pilot study for further sociolinguistic research into the ways in which speakers of a distinctive vernacular variety perceive their dialect as a part of their identity, and how this may impact upon their behaviour in differing communicative contexts as well as in the negotiation of identity in relation to access to higher education and employment.
Thirty-two Barnsley vernacular speakers ranging in age from eighteen to ninety-six, male and female, and from a range of educational and employment situations, have been issued with a questionnaire asking them about their attitudes to their home town of Barnsley and their vernacular variety. The questionnaire has then been followed by a recorded interview, using the same question base, in order that participants can elaborate on their responses. The data accumulated from the questionnaire and recordings has produced a variety of linguistic aspects which could form the basis for further study into range of aspects of the Barnsley vernacular; however, for the purposes of this investigation, a focus has been maintained upon the attitudes and perceptions of respondents and the ways in which these views can impact upon perceptions of linguistic identity. Due to the confines of the MA dissertation, namely time scale and word limit, the scope of this pilot study has had to be contained, as a result the findings cannot claim to be representative of Barnsley vernacular speakers more generally, however, the findings can be used to form the basis for more extensive research which will seek to explore any patterns that emerge in relation to vernacular use, perceptions of regional identity, and linguistic behaviour.
Barnsley has been chosen as the basis of this investigation as it is a South Yorkshire town which has long been associated in the media with the mining industry, and the town and its people presented generally as a homogeneous, close knit community, living in terraced rows with a single and distinctive northern vernacular. Of course, as with many towns, the traditional view of Barnsley has always been far too narrow, simplistic and highly stereotypical, but it is an image that is hard to shake off. Even within the town itself the debate is split between those who want to shed the traditional image of Barnsley and those who want to preserve it. This debate extends quite clearly to the use of the local vernacular, where, yet again, it is far too simplistic to describe one Barnsley dialect, one variety for the whole area. As with most stereotypes, the image of Barnsley is largely distorted and prejudicial both in terms of the social and economic make-up of the town and the language used by its inhabitants. Just as the debates are polarised in relation to the image presented of the town, the attitudes to the vernacular as a part of identity are expected to forma complex picture ranging from pride to prejudice.