Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation
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Andreas Papapavlou
Abstract
This study explores language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation in the Greek-Cypriot context. In this paper focus group interviews were conducted in tertiary education to examine: (1) language attitudes towards four broad register levels of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and (2) how these influence and are reflected in subjects’ evaluation of own speech. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results reveal that subjects evaluate negatively users of basilectal features of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and avoid their use in their attempt to maintain a positive social identity.
Abstract
This study explores language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation in the Greek-Cypriot context. In this paper focus group interviews were conducted in tertiary education to examine: (1) language attitudes towards four broad register levels of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and (2) how these influence and are reflected in subjects’ evaluation of own speech. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results reveal that subjects evaluate negatively users of basilectal features of the Greek Cypriot Dialect and avoid their use in their attempt to maintain a positive social identity.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
