Lidilem, University Grenoble Alpes.
Department of linguistics, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
Top Cogn Sci. 2018 Oct;10(4):679-695. doi: 10.1111/tops.12384. Epub 2018 Oct 7.
Sociolinguists study the interaction between language and society. Variationist sociolinguistics - the subfield of sociolinguistics which is the focus of this issue - uses empirical and quantitative methods to study the production and perception of linguistic variation. Linguistic variation refers to how speakers choose between linguistic forms that say the same thing in different ways, with the variants differing in their social meaning. For example, how frequently someone says fishin' or fishing depends on a number of factors, such as the speaker's regional and social background and the formality of the speech event. Likewise, if listeners are asked to use a rating scale make judgements about speakers who say fishin' or fishing, their ratings depend on what other social characteristics are attributed to the speaker. This issue aims to reflect the growing number of interactions that bring variationist sociolinguistics into contact of different branches of cognitive science. After presenting current trends in sociolinguistics, we identify five areas of contact between the two fields: cognitive sociolinguistics, sociolinguistic cognition, acquisition of variation, computational modeling, and a comparative approach of variation in animal communication. We then explain the benefits of interdisciplinary work: fostering the study of variability and cultural diversity in cognition; bringing together data and modeling; understanding the cognitive mechanisms through which sociolinguistic variation is processed; examining indexical meaning; exploring links between different levels of grammar; and improving methods of data collection and analysis. Finally we explain how the articles in this issue contribute to each of these benefits. We conclude by suggesting that sociolinguistics holds a strategic position for facing the challenge of building theories of language through integrating its linguistic, cognitive, and social aspects at the collective and individual levels.
社会语言学家研究语言与社会之间的互动。变异社会语言学——这是本期特刊关注的社会语言学的一个分支——使用实证和定量方法来研究语言变异的产生和感知。语言变异是指说话者如何在具有相同意义的不同语言形式之间做出选择，变体在社会意义上有所不同。例如，一个人说 fishin' 还是 fishing 的频率取决于许多因素，例如说话者的地域和社会背景以及言语事件的正式程度。同样，如果要求听众使用评分量表对使用 fishin' 或 fishing 的说话者做出判断，他们的评分取决于其他哪些社会特征归因于说话者。本期特刊旨在反映越来越多的将变异社会语言学带入认知科学不同分支的互动。在介绍社会语言学的当前趋势之后，我们确定了这两个领域之间的五个接触领域：认知社会语言学、社会语言认知、变异习得、计算建模以及动物交流变异的比较方法。然后，我们解释了跨学科工作的好处：促进认知中变异性和文化多样性的研究；将数据和建模结合起来；通过研究社会语言变异被处理的认知机制来理解它；考察索引意义；探索不同层次语法之间的联系；以及改进数据收集和分析的方法。最后，我们解释了本期特刊中的文章如何有助于实现这些好处。我们最后建议，社会语言学在通过整合语言、认知和社会层面在集体和个人层面上构建语言理论方面具有战略地位，从而能够应对这一挑战。
