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

Johnson, SA 1991, Gender, group identity and variation in usage of the Berlin Urban Vernacular , PhD thesis, University of Salford.

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Abstract

The relationship between gender, group identity and variation in usage of the Berlin Urban Vernacular (BUY) is explored empirically, with particular attention paid to methodologies 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 are explored qualitatively and the findings quantified in the form of a "Group Identity Score" (GIS) allocated to each informant. 21 hours of speech were then recorded by means of the participant observation method over an eight-month period. The linguistic corpus is analyzed in terms of potential correlation between gender, GIS and variation in usage of 15 phonological variables of the Berlin Urban Vernacular. No differences are found in the actual quantity of dialectal variants used by men and women, though a number of differences emerge in the way men and women appear to use variants of the BUV in order to identify with the Berlin group as a whole.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Contributors:	Hoffmann, C (Supervisor)
Schools:	Schools > School of Humanities, Languages & Social Sciences
Funders:	British Academy State Studentship
Depositing User:	Institutional Repository
Date Deposited:	23 Jul 2021 13:32
Last Modified:	04 Aug 2022 11:23
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/61278

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