Categories, stereotypes and the linguistic perception of sexuality

Levon, Erez (2014). Categories, stereotypes and the linguistic perception of sexuality. Language in society, 43(5), pp. 539-566. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404514000554

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This article examines how social stereotypes influence listeners’ perceptions of indexical language. Building on recent developments in linguistics and social psychology, I investigate the extent to which stereotypical attitudes and beliefs about categories of speakers serve to enable the association of linguistic features with particular social meanings while simultaneously blocking others. My arguments are based on an analysis of listener perceptions of the intersecting categories of gender, sexuality, and social class among men in the UK. Using a modified matched-guise paradigm to test three category-relevant variables (mean pitch, spectral characteristics of /s/, and TH-fronting), I demonstrate how the perception of social meaning is governed by a combination of both attitudinal and cognitive factors. This finding is important because it illustrates the listener-dependent nature of sociolinguistic perception. Moreover, it also provides further empirical support for an understanding of social meaning as an emergent property of language-in-use.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) > Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)

UniBE Contributor:

Levon, Erez

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
400 Language
400 Language > 410 Linguistics
400 Language > 420 English & Old English languages

ISSN:

0047-4045

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Erez Levon

Date Deposited:

11 Jun 2021 15:46

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:47

Publisher DOI:

10.1017/S0047404514000554

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.152316

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/152316

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