Aesthetics in Styles and Variation

A Fresh Flavor

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7635240
AutoresMiriam Meyerhoff (0000-0002-2599-1870, University of Oxford, autor correspondente), Norma Mendoza‐denton (0000-0001-7792-5114, University of California, Los Angeles), Norma Mendoza-Denton (Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA)
Ano2022
Volume51
Fascículo1
Páginas103-120
Data de publicação2022-10-24
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnnual Review of Anthropology (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0084-6570 • E-ISSN: 1545-4290
EditoraAnnual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110056
OpenAlexW4293060259
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas80

Speaker attitudes, ascriptions, qualia, and other forms of overt aesthetic commentary function as constraints on language and culture and are central to sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Despite the importance of aesthetics, sociolinguists studying variation and change have largely shied away from the topic. This review suggests that covert aesthetic evaluations play a role in variation and change. We draw on non-Western approaches to aesthetics ( rasa and “everyday aesthetics”) that emphasize the interplay between receiver and the aesthetic stimulus. We present two case studies. One, from fieldwork on Nkep (an Oceanic language spoken in Vanuatu), draws attention to the way aesthetic factors seem to slow language change. The other, from fieldwork on Spanish in California, shows how aesthetic evaluations of linguistic features facilitate the transfer of variation in a situation of language contact

Aesthetics · Art · Covert · Linguistics · Sociolinguistics · Sociology · Variation (astronomy · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology