In 1966, William Labov conducted a study “The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City to demonstrate the variation in the pronunciation of post-vocalic –/r/ according to social group. He hypothesized, “salespeople in the highest ranked store will have the highest values of (r); those in the middle ranked store will have intermediate values of (r); and those in the lowest ranked store will show the lowest values”. (Labov 1966:65)” The results showed a clear stratification along socio- economic class and status dimension and proved the hypothesis. He also found that rhotic use of /r/ was more widespread among younger age group and women. In NYC, pronouncing /r/ is considered prestigious but in Reading, it’s not. At the beginning of the words, hotel, herb, hour. Interestingly, initial [h] has reappeared in the speech of London youth who belong to ethnic minority (Holmes, 2008).

1. Social Stratification of (r) in New
York City Department Stores
William Labov

2. Language and society
In 1966, William Labov’s study “The Social Stratification
of (r) in New York City is his most exemplary work and
earned him the reputation of the father of
Sociolinguistics. In this study, he researched incidence
of final and post-vocalic /r/ and showed that the rhotic
use of /r/ reflected social class and aspiration, and was
more widespread in younger speakers. The study
became a breakthrough on the field of sociolinguistics.
Through this study, Labov wanted to see how people use
language in context when there is no explicit observation.

3. Hypothesis
He hypothesized that if any two subgroups of New
York City speakers are ranked in a scale of social
stratification, then they will be ranked in the same
order by their differential use of (r)”
• Concerning the department store studies, Labov
specialized his hypothesis: “salespeople in the
highest ranked store will have the highest values
of (r); those in the middle ranked store will have
intermediate values of (r); and those in the lowest
ranked store will show the lowest values”. (Labov
1966:65)

4. The Experiment
3 stores catering for distinct social groups:
Saks (upper), Macy’s (middle), S. Klein (lower)
Informants were shop workers at different grades, giving a
further possible stratification
 Questioning the employees of the different department
stores: Labov himself, dressed in middle-class style and
pronouncing -r- would approach an employee and ask for
a department which he knew, was on “fourth floor”. Here,
he expected an answer in casual and natural speech.
 Repeat answer: He would then repeat the question once
more to get the answer “fourth floor” once more but in a
more emphatic style. This would be careful speech.

5. Variables in the study
• After every instance of pronunciation of “Fourth Floor” he
made quick notes on independent and dependent
variables that came into play.
Independent variables
• the store ranking
• floor within the store
• sex
• age (estimated units of five years)
• occupation (floorwalker, sales, cashier, stockboy)
• race

6. Variables in the study
Dependent variables
• use of (r) in four occurrences
• casual: fourth floor
• emphatic: fourth floor

7. Use of [r]
0
20
40
60
80
100
Saks Macy's S Klein
store
%
never
sometimes
always
•Use of [r] corresponded to higher class of store
Results

8. first and second utterances
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Saks Macy's S Klein
store
%
fourth I
fourth 2
floor I
floor 2
• use of [r] increases in careful speech
Results

9. Pronunciation and style
[r] pronunciation by class and style
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
casual careful reading word list minimal
pairs
style
%
0
1
2,3
4,5
6,8
9
Adoption of prestige
form increases with
formality of style, in
each case with a higher
usage by higher classes
EXCEPT in one case

10. Results
• Labov showed that rhotic use of /r/ reflected
higher social class and was more widespread in
younger speakers.
• Use of [r] increases in careful/emphatic speech.
• Adoption of prestige form increases with
formality of style, in each case with a higher
usage by higher classes. EXCEPT in one case
- HYPERCORRECTION

11. [r] pronunciation by class and style
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
casual careful reading word list minimal
pairs
style
%
6,8
9
middle class outperform
upper middle class on
word lists and minimal
pairs this cross-over due
to hypercorrection

12. Variables in the study
Hypercorrection: Labov found something unforseen, for
which he had made any adjustments or whose effects he had
not controlled.
It was the overuse of /r/, known as hypercorrection. It was
most common in the lower middle class(Macy’s), as they were
most likely to be aware of which speech forms are ‘classy’ and
would use these forms in careful speech to improve prestige
and appear to belong to the higher middle class. Labov also
found hypercorrection to be strongest in the language
conscious middle class women, showing that overt prestige
seemed more common in women than men.

13. Types of Data in the Study
Nominal Data:
• Categories of clothing
• use of (r) in four
occurrences: casual and
emphatic
• Ordinal Data:
• Store ranking:
(high, middle, low ranking)
Saks, Macy’s and S. Klien
• All (r-l): Those whose
records show only (r-l)
and no (r-l)
• Some (r-l): those whose
records show at least
one (r-l) and one (r-o)
• No (r-l): those whose
records showed only (r-o)

14. Why are these nominal data?
the two items:
• items of clothing: names of the articles of
clothing without any ranking and cannot be
treated numerically.
•use of (r) in four occurrences: casual and
emphatic: This data groups the occurrence of
pronouncing (r) as in preconsonantal and final
positions in casual and emphatic styles of speech.
The occurrences may or may not have a
relationship.

15. Ordinal data
 Differential ranking
 Location
 Advertising
 Price of goods and emphasis on price
 Physical plant
 Saks Fifth Avenue (Highest)
 Macy’s (Middle)
 S. Klein (Lowest)

16. Overall Stratification of (r)
• The groups are ranked by their differential use of
(r-l) in the same order as their stratification by
extralinguistic factors.

17. Percentage of all (r-l)

18. • The stores were: Saks on Fifth Avenue- highest
ranking.
Macy’s- middle ranking
S. Klien- lowest ranking
• The three stores were selected due to their
differential ranking according to their location-high
prestige area, middle range area and on the lower
east side of NY with low income groups.
• There is a considerable difference between Macy’s
and Kleins at each position, but the difference
between Macy’s and Saks varies.
• From the figure, we can examine the distribution of
(r) in each of the four standard positions.

20. • This table shows the data in detail, with the
number of instances obtained for each of
the four positions of (r), for each store. It is
shown that the number of occurrences in
the second pronunciation of FOUR is
considerably reduced, primarily as a result
of some speakers’ tendency to answer a
second time, “fourth.”

21. Metric data
Distribution of (r) by age.
Age Groups Age groups Age Groups
15- 30 35- 50 55- 70
All of (r-l) 24 20 20
Some of (r-l) 21 28 22
No (r) 55 52 58

22. Metric data

23. Metric data
Distributionof (r) for completeresponses

24. • In the table, only complete responses are
compared.
• The numbers in the fourth position are smaller than
the second, it might be suspected that those who
use (r) in Saks and Macy’s tend to give fuller
responses, thus giving rise to a spurious impression
of increase in (r) values in those positions.
• Thus, we see that the pattern of differential
ranking in the use of (r) is preserved in this
subgroup of complete responses, and omission of
the final “floor” by some respondents was not a
factor in this pattern.
Metric / interval data

25. Thank you