Language and social class 语言与社会阶层.docVIP

Language and social class If you are an English-speaker you will be able to estimate the relative social status of the following speakers solely on the basis of the linguistic evidence given here: Speaker A Speaker B I done it yesterday I did it yesterday He ain’t got it He hasn’t got it It was her what said it It was her that said it If you heard these speakers say these things you would guess that B was of higher social status than A, and you would almost certainly be right. How is it that we are able to do this sort of thing? The answer lies in the existenc