“Our dialect is different”: mixing methods to gather perceptions of language variation and change
- Dr Dawn Leslie, University of Aberdeen
- Teams Main Room, University of Aberdeen
Perceptual dialectology is the study of how ‘normal people’ – i.e. non-linguists – perceive language variation. The work of Dennis Preston in North America has established a baseline methodological approach for exploring the shared language attitudes of speakers, their knowledge and understanding of regional distribution, and the significance of ‘folk perceptions’ in shaping variation and change. The approach mixes the quantitative and the qualitative by eliciting ‘mental maps’ of linguistic variation through hand-drawn map-annotation tasks, seeking responses to traditional survey-type questions, asking participants to listen to and place/rate speaker samples, and engaging informants in open-ended conversations about language.
Recent application of aspects of Preston’s methodology in the U.K. has been limited to research in England, Wales, and the borderlands between Scotland and England. Application of Preston’s methodology to Scots dialect areas has proven even scarcer. My recent study uses a modified but comprehensive version of Preston’s framework to examine the linguistic situation in the North East of Scotland. In utilising all five steps, it is one of the only studies in the U.K. to deploy the framework in its entirety.
In this plenary, I will discuss my adaptation of these methods and the process of analysing a multi-layered data set. The benefits and challenges of an ‘all-in’ approach regarding the five steps will also be considered. Finally, recommendations will be made for researchers seeking to investigate the perceptions/attitudes of non-linguists.
Biography:
Dr Dawn Leslie is a Teaching Fellow in Language and Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen. Her main areas of research are language regard and perceptual dialectology, with a particular interest in Scots language issues. In 2020, she created and delivered a new undergraduate module in North-East Scots - a first for the university in terms of teaching the language as a living variety to be learned and used rather than just researched.
Dr Dawn Leslie is a Teaching Fellow in Language and Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen. Her main areas of research are language regard and perceptual dialectology, with a particular interest in Scots language issues. In 2020, she created and delivered a new undergraduate module in North-East Scots - a first for the university in terms of teaching the language as a living variety to be learned and used rather than just researched.