From sociolinguistic variation to socially strategic stylisation1

Style and Sociolinguistic Variation

RUNNING HEAD: Socially Meaningful Variation Producing Socially Meaningful Linguistic Variation

It is axiomatic that spoken language is highly variable, and that variability can be observed at nearly every level of linguistic structure, from the acoustic instantiation of speech sounds to the the information structure of long stretches of spoken discourse. Many of the chapters in this volume discuss empirical and theoretical studies of the production of linguistic structures. A challenge t...

Ethnicity and Sociolinguistic Variation in San Francisco

California’s San Francisco Bay Area has long been one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the United States, and ethnicity is an integral aspect of any research on language use in the region. This article gives a brief social history of San Francisco with respect to settlement patterns since the 1850s’ gold rush, paying particular attention to Chinese Americans, who are argued to play an es...

What do Listeners Know about Sociolinguistic Variation?

A pair of experiments addressed two questions regarding listeners’ sociolinguistic knowledge: First, how do listeners use facts about speech to inform their beliefs about speakers? Second, and conversely, how might listeners use facts about speakers to inform their perceptions of speech? Results of Experiment 1 demonstrate that listeners can infer characteristics of speakers from their use of a...

Strategic City Branding; from Theory to Practice

Cities are in search for new ways to get promoted. Regarding the fast changes in technology and the shift from local to a globalized environment, cities are forced to compete with each other in order to become an attractive tourist destination, workplace, cultural rich place and much more. City branding has been introduced as a new and creative solution to be adopted by cities to achieve suc...