Language development.?

Question

what differnt things effect the development of an individual's language.

im doing a piece of research on the correlation between language development and social status. any info would be great. thanks.

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Answer 1

You could look at

1) accent, which largely defines social status in some senses.  Accents are usually formed at school and from parents, so an individual who went to a posh school in Yorkshire will have a totally different accent from comprehensive school pupil from South London.

2) vocabulary, which is mainly formed by reading books.  Clearly, a house where there are few books will produce children with a smaller vocabulary.  A house where reading is valued will produce children with wider vocabs.  Books cost money, so better-off parents will probably have more books.  Therefore, money is likely to equal wider vocabularies.

3) local colloquialisms - children and adults will pick up the colloquial speech of those around them; the "technical vocab" such as "ax" for "ask" and so on.  The lower the social status, the more likely an individual is to use Americanisms and "street" words and phrases.