>> So I had a question first about the variables that Labov used.
He used three variables, gender, age, and social class.
But, these variables seem very different from one another.
>> Why, how are they different?
>> So for age, for example, that seems to be something that is
absolutely fixed at any point in your life.
>> Well, well, I don't know.
People have their birthday.
>> [LAUGH] >> Yes, they do, but then, and
then does it change from one day to the next?
>> All right, no, it's, so it's less flexible, you could say, right?
>> Yeah. >> You are stuck with the age you have at
some given point in time.
You might want to become, I don't know, 27 again, but
you never will unless you're 26.
>> Yes.
Yeah. So that, that is one type of variable and
then there is gender.
So with gender, there is not one fixed point.
But there are two possible fixed points that you get from birth?
>> Right, yeah, okay, so you would say, typically, for gender, you're also stuck.
Well, I mean nowadays, with medical science, some people can change their sex.
But there is something about it there, and that's, so
people think it might be a little bit more social.
Because, what it means to be a man or what it means to be a woman,
can differ from one culture to the next, to the next.
So, typical masculine behaviour might be very different in one
part of the world than it is in another part of the world.
And then some men can be more masculine, and other and
also some women can be more masculine for that matter within a given culture.
So it seems more of a scale in some sense
where you can also choose to some extent where you want to be.
>> Yeah. >> On that scale.
That's right.
>> And that is also reflected in language then to some extent.
>> How is that reflected in language?
>> Well, if you are more masculine in your identity,
then maybe your language would also be more masculine?
>> Right. Yeah.
So in the Labov study- >> Yeah.
>> You could think, well, maybe, so what we said is,
there's a difference between girls and boys, because when they go to school,
the girls will all look at their peer group and the boys won't.
>> Yeah. >> But maybe that's exaggerated.
So maybe there are some boys for whom actually the peer group is very important.
And there are some girls where this is not the case.
But typically for girls, girls will behave in this way and
boys will behave in another way.
But maybe that's not true for everybody, and even if it's not true for
everybody, our explanation would still work in the same way,
as long as it's the majority of boys and girls who go in a certain direction.
>> Yeah.
>> Right.
>> And then finally we have the variable of social class and that to me seems
the most problematic because that's not something that you're born with.
Or, well, maybe actually, maybe you are.
>> Well, what do you think, you are or you're not?
>> I don't think you are because, well, you have a certain sex when you're born,
but it's not that you're born and you can see oh,
this is somebody who is lower-middle class or this is somebody who is upper class.
So, that's the one thing and then also it may change during the course of your life.
>> Right.
Well, yeah, both of them, both of those two things are true and not true.
So it's definitely true if you see a baby, you will see that it's a baby, so
you'll see the age.
You'll see that it's a boy or a girl, and
you don't just see what the class of the baby is.
On the other hand, as soon as you know a little bit about the context, you will
know, and there are certain things which will never change for that baby.
If that baby is born to some very rich and highly educated parents well that
is going to determine some aspects of the class, of that baby, as well.
So it's maybe not the biological thing, but
it is something, which to some extent is still fixed.
>> Okay. >> And
then you can maybe change your class in the sense that you are the first
person in your family to go to university.
And you will become extremely rich and wealthy,
whereas the rest of your family is poor, but still you will have
part of your background will be that which is given by your parents.
So all of these three things, well age maybe not so much.
>> Hm. >> But the other two definitely,
they are to some extent changeable and malleable, and to some extent also fixed.
So it's, it is true.
It is more complicated than it would just look at first sight.
So.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah. One thing I was wondering about is if
you look at this variability of these factors like gender and
social class, well how culture specific would they be?
The results that Labov found, they could be very culture specific, right?