Study title

Linguists seek to gain a better understanding of what language users know and intuit about the social meaning of variable linguistic features, in order to explain how they are used. This project investigates a selection of sociolinguistic variables in Manchester English. It explores their social meanings, in particular in relation to the factor of age. Perception tests and focus groups will be used to uncover social meanings associated with variation in variables such as the t-sound in words like what, the th-sound in words like think, and the word ending -ing Their perceived social meanings will shed light on how these variables are used by different age groups in Manchester. The perception and focus group data will then be complemented by conversational data in order to construct indexical fields for the variables under investigation. Indexical fields are visual representations of potential social meanings of variable features. They will provide a summative explanation for age-related and stylistic variation in Manchester.