The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
42. What is the Connection between Language and Society?
The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
Jon K. Forrest [+]
University of Georgia
Jon Forrest is assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Georgia, and he received his PhD in Sociology from North Carolina State University. His research examines the social reasons for language variation and change, especially in urban centers of the U.S. South. His most recent work investigates differences in dialect production within the workplace, as well as the ways in which dialects and accents can affect workplace experiences for employees.
Description
Language and society are deeply intertwined. Our social background, like our ethnicity, social class, or gender identity, conditions how we speak. Conversely, we tend to evaluate the speech of others based on social judgements, reinforcing existing social inequalities.