The uses of folk linguistics

Folk linguistics seeks to discover non‐linguists’beliefs about language in general; the work reported here looks primarily at the employment of such beliefs in ongoing discussions of linguistic topics. Variety imitation tasks and perceptual dialectology studies briefly outlined here only began the task of uncovering what non‐specialists know about language but do not reveal how such beliefs are put to use. Content‐oriented approaches to conversations which have language as their topic are illustrated here from an interaction in which African‐American Vernacular English is the focus. The article illustrates approaches to discoursal meaning based on vantage theory and argument analysis, on topic continuity as revealed in pronominal reference, on footing as revealed in personal pronominal reference, and on the meaning of discourse markers. Such approaches reveal underlying consistency and elaborateness of folk belief rather than disorganization and unconnected and/or simple notions. Differences between folk and scientific theories of language range from the dramatic in some cases to the inconsequential in others. The position of folk linguistics within the general study of language is described and assessed.