Attitudes and Mental Model of Language: On the Cognitive Foundation of Sociolinguistic Practice

Raphael Berthele

doi:10.7557/17.4752

Abstract

Attitudes and Mental Model of Language: On the Cognitive Foundation of Sociolinguistic Practice

Highlights

In this paper I would like to argue that we are better sociolinguists if we care about what linguistically unspoiled people think about language - in other words: if we know more about people's mental models of language
The general issue this paper is related to is the apparent inconsistency of people s beliefs concerning languages, dialects or sociolects and how people linguistically behave in social interaction
The lower the social class, the further away it is from this standard: Fig. 1: Sociolinguistic studies in the Labovian paradigm show how higher social classes and more formal styles tend to be closer to an assumed standard

Summary

Introduction

In this paper I would like to argue that we are better sociolinguists if we care about what linguistically unspoiled people think about language - in other words: if we know more about people's mental models of language. The general issue this paper is related to is the apparent inconsistency of people s beliefs concerning languages, dialects or sociolects and how people linguistically behave in social interaction. This is an old type of question in social psychology: very early, attitude research has come up with the insight that people might expose one kind of attitude in an interview and behave differently in 'real life'. This lead the early attitude researchers to believe that very often there is no direct link between attitudes and behavior Another more recent study in Montréal (Bourhis 1984) has asked francophones if they reply in English when a stranger addresses them in English. On the basis of those cognitive mechanisms and constraints, I will try to give a new account of the interrelated attitudes, mental models and sociolinguistic practice

Sociolinguistic accounts of attitude and behavior

Three Mental Models of Language

Mental Models and Actions

A Case Study

Conclusions

Literature