Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation: Theoretical Foundations

Finished · Social Influences on Speech

Summary

This chapter sets the stage for the entire book. It discusses what third wave theories on social meaning are, indicating that social meaning is prevalent in all areas of language, indexed to specific linguistic features to communicate social identity. Crucially, these indices are dynamic, changing depending on the social and pragmatic context in which the feature arises. As such, a feature can communicate different things at different times. Another important idea is that the relative markedness of a form in a certain social group affects the extent to which it can become a salient feature of a certain social identity. If the feature is heavily marked, it is more easy to be perceived and therefore can be indexed with a social identity more easily. Variation, the authors argue, arises because people attempt to used socially indexed features in different contexts to associate/disassociate with different groups.