A Semiotic Approach to Social Meaning in Language

Abstract

Linguistic awareness is a complex and multi-layered set of processes, existing in different forms of consciousness or knowledge. Social meaning resides in the ways that people perceive linguistic behavior as patterned and predictable, depending on their experience with, stereotypes about, and understanding of different groups. Ample evidence from experimental and ethnographic work indicates that sociolinguistic processes are actively engaged in the interactional construction of meaning. Furthermore, these processes hold material power over the world and how our positions in it are constructed. Theorizing these relationships is key to advancing research on sociolinguistic awareness and control and ultimately to understanding the complex linkages between language and social categorization, as evidenced in the contributions to this thematic issue. To illustrate these points, I present data from the Quechua–Spanish contact zone in Bolivia in which speakers report hearing differences in sounds that were not manipulated by the researchers in an experimental study. Second, I examine a case study in an educational setting in which Latinx students are categorized as English language learners based on racializing discourses and biased assessment tools. Both these examples demonstrate the importance of attending to listeners’ representations of socio + linguistic information, not only that which exists in a measurable way “in the world,” but that which is filled in by social expectation and pattern recognition at a sociocognitive level. I draw on semiotic theory, in particular the device of the interpretant, to argue that social information is perceived in dynamic and varied ways as part of the sign system that constitutes language. It is not something that is added on or filtered after linguistic information; indeed, the whole concept of “social vs. linguistic” is a false dichotomy that has led too many researchers astray. The interpretant incorporates elements of our theory of the world in our interpretation of signs and provides a third “leg” to the dualistic Saussurean sign–symbol relationship. That is, our perception of the relationship between sign and symbol is itself part of the sign. This recursive relationship helps us to access the sophisticated systems of social behavior and modeling that people contain and have knowledge of, information that not only assists them in interpreting but also plays a role in constructing meaning and content of socially laden signs. Social meaning resides in the ways that people perceive linguistic behavior as patterned and predictable, yet also dynamic and available for creative play. We cannot rely only on people's experience with, stereotypes about, and understanding of different groups but must also lean toward models that allow for creativity, innovation, and shifting hierarchies. These processes ultimately have material effects on our world and on the power structures that we inhabit and reproduce through our linguistic and intellectual practices.