Refining Our Understanding of Language Attitudes

Social psychology, in its studies of language attitudes, has typically not related evaluative reactions to particular speech attributes. Sociolinguists, on the other hand—who have, of course, investigated these attribute—have not given sustained attention to social ratings. Obviously, some bridging is called for, and that is the purpose of the present collection. Here, I summarize the previous papers and attempt to establish the important generalities underlying the basic demonstration: that given speech characteristics can indeed be related to differential social evaluations.