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Article published In: English World-Wide
Vol. 42:3 (2021) ► pp.273–298

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The role of linguistic structure in the perceptions of vernacular speech

Evidence from L1 English and English as a foreign language

 | University College of Teacher Education Vorarlberg
 | West Virginia University
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00073.dav
Abstract
This study explores the role of linguistic structure in speakers’ perceptions of vernacular English, i.e. speech used in informal interactions. In so doing, it tests the assumptions of the Interface Principle (Labov, William. 1993. “The Unobservability of Structure and its Linguistic Consequences”. Paper presented at NWAV 22, University of Ottawa.) and its major claim that semantic and discourse-pragmatic features will elicit a greater degree of social awareness than morphosyntactic variants (Levon, Erez, and Isabelle Buchstaller. 2015. “Perception, Cognition, and Linguistic Structure: The Effect of Linguistic Modularity and Cognitive Style on Sociolinguistic Processing”. Language Variation and Change 271: 319–348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Relying on data obtained from 372 respondents, we explore the social perceptions of two discourse-pragmatic and two morphosyntactic variables. We show that the morphosyntactic features investigated here are generally available to the sociolinguistic monitor of L1 speakers as well as highly advanced learners of English as a Foreign Language. However, these morphosyntactic features are less salient than the semantic/discourse pragmatic variants, and their social indexation is, for this reason, more pliable. We argue for the weaker version of the Interface Principle and propose that the differences in the recognisability of vernacular features is gradient. We additionally propose that juxtaposing different types of speaker data is instrumental in discerning those differences.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Salience as a theoretical construct
    • 2.1Sociolinguistic salience
    • 2.2Psycholinguistic salience
  • 3.The linguistic variables
  • 4.Data and method
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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