Lightening Bug Case Study

I. Introduction
Word choice is in important aspect in the study of Linguistics. How does one determine which word to use? Obviously, this is not usually a conscious decision. When we communicate with others we usually just let the words flow, that is unless we are out of our comfort zone. In this case the question was what factors determine the use of Firefly or lightening bug. I thought that the data would show that those raised in country areas would use the term Lightening bug, and that those raised in the suburbs would use firefly. This is largely from my experience. I moved here three years ago from WV and my family has continued to use the label Lighting bug, so I figured that the term would be determined by where you were raised more than current surroundings. As far as /Sir-up/, /Seer-up/, /Sih-rip/ I thought I would find that those currently in rural areas would say /Sir-up/, those in city would say /Seer-up/. I was not sure where to place /Sih-rip/, so on that end I thought it must be a suburban or city term. In WV those who live in more rural areas tend to say /Sir-up/, those in the city pronounce /Seer-up/, and I have never encountered anyone who used the pronunciation /Sih-rip/. This hypothesis comes from the premise that …show more content…
It appears to be the other way around. As far as /Sir-up/, /Seer-up/, /Sih-rip/ I thought I would find that those currently in rural areas would say /Sir-up/, those in city would say /Seer-up/. I was not sure where to place /Sih-rip/. The most telling of the data shows that for /Sih-rip/ it was a mixture of race and region raised. As it appears to me the other two pronunciations are not so clear. In hindsight, I would have argued for a change in questions used to invoke a response, and I would have argued to add a demographic question asking where they currently