Modernization and the restructuring of the Shanghai speech community

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinus van den Berg
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Base Line ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Department Stores ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Community Theory ◽  
Base Line Data

This paper reports the results of direct observations of language use in two shopping areas in Shanghai, Nanjing East Road and Xujiahui. The data reported in this paper were collected in 2007. In Nanjing East Road, four traditional stores provided a base line for the use of Shanghainese. That base line (60 percent) was compared to a hierarchy of department stores in Xujiahui. The results showed that the store that best matched the base-line data attracted customers representing upper-working class / lower middle class customers. The remaining two stores attracted middle class and upper class customers. In the latter setting, it was found that a certain segment of the customers switched from Shanghainese to Putonghua for the business transaction, an effect we associated with the presence of young urban professionals of all backgrounds. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of speech community theory, and network density, which allows predictions of changes taking place within the dominant language of the Shanghainese speech community.

scholarly journals Emphasis, Manner, and Voice in Urban Jordanian Arabic: Linguistic and Extralinguistic Interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
The Other ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

The present paper examines the impact of extra-linguistic variables (gender and social class) on the linguistic interaction between emphasis and manner, on the one hand, and voice, on the other hand, in Urban Jordanian Arabic. To achieve this goal, 40 participants produced 12 monosyllabic CVC minimal pairs with the target consonant (plain or emphatic) occurring word-initially. Measurements taken were F1, F2, and F3 at vowel onset and midpoint positions. Acoustically, it was found that emphasis was stronger following a stop than following a fricative, and it is more pronounced following a voiced consonant than following a voiceless one. However, the extra-linguistic factors did not have a strong bearing on these linguistic interactions. In general, the interaction between emphasis and manner or voice was not influenced by gender or social class. An exception to this finding was the overlap between emphasis and manner at F1 onset, where the interplay of both gender and social class affected the linguistic interaction. In particular, upper-class males produced stronger emphasis following stops than following fricatives, whereas lower-middle class males produced stronger emphasis following a fricative than following a stop.

All’s Fair? The Foreclosure Crisis and Middle-Class Black (In)Stability

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
pp. 1565-1580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karyn Lacy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Differential Impact ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
The Core ◽  
Foreclosure Crisis ◽  
Middle Class Blacks

Is the protracted foreclosure crisis eroding the Black middle class? Foreclosure rates in the United States have reached an all-time high. Blacks have been hit especially hard by this crisis. I focus here on intraclass distinctions within the Black middle class precisely because scholars and journalists so often fail to distinguish between the experiences of the Black lower middle class and those of middle and upper-class Blacks, leaving the unintended impression that middle-class Blacks all have the same odds of losing their home. I argue that conventional explanations of the foreclosure crisis as a racialized event should be amended to account for the differential impact of the crisis on three distinct groups of middle-class Blacks: the lower middle class, the core middle class, and the upper or elite middle class.

Literature of the 1900s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wild
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Literary Modernism ◽  
Department Stores ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arnold Bennett ◽  
Literary Innovation

This book challenges conventional views of the Edwardian period as either a hangover of Victorianism or a bystander to literary modernism. The text investigates the literary history of the Edwardian decade. This period, long overlooked by critics, is revealed as a vibrant cultural era whose writers were determined to break away from the stifling influence of preceding Victorianism. In the hands of this generation, which included writers such as Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, Beatrix Potter, and H. G. Wells, the new century presented a unique opportunity to fashion innovative books for fresh audiences. Wild traces this literary innovation by conceptualising the focal points of his study as branches of one of the new department stores that epitomized Edwardian modernity. These ‘departments’ — war and imperialism, the rise of the lower middle class, children's literature, technology and decadence, and the condition of England — offer both discrete and interconnected ways in which to understand the distinctiveness and importance of the Edwardian literary scene. Overall, this book offers a long-overdue investigation into a decade of literature that provided the cultural foundation for the coming century.

Pooterism or Partnership? Marriage and Masculine Identity in the Lower Middle Class, 1870–1920

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. James Hammerton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Popular Press ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Masculine Identity ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Daily Telegraph ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
At Home

I spent the evening quietly with Carrie, of whose company I never tire. We had a most pleasant chat about the letters on ‘Is Marriage a Failure?’ It has been no failure in our case.This was the confident opening passage in Charles Pooter's entry for 2 November in George Grossmith's famous satire, The Diary of a Nobody, serialized in Punch in 1888. Simultaneously it celebrated the lower-middle-class husband's eager commitment to domesticity and marital harmony and acknowledged, in its reference to an equally popular contemporaneous correspondence series running in the Daily Telegraph, avid lower-middle-class engagement with routine popular press debates on marriage and domestic issues. The Diary's readers are invited to relish the irony in Charles's characteristic exaggeration of his domestic felicity, since they know that before long Carrie's patience will again be tried by another of his pretentious and interfering domestic schemes and ineffectual efforts to assert his household mastery. Such tensions in the Pooter marriage were emblematic of wider insecurities in the lower-middle-class identity.For over a century Charles Pooter's transparent claim to a gentility, independence, and mastery far above his actual station of a struggling suburban bank clerk has provided the dominant metaphor for lower-middle-class pretension, weakness, and diminished masculinity. His bogus authority was exposed as much at home as at his workplace, the bank, where he paraded as the pompous chief clerk. Indeed it was that theme of false authority, both in private and public, palpable even in his dress, that satirists delighted in puncturing. Grossmith was gratified by the range of the Diary's readership, especially among upper-class personalities.

scholarly journals A Cross-Sectional Observational Study on Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Quality of Life in Different Socioeconomic Groups in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyansh R. Rai ◽  
Dwivedi Anuj Sugreev ◽  
Tiwari Pradhyuman ◽  
Snigdha Das Mandal ◽  
G.S. Chakraborthy
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Service Use ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Socioeconomic Groups ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Severe Anxiety

The corona virus disease (COVID-19) is expected to have widespread and persuasive implication for mental health and financial status in terms of deteriorating outcomes and increased health service use that leading to call for empirical research on mental health during pandemic. The aim of study is to assess the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Quality of Life in Different Socioeconomic Groups in India. An online study was conducted through Google Forms and the link was sent to participants via WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram & one-to-one interview was done. A self-designed questionnaire survey was utilized for the study. Total 476 responses were obtained. A total of 476 participants were belonged to different social groups where 82 (17.2%) were homemakers, 127 (26.7%) were from job sector and 254 (53.4%) were students & 13 (2.7%) were others. The most affected group in term of anxiety score were home-makers where 39% had moderate anxiety & 25.6% had severe anxiety. Other were different economic classes where 20 (4.2%) from BPL, 186 (39.1%) from Lower-middle class, 224 (47.1%) from Upper-middle class & 46 (9.7%) from Upper class. The most affected in terms of facing financial crisis were 85% from BPL class. And score of anxiety level where mild anxiety was most in lower-middle class (44.6%), moderate anxiety was seen in BPL class (60%) & severe anxiety in Upper class (28.8%). The pandemic had affected people across different social & economical groups financially as well as mentally to a significant level.

scholarly journals Socio-economic analysis of small and marginal farmers in Jaipur district of Rajasthan

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-175
Author(s):  
Mohan Lal Jat ◽  
P.S. Shekhawat ◽  
Sonu Jain
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Economic Condition ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Small Farmers ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Better Than

The study was conducted in Jaipur district of Rajasthan to know the socio-economic status of small and marginal farmers. A total of 60 farmers (30 farmers in each small and marginal category) were selected for the present investigation. The primary data relating to various socioeconomic variables were collected from the sample farmers by personal interview method using semistructured schedules and questionnaires for the purpose. Composite scales analysis like Udai Pareek revised scale-2019 and Modified BG Prasad scale-2019 were used to analyze the socio-economic status of small and marginal farmers, which have combinations of social and economic variables. The study revealed that, the socio-economic condition of small farmers was better than socio-economic condition of marginal farmers, according to composite scales analysis. On the basis of Udai Pareek revised scale, majority of marginal farmers (about 47.00%) belonged to lower middle class whereas, majority of small farmers (about 53.00%) belonged to middle class. Study further found that, in both categories of farmers, no farmer belonged to the lower and upper class. As per BG Prasad modified scale which is based on monthly income of household, majority of marginal farmers (50.00%) belonged to upper middle class while, majority of small farmers (60.00%) belonged to upper class. In both categories of sample farmers, no farmer belonged to lower and lower middle class.

Social class, language attitudes, and language use

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Binmei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Class Privilege ◽  
Upper Middle Class ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Few previous studies have examined the impact of social class on language attitudes and language use in mainland China. A total of 215 questionnaires were collected from a university in China for this study. The participants were classified into four social classes: upper middle class, middle middle class, lower middle class, and lower class. Then an individual interview was conducted with 10 students. Findings show that the students from the upper middle class had significantly lower attitudes toward local dialects and they had the lowest percentage of current use of dialect at home. The study adds evidence to findings of previous studies that local dialects might face certain danger of maintenance. It also shows that this change would start from people from the upper middle class. The study also points out a possible future tendency that social class privilege will play a more significant role in English learning and education.

Speech community theory and the language / dialect debate

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daming Xu
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Community Theory ◽  
Linguistic Classification ◽  
Linguistic Approach

Much research has been done addressing the issue of language and dialect and has attracted much interest in the Sinophone world. In this paper, the issue is approached from the perspective of Speech Community Theory (SCT) with discussion of the identification of Chinese varieties. There are mainly two approaches in previous research: linguistic and sociolinguistic. In the linguistic approach, the classification of languages and dialects is through comparison of linguistic descriptions and intelligibility. In the sociolinguistic approach, actual language use and attitudes of the speakers are investigated and ethnic and political factors are considered. The two approaches tend to result in different classifications. The purely linguistic classification tends to be narrower than the classification invoking attitudinal, cultural and political factors, resulting in a larger number of languages than the sociolinguistic approach. The different approaches are traced to divergent understandings of what a language is. A language is often understood purely as a tool of communication or, alternatively, it is regarded primarily as an identity device. Applying SCT, we analyze the connection between communication and identity formation, taking the example of Cantonese speakers. That case shows a correlation of linguistic contact with linguistic identity among native speakers. Consequently, the relevance of cultural and socio-political factors is explained through their impact on communication rather than directly on a linguistic identity.

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