Cover not available

In:Pragmatics of Accents
Edited by Gaëlle Planchenault and Livia Poljak
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 327] 2021
► pp. 19–40

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Attitudes to accents

 | Université de Genève, Switzerland
Published online: 11 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.327.01pri
Abstract
This chapter looks at the processes involved in the development of the attitudes to voices. After outlining the main outcomes – and their social issues – of different research traditions related to language regard studies (such as language attitude research, language ideology analysis), it goes on to survey the recent findings that focus on the complexity and the variability of the responses to language varieties. Thereafter, the text discusses to what extent this focus on complexity conforms to the social constructivist turn in social sciences, namely how current research deals with non-essentialist assumptions and non-fixity of meanings. Finally, the chapter critically addresses the agency attributed to social actors in meaning making and examines findings that show the importance of legitimacy issues to the interpretation of attitudes to accents and make explicit the political dimension in the use of language resources as well as in the regard on them.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The social background of language regard
  • 3.Study of language regard
    • 3.1On the side of social determinism
    • 3.2Context and social determinism
    • 3.3Social constructionism
  • 4.Foreign accent and local accent: An impossible mixture?
    • 4.1Context of the study
    • 4.2Methods
    • 4.3Some results
      • 4.3.1Internet survey
      • 4.3.2Interviews
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (65)
References
Abric, Jean-Claude. 1994. Pratiques sociales et représentations. Paris: PUF.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Agha, Asif. 2007. Language and social relations. New-York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andreassen, Helene, Maître, Raphael, and Isabelle Racine. 2010. “La Suisse.” In Les variétés du français parlé dans l’espace francophone: ressources pour l’enseignement, ed. by Sylvain Detey, Jacques Durand, Bernard Laks, and Chantal Lyche, 211–233. Paris: Ophrys.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Armstrong, Nigel, and Tim Pooley. 2010. Social and linguistic change in European French. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Avanza, Martina, and Gilles Laferté. (2005). “Dépasser la construction des identités? Identifications, images sociales et appartenance.” Genèses 61: 134–152. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bell, Alan. 2016. “Succeeding waves seeking sociolinguistic theory for the twenty-first century.” In Sociolinguistics. Theoretical debates, ed. by Nikolas Coupland, 391–414. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2004. “Rights in places: Comments on linguistic rights and wrongs.” In Language Rights and Language Survival: Sociolinguistic and Socio-cultural Perspectives, ed. by Donna Patrick, and Jane Freeland, 55–65. Manchester: St Jerome Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borel, Stéphane, Gajo, Laurent, and Alexei Prikhodkine. 2019. “Approches des représentations sociales en linguistique : interaction entre agentivité et structure sociale.” In Des mots et des langues qui nous parlent… Représentations langagières, enseignement et apprentissage, ed. by Virginie Conti, Laure Anne Johnsen, and Jean-François De Pietro, 25–51. Neuchâtel: IRDP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1982. Ce que parler veut dire : l’économie des échanges linguistiques. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2010. “Migration, membership, and the modern nation-state: Internal and external dimensions of the politics of belonging.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History XLI(1): 61–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, and Frederick Cooper. 2000. “Beyond ‘identity’.” Theory and Society 29: 1–47. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach.” Discourse Studies 7(4/5): 585–614. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn. 2010. “The effect of speaker information on attitudes toward (ING).” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 29(2): 214–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chambers, Jack, and Peter Trudgill. (1998). Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2nd ed.). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. 2007. Style: Language variation and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas, and Adam Jaworski. 2004. “Sociolinguistic perspectives on metalanguage: Reflexivity, evaluation and ideology.” In Metalanguage. Social and ideological perspectives, ed. by Adam Jaworski, Nikolas Coupland, and Dariusz Galasinski, 15–51. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre. 2016. “Investissement langagier et économie politique.” Langage et société 3: 73–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eagly, Alice, and Shelly Chaiken. 2007. “The advantages of an inclusive definition of attitude.” Social Cognition 25(5): 582–602. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2012. “Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41, 87–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flubacher, Mi-Cha. 2013. “Language(s) as the key to integration? The ideological role of diglossia in the German-speaking region of Switzerland.” In Ideological conceptualizations of language, ed. by Erzsebet Barat, Patrick Studer, and Jiri Nevkapil, 171–192. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Francard, Michel. 2001. “Français de frontière : la Belgique et la Suisse francophones.” Présence francophone 56: 27–54.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Francard, Michel (in collaboration with Lambert, Joëlle and Françoise Masuy). 1993. L’insécurité linguistique en communauté française de Belgique. Bruxelles: Service de la langue française.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gallois, Cindy. 2016. “Language Attitudes in Context.” In The Social Meanings of Language, Dialect and Accent, ed. by Howard Giles, and Bernadette Watson, 170–179. New-York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garrett, Peter. 2010. Attitudes to language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gasquet-Cyrus, Médéric. 2010. “L’accent: concept (socio)linguistique ou catégorie de sens commun?” In Pour une épistémologie de la sociolinguistique: Actes du colloque international de Montpellier 10–12 décembre 2009, ed. by Henri Boyer, 179–188. Limoges: Lambert-Lucas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, and Tamara Rakić. 2014. “Language Attitudes: Social Determinants and Consequences of Language Variation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology, ed. by Thomas M. Holtgraves, 11–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hambye, Philippe. 2015. “L’ethnographie comme méthode d’enquête sociolinguistique: ‘faire preuve’ à partir d’un cas singulier?” Langage et société 154: 83–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hay, Jennifer, and Katie Drager. 2010. “Stuffed toys and speech perception” Linguistics 48(4): 865–892. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2011. “La francophonie et ses contradictions: multiples positions, multiples intérêts.” Sociolinguistic Studies 5(3): 423–439.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica, and Bonnie McElhinny. 2017. Language, Capitalism, Colonialism: Towards a Critical History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell H. 1972. “On communicative competence.” In Sociolinguistics, ed. by John B. Pride, and Janet Holmes, 269–293. London: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
International Phonetic Association. 1999. The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith. 2001. “‘Style’ as distinctiveness: the culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation.” In Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, ed. by Penelope Eckert, and John Rickford, 21–43. New-York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith, and Susan Gal. 2000. “Language ideology and linguistic differentiation.” In Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, ed. by Paul V. Kroskrity, 35–84. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jodelet, Denise. 1989. Représentations sociales. Un domaine en expansion. Paris: PUF.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kang, Okim, and Donald L. Rubin. 2009. “Reverse Linguistic stereotyping: measuring the effect of listener expectations on speech evaluation.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 28(4): 441–456. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Hodgson, Richard C., Gardner, Robert C., and Samuel Fillenbaum. 1960. “Evaluational reactions to spoken languages.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 60(1): 44–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina. 2012 [1997]. English with an accent. Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. New York/London: Routledge (2nd ed.).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maurais, Jacques. 2008. Les Québécois et la norme. L’évaluation par les Québécois de leurs usages linguistiques. Montréal: Office québécois de la langue française. URL: [URL] accessed at June 28th 2020.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milroy, James. 2001. “Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization.“ Journal of Sociolinguistics 5(4): 530–555. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moreau, Marie-Louise, Bouchard, Pierre, Demartin, Stéphanie, Gadet, Françoise, Guerin, Emmanuelle, Harmegnies, Bernard, Huet, Kathy, Laroussi, Foued, Prikhodkine, Alexei, Singy, Pascal, Thiam, Ndiassé, and Harry Tyne. 2007. Les accents dans la francophonie. Une enquête internationale. Bruxelles: Service de la langue française.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moyer, Melissa G., and Luisa Martín Rojo. 2007. “Language, migration and citizenship: New challenges in the regulation of bilingualism.” In Bilingualism: A social approach, ed. by Monica Heller, 137–160. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy. 1999. “The effect of social information on the perception of sociolinguistic variables.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18(1): 62–85. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Potter, Jonathan, and Margaret Wetherell. 1987. Discourse and social psychology. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 1996. “Whaddayaknow?: The modes of folk linguistic awareness.“ Language Awareness 5 (1): 40–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. “Variation in Language Regard.“ In Variatio delectat: Empirische Evidenzen und theoretische Passungen sprachlicher Variation, ed. by Peter Gilles, Joachim Scharloth, and Evelyn Ziegler, 7–27. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015. “Does language regard vary?” In Responses to language varieties: variability, processes, and outcomes, ed. by Alexei Prikhodkine and Dennis R. Preston, 3–36. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prikhodkine, Alexei. 2011. Dynamique normative du français en usage en Suisse romande: enquête sociolinguistique dans les cantons de Vaud, Genève et Fribourg. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. Attitudes and language detail: Effects of specifying linguistic stimuli. In Responses to language varieties: variability, processes, and outcomes, ed. by Alexei Prikhodkine and Dennis R. Preston, 219–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019a. “Accents régionaux du français : interroger des évidences.” Glottopol 31: 10–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019b. “Faire ‘local’ avec un accent étranger.” Minorités linguistiques et société 12: 125–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prikhodkine, Alexei, and Dennis R. Preston (eds.). 2015. Responses to language varieties: variability, processes, and outcomes. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prikhodkine, Alexei, David Correia Saavedra, and Marcelo Dos Santos Mamed. 2016. “‘Give me your name and I’ll tell you whether you speak with an accent’ The Effect of Proper Names Ethnicity on Listener Expectations.” CALL: Irish Journal for Culture, Arts, Literature and Language, Special Issue “Language, migration and diaspora”, Art. 10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Purnell, Thomas, Idsardi, William, and John Baugh. 1999. “Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18 (1): 10–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Racine, Isabelle, Schwab, Sandra, and Sylvain Detey. 2013. “Accent(s) suisse(s) ou standard(s) suisse(s)? Approche perceptive dans quatre régions de Suisse romande.” In La perception des accents du français hors de France, ed. by Anita Falkert, 41–59. Mons: CIPA.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubin, Donald L. 1992. “Nonlanguage Factors Affecting Undergraduates’ Judgments of Nonnative English-Speaking Teaching Assistants.” Research in Higher Education 33(4): 511–531. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryan, Ellen, Giles, Howard, and Richard Sebastian. 1982. “An integrative perspective for the study of attitudes towards language variation.” In Attitudes towards Language Variation, ed. by Ellen Ryan, and Howard Giles, 1–19. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sealey, Alison, and Bob Carter. 2004. Applied linguistics as social science. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Service cantonal de recherche et d’information statistiques du canton de Vaud (SCRIS). URL: [URL] accessed at June 28th 2020
Sherif, Muzafer. 1967. “Introduction.” In Attitude, ego-involvement, and change, ed. by Carolyn W. Sherif, and Muzafer Sherif, 1–5. New-York: Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singy, Pascal, Arlette Mottaz Baran, Martine Amstalden, Alexei Prikhodkine, and Nicole Jufer. 2004. Identités de genre, identités de classe et insécurité linguistique. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soukup, Barbara. 2015. “Mixing methods in the study of language attitudes.” In Responses to Language Varieties. Variability, processes and outcomes, ed. by Alexei Prikhodkine and Dennis R. Preston, 55–84. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vertovec, Steven. 2007. “Super-diversity and its implications.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(6): 1024–1054. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue