Projects in linguistics : a practical guide to researching language

305 Pages·2010·2.66 MB·english

by  Alison Wray

PROJECTS IN
LLIINNGGUUIISSTTIICCSS
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Second Edition
PROJECTS IN
L I N G U I S T I C S
L I N G U I S T I C S
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO RESEARCHING LANGUAGE
Alison Wray
Cardiff University
Aileen Bloomer
York St John University College

Hodder Arnold
AMEMBER OF THE HODDER HEADLINE GROUP
First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Arnold. This edition published
in 2006 by Hodder Education, a member of the Hodder Headline Group,
338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH
www.hoddereducation.com
Distributed in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press Inc.
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© 2006 Alison Wray and Aileen Bloomer
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The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or
liability for any errors or omissions.

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will be glad to make suitable arrangements with any copyright holders whom it has not been
possible to contact.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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ISBN-10 0 340 90578 6
ISBN-13 978 0 340 90578 4
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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CONTENTS
Preface to second edition xi
Why we wrote this book xi
Who the book is for xi
What the book does xi
What the book doesn’t do xii
The second edition xii
Acknowledgments xiii
International Phonetic Alphabet xiv
1 Introduction: starting on the right foot 1
Choosing an area 1
Getting organized 3
Using resources 5
Being a researcher 7
Theory-only projects 10
Setting up data-based research 10
Being streetwise: kee ping on the right side of your assessor 14
PART I AREAS OF STUDY AND PROJECT IDEAS
2 Psycholinguistics 17
Textbooks and major journals 17
Central themes and project ideas 18
How psycholinguists conceptualize language 19
How we understand language 19
Psycholinguistics and grammatical theory 21
Lexical and structural ambiguity 22
How we produce spoken language 23
How we produce writing 26
Language and thought 27
vi Contents
3 First-language acquisition and development 30
Approaches to research 30
Terminology 31
Textbooks and major journals 31
Things to think about 32
Accessing children 32
Working with children 33
Central themes and project ideas 34
Longitudinal case studies 34
Prelinguistic development 35
Over- and under-extension: lexical and semantic development 35
Children’s morphology 36
Development of phonology and intonation 36
Comprehension of complex grammatical structures 37
Children’s metalinguistic awareness 38
Colour terms 38
Carer language (or child-directed speech) 40
Conversational development 40
Sources of variation in child language 41
Literacy development 41
Developmental problems 43
Later language acquisition 43
4 Second-language acquisition 45
Terminology 45
Textbooks and major journals 46
Things to think about 47
Central themes and project ideas 48
Developmental sequences and the process of acquisition 48
Comparison of L1 and L2 acquisition 48

Language-learning targets 49
Motivation 50
Grammar-based and communication-based teaching 50
Vocabulary acquisition 52
Different concepts expressed in different languages 52
The learner’s approach and experience 53
Interlanguage, error analysis and contrastive analysis 54
Language assessment and testing 54
Bilinguals, multilinguals and polyglots 55
Language teaching policies 56
Effect of the year abroad 57
Role of the social and political status of English as L2 58
Contents vii
5 Structure and meaning 60
Textbooks and major journals 60
Central themes and project ideas 61
Pragmatics 61
Metaphor 63
Sentence structure 64
Words in isolation and in combination 66
Morphology and etymology 69
Punctuation 70
‘Correct’ grammar 71
6 Style in spoken and written texts 75
Textbooks and major journals 76
Central themes and project ideas 77
Sound patterns within texts 77
Lexical choice within texts 79
Grammatical structure within texts 80
Interpersonal function of texts 82
Formality and informality 84
Ideology and power 85
Authorship 87
Oral texts 87
Electronically conveyed texts 89
7 Sociolinguistics 92
Terminology and central concepts 93
Textbooks and major journals 94
Central themes and project ideas 95
Quantitative approaches 95
Social networks 96
Qualitative approa ches 97
8 Language and gender 102
Terminology 102
Textbooks and major journals 103
Central themes and project ideas 103
The gender variable in linguistic research 103
Attitudes towards male and female language 104
Gender differences in accent and dialect 105
Differences in conversation and style of language use 106
Gay language 108
Explanations of difference 108
Language and sexism 109
Gender-differentiated language in first-language acquisition 110
Language, gender and education 111
viii Contents
9 Accents and dialects of English 113
Terminology 114
Textbooks, reference sources and major journals 114
Which accent/dialect to choose 116
Obtaining data 116
What to look for in an accent 117
What to look for in a dialect 117
Possible angles and project ideas 119
Comparing the speech of three generations 119
Comparing the accents of different non-native speakers 120
Explaining why a variety has come about 121
The political dimension of a variety 121
Accent and dialect in literature 122
Update study 123
Comparison of two varieties 124
Things to think about 125
10 History of English 126
Textbooks, reference sources and major journals 127
Central themes and project ideas 128
Researching words and names 128
Pronunciation and spelling 131
History of English dialects 133
The profile of a feature of English across time 133
Sociopolitical trends and influences on English 133
English as a world language 134
The influence of literacy on language 135
Things to think about 135
PART II TECHNIQUES FOR COLLECTING DATA

11 Audio- and video-recorded data 139
Places to get data 139
Audio or video? 139
Naturalistic data 139
Ethics and legality 139
Quality 140
How much data do you need? 140
Practicalities 141
What to submit 142
Things to think about 142
Contents ix
12 Experiments 144
What does experimentation involve? 144
Designing an experiment 146
Things to think about 148
Advantages of experimental research 150
Disadvantages of experimental research 150
13 Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups 152
Deciding if you need a questionnaire, interview or focus group 152
Common uses of interviews, focus groups and questionnaires 153
Subjects 153
Personal information, confidentiality and anonymity 154
Limitations of self-report 154
Ways of getting information 155
Things to think about 158
Questionnaires 158
Interviews 162
Focus groups 165
14 Observation and case studies 168
Observation studies 168
Case studies 170
15 Ethical considerations in research projects 173
Ethics policies and guidelines 173
The difference between confidentiality and anonymity 174
Data Protection Laws 175
PART III TOOLS FOR DATA ANALYSIS AND PROJECT WRITING

16 Transcribing speech phonetically and phonemically 179
The difference between phonetic and phonemic transcription 179
A few notes on phonemes 180
Phonetic and phonemic symbols in word processing 181
Hints on writing about pronunciation 182
Checklist of phonemes 183
17 Transcribing speech orthographically 185
How to organize the presentation of a transcription 185
Turn taking 187
Silence and non-verbal communication in conversation 188
Dealing with unusual pronunciations 189
Transcribing unclear utterances 190
Marking pitch, emphasis, volume and speed 191