Mam or mum? Sociolinguistic awareness and language-ideological debates online

Authors

  • Michael Pearce University of Sunderland Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v9i1.19374

Keywords:

Language ideologies, Sociolinguistic awareness, late modernity, folk discourse, language attitudes

Abstract

The technological advances associated with Web 2.0 allow people to interact in online ‘communities’ built around shared interests and concerns. So far, research in language attitudes and folk linguistics has made only limited use of naturally-occurring discourse in these environments. This article examines an online messageboard virtually located in North East England, and explores the ways in which participants’ beliefs about and attitudes towards sociolinguistic variation emerge through discourse. I focus on a single ‘conversation’, revealing the language ideologies which inform the sociolinguistic awareness of participants, and conclude by using the concept of ‘late modernity’ as an ‘interpretive frame’ (Harris 2011) to help understand what is happening as people appropriate a global technology for local social action.

Author Biography

  • Michael Pearce, University of Sunderland
    Michael Pearce is Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland (UK). His research interests include sociolinguistics, dialectology and corpus linguistics, and his work has appeared in a wide range of journals, including the Journal of English Linguistics, Corpora and English Studies.

Published

2015-06-11

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Pearce, M. (2015). Mam or mum? Sociolinguistic awareness and language-ideological debates online. Sociolinguistic Studies, 9(1), 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v9i1.19374