Language outside the norm: Reactions to non-conforming speech and speakers

Abstract

The second issue of volume 47 (2024) of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue devoted to the effects of speaking differently from a norm. Across such diverse fields as sociolinguistics, sociophonetics, experimental linguistics, and inter-actional analysis we call for papers on empirically based studies of reactions towards speakers and/or speech that in some way or another is perceived as outside of a norm, for instance non-standard speech, dialect, ethnolect, L2 accent, or speech impairments. The issue will be edited by Nicolai Pharao and Pia Quist. Inviting contributions based on empirical work in linguistics, the aim of this NJL special issue will be to expand the perspective within sociolinguistics on language attitudes and ideologies to studies that employ new methodologies, whether they use quantitative and/or qualitative measures, or consist of mainly experiments or ethno-graphic observations, etc. We also invite contributions that focus on the question of how norms are locally constituted and (re)shaped in everyday interaction through ideological moves as observed in empirical data. In the context of this special issue, we apply a broad understanding of the concepts of effect and norm , and contributions may employ different specifications. We understand effect in a broad sense as reactions by receivers in a given research setting, whether that is in experiments, interviews, or recordings of group conversations. The concept of norm is also understood in broad terms as expectations and standards that make people react and behave in a certain way. These may be linguistic standard norms connected to standard ideologies and power inequalities, but they could also be locally defined norms within a group or more locally in a conversation. Studies of attitudes towards non-standard language typically show low degrees of tolerance towards linguistic variation, including dialect variation, the use of multi-ethnic youth styles, and foreign accents (Garrett 2010, Coupland and Kristiansen 2011, Grondelaers and Kristiansen 2013). As argued by Kristiansen (2009), for instance (see