H-Dropping as indicator of independent social variables A longitudinal study of former English pupils

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,5, University of Potsdam, 55 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In 1963, a group of 14 seven-year-old British children from various socio-economic backgrounds spent what seemed to be an ordinary day of enjoyment at the zoo, the playground and a dance party. These children did neither meet by chance nor did they happen to be just ‘any’ children. They were chosen, although rather arbitrarily, and brought together for a film project named Seven Up!, a documentary that would later be described as “one of the towering achievements in the history of documentary film”. The series was directed by Paul Almond and filmed by the camera operator Michael Apted, who later became the director of the sequels. Seven Up! was first launched by London based Granada Television as part of a program called World in Action and broadcast on ITV, an independent British network, on May 5, 1964. The two objectives of Seven Up! were the attempt to represent the variety of social classes in England at the present time on the one hand and a study of the development of English culture on the other. Apted hoped to acquire “a glimpse of England in the year 2000”. The Jesuit proverb “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man” was chosen as a proposition to the series as a result of the assumption that a child’s future is somewhat predestined by its affiliation with a particular social class. Since 1964, a new documentary was filmed every seven years, hence the production of the sequels Seven Up!, 7 Plus Seven!, 21 Up!, 28 Up!, 35 Up! and 42 Up!, in order to follow up on the lives of these children and to document their personal developments from childhood to adulthood. All chosen individuals were interviewed throughout the series and asked questions about their experiences in life, how they spend their spare time, how they perceive the world around them, which level of education they would like to attain at some point and their general future plans. The purpose of these interview questions was whether the Jesuit motto proves to be true and therefore confirms that the ideas, values and expectations of a seven-year-old child indeed condition their future.The fourteen children who took part in this documentary are Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk, and Tony Walker.