Language Attitudes: Social Meanings of Contrasting Speech Styles

This chapter presents social meanings of contrasting speech styles. The term language attitudes refers to a broad collection of empirical studies concerned with the distinctive social meanings of contrasting language varieties. The particular contrasts that have been investigated include different languages; ethnic, social class, and regional dialects; and specific linguistically defined variations in pronunciation, lexical choice, and grammar. A class-related standard is the style of speech that is viewed as the most prestigious language or language variant in a given culture and that is characteristic of the social group with the highest socioeconomic status. A context-related standard is a style of speech regarded as the most appropriate for particular socially defined situations. In terms of assessment of language attitudes, two basic approaches have been employed, namely, direct and indirect measurement.