Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T02:22:49.681Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crossing the line: Effect of border representation in perceptual dialectology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2022

Erica J. Benson  and
Anneli Williams
Erica J. Benson*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, WI, USA
Anneli Williams
Affiliation:
Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany
*
Author for correspondence: Erica J. Benson. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of differing representations of state boundaries on the draw-a-map task in perceptual dialectology in a region of the United States. The typical draw-a-map survey instrument represents state borders with solid lines. Would respondents react differently to maps with dashed-line state borders? More specifically, would respondents draw more dialect areas that cross state lines on maps with dashed-line state borders versus solid-line state borders? These questions are explored through two datasets, and similarities and differences emerge. For example, respondents of both map types draw more single-state dialect areas than multistate dialect areas, and respondents with dashed-line maps draw more dialect areas on average than respondents with solid state maps. While dataset 1 showed a significant association between map type and multistate dialect area with respondents using dashed-line border maps drawing more multistate dialect areas than respondents with solid-line maps, H(1) = 5.13, P = .017, this association was not significant in dataset 2, H(1) = .06, P = .798.

Keywords

draw-a-map taskmethodologylanguage regard
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistic Geography , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , October 2022 , pp. 67 - 75
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfaraz, Gabriela G. & Mason, Alexander. 2019. Ethnicity and perceptual dialectology: Latino awareness of U.S. regional dialects. American Speech 94(3). 352–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, Erica J. 2003. Folk linguistic perceptions and the mapping of dialect boundaries. American Speech 78(3). 307–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, Erica J. & Risdal, Megan L.. 2018. Variation in language attitudes: Sociolinguistic receptivity and acceptability of linguistic features. In Evans, Betsy E., Benson, Erica J. & Stanford, James N. (eds.), Language regard: Methods, variation and change, 80–95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bounds, Paulina. 2010. Production versus perception of Polish speech: Poznan. Ph.D. dissertation. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia.Google Scholar
Bounds, Paulina. 2015. Perceptual regions in Poland: An investigation of Poznan speech perceptions. Journal of Linguistic Geography 3(1). 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bounds, Paulina & Sutherland, Charles J.. 2018. Perceptual basemaps reloaded: The role basemaps play in eliciting perceptions. Journal of Linguistic Geography 6. 145–68. doi: 10.1017/jlg.2018.7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, Sarah. 2020. Mapping perceptions of language variation in Wisconsin: On “goin’ fishin’ at my cabin don’t cha know” and “normal like me.” American Speech 95(1). 82–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, Nancy Bermudez, Victor Fung, Edwards, Lisa & Vargas, Rosalva. 2007. Hella Nor Cal or totally So Cal?: The perceptual dialectology of California. Journal of English Linguistics 35(4). 325–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchstaller, Isabelle & Alvanides, Seraphim. 2013. Employing geographical principles for sampling in state of the art dialectological projects. Journal of Linguistic Geography 1(2). 96–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, Kathryn & Kathryn Bauer, M.. 2015. Competing reflexive models of regional speech in northern Ohio. Journal of English Linguistics 43(2). 95–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Condé Nast Traveler. 2019. 50 people show us their states’ accents. YouTube. June 17. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcxByX6rh24 (December 19, 2021).Google Scholar
Cramer, Jennifer. 2010. The effect of borders on the linguistic production and perception of regional identity in Louisville, Kentucky. Ph.D. dissertation. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Cramer, Jennifer. 2016. Contested Southernness: The linguistic production and perception of identities in the borderlands (Publication of the American Dialect Society 100). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Cukor-Avila, Patricia. 2018. A variationist approach to studies of language regard. In Evans, Betsy E., Benson, Erica J. & Stanford, James N. (eds.), Language regard: Methods, variation and change, 31–61. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cukor-Avila, Patricia, Lisa Jeon, Patricia C. Rector, Chetan Tiwari & Shelton, Zak. 2012. “Texas – It’s like a whole nuther country”: Mapping Texans’ perceptions of dialect variation in the Lone Star state. In Proceedings of the 20th annual symposium about language and society – Austin (Texas Linguistics Forum 55), 10–19. Austin: University of Texas. Google Scholar
Demirci, Mahide. 2002. Gender differences in the perception of Turkish regional dialects. In Long, Daniel & Preston, Dennis R. (eds.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 2, 41–50. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Diener, Alexander C. & Hagen, Joshua. 2012. Borders: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Betsy E. 2011. ‘Seattletonian’ to ‘Faux Hick’: Perceptions of English in Washington state. American Speech 86(4). 383–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Betsy E. 2013a. ‘Everybody sounds the same’: Otherwise overlooked ideology in perceptual dialectology. American Speech 88(1). 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Betsy E. 2013b. Seattle to Spokane: Mapping perceptions of English in Washington State. Journal of English Linguistics 41(3). 268–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, Betsy E. 2016. City talk and Country talk: Perceptions of urban and rural English in Washington State. In Cramer, Jennifer & Montgomery, Chris (eds.), Cityscapes and perceptual dialectology: Global perspectives on non-linguists’ knowledge of the dialect landscape, 56–72. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Evans, Betsy E., Dunbar, Matthew & Chartier, Nicole. 2020. Cardiffians’ perceptions of English in the UK. Journal of Linguistic Geography 8(1). 1–8. doi: 10.1017/jlg.2020.1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finstad, Kristen. 2018. 10 things only Wisconsinites say. The Bobber: The Official Blog of Travel Wisconsin. January 17. Retrieved from http://bobber.discoverwisconsin.com/10-things-wisconsinites-say/ (December 19, 2021).Google Scholar
Fought, Carmen. 2002. California students’ perceptions of, you know, regions and dialects? In Long, Daniel & Preston, Dennis R. (eds.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 2, 113–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Daniel T., King, Gary, Pettigrew, Stephen & Wilson, Timothy D.. 2016. Comment on “Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science.” Science 351 (6277). 1037a-b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giudice, Cristina & Giubilaro, Chiara. 2015. Re-Imagining the border: Border art as a space of critical imagination and creative resistance. Geopolitics 20(1). 79–94. doi: 10.1080/14650045.2014.896791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, Laura. 1999. A view from the West: Perceptions of U.S. dialects by Oregon residents. In Preston, Dennis R. (ed.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 1, 315–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeon, Lisa. 2013. Drawing boundaries and revealing language attitudes: Mapping perceptions of dialects in Korea. M.A. thesis. Denton, TX: University of North Texas.Google Scholar
Jeon, Lisa & Cukor-Avila, Patricia. 2015. “One country, one language?”: Mapping perceptions of dialects in South Korea. Dialectologia 14. 17–46.Google Scholar
Kelly, Meghan. 2015. Mapping Syrian refugee border crossings: A critical, feminist perspective. M.A. thesis. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Lameli, Alfred, Purschke, Christoph & Kehrein, Roland. 2008. Stimulus und Kognition. Zur Aktivierung mentaler Raumbilder. Linguistik Online 35. 55–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, Daniel. 1999. Mapping nonlinguists’ evaluations of Japanese language variation. In Preston, Dennis R. (ed.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 1, 199–226. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, Daniel & Preston, Dennis R. (eds.). 2002. Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, Daniel & Cheol Yim, Young. 2002. Regional differences in the perception of Korean dialects. In Long, Daniel & Preston, Dennis R. (eds.), Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 2, 249–75. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meli, Laura. 2015. 15 words you’ll only understand if you’re from Wisconsin. Only in Your State. May 9. Retrieved from https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/wisconsin/words-youll-only-understand-wi/ (December 19, 2021).Google Scholar
Miłobóg, Magdalena & Garrett, Peter. 2011. Perceptions of and attitudes towards regional varieties of Polish: View from two Polish provinces. Language Awareness 20(4). 275–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohr, Howard. 1987. How to talk Minnesotan. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Mohr, Howard. 2013. How to talk Minnesotan, rev. edn. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Chris. 2007. Northern English dialects: A perceptual approach. Ph.D. dissertation. Sheffield, UK: University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Chris & Cramer, Jennifer. 2016. Developing methods in perceptual dialectology. In Cramer, Jennifer & Montgomery, Chris (eds.), Cityscapes and perceptual dialectology: Global perspectives on non-linguists’ knowledge of the dialect landscape, 9–24. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Chris & Stoeckle, Philipp. 2013. Geographic Information Systems and perceptual dialectology: A method for processing draw-a-map data. Journal of Linguistic Geography 1(1). 52–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy & Preston, Dennis R.. 2003. Folk linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Open Science Collaboration. 2015. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science 349(6251). 943–52.Google Scholar
Palen, Melanie. 2021. The Michigan accent and slang words. Owlcation. March 16. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Michigan-Accent (December 19, 2021).Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 1981. Perceptual dialectology: Mental maps of United States dialects from a Hawaiian perspective (summary). In Warkentyne, Henry J. (ed.), Methods IV/Méthodes IV (Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology), 192–98. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria.Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 1986. Five visions of America. Language in Society 15(2). 221–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 1989. Perceptual dialectology: Nonlinguists’ views of areal linguistics. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. 1996. Where the worst English is spoken. In Schneider, Edgar (ed.), Focus on the USA, 297–360. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. (ed.). 1999. Handbook of perceptual dialectology, vol. 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. & Howe, George M.. 1987. Computerized studies of mental dialect maps. In Denning, Keith M., Inkelas, Sharon, McNair-Knox, Faye C. & Rickford, John R. (eds.), Variation in language: NWAV-XV at Stanford, 361–78. Stanford: Stanford University, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Redoute, Ryan. 2020. Michigan accent and slang introductory training. YouTube. November 16. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBlNEBlF9v4 (December 19, 2021).Google Scholar
Schiesser, Alexandra. 2020. Dialekte machen. Konstruktion und Gebrauch arealer Varianten im Kontext sprachraumbezogener Alltagsdiskurse (Linguistik – Impulse & Tendenzen 85). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Stoeckle, Philipp. 2014. Subjektive Dialekträume im alemannischen Dreiländereck (Deutsche Dialektgeographie 112). Hildesheim/Zürich/New York: Georg Olms Verlag.Google Scholar
Weirich, Phillip. 2018. A perceptual dialect map of Oklahoma. IULC Working Papers 18(1). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/iulcwp/article/view/26049 (July 7, 2022).Google Scholar