Work

Style-Shifting in Multidialectal Spaces: The Case for Speaker-Based, Mixed-Methods Approaches to Dialect Contact

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In this article, I underscore the value of nuanced, speaker-focused approaches to dialect contact, which both complement and extend community-based perspectives. I pursue this goal through two main strategies. First, I use a mixed-methods approach that integrates diverse sources of contextualized conversational data alongside spontaneous metalinguistic commentary. This broadens the traditional reliance on one-on-one sociolinguistic interviews, in which the regional backgrounds of both interviewees and interviewers are often left uncontrolled. Second, I use an interpretative framework that accounts for individuals’ metalinguistic awareness and examines how this awareness influences their positioning within distinct membership categories. Such positioning is evident in language practices, ranging from accommodation to interlocutors’ speech patterns to the retention of regional variation patterns. The analysis centers on the speech of five individuals in a Spanish dialect contact setting in Anglo-America, using their linguistic behavior as a lens to address broader theoretical and methodological questions in the field.

Source: Languages

DOI: 10.3390/languages10120299

Author: Víctor Fernández-Mallat

Institution: Georgetown University

Language: English

Topic: Linguistic Variation and Morphology

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,689

Funder: Georgetown University