The (in)significance of facts in sociolinguistic engagement

Bibliographic Data

ID2872937
AuthorsWalt Wolfram (0000-0002-5386-7754, North Carolina State University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume47
Issue3
Pages374-377
Publication date2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404518000325
OpenAlexW2807810142
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited13

Critical reflexivity seems expedient in a robust, burgeoning field such as sociolinguistics. Assumptions, principles, and approaches nurture implicit and explicit disciplinary canonization based on our cognitive framing and background experience-and these tenets deserve to be scrutinized judiciously. In fact, I have to admit that some of my own research unwittingly contributed to the construction of a set of 'sociolinguistic myths' about the development and status of African American Language (Wolfram 2007) as well as some questionable assumptions about the nature of social engagement (Wolfram 1998; Wolfram, Reaser, & Vaughn 2008). I therefore welcome this critique of theprinciple of error correctionas a theory underlying social change. The study of language in its social context is historically embedded in an ideological struggle that pits 'popular beliefs' against 'expert authority', thus making it vulnerable to overstatement and overgeneralization-by the sociolinguistic intelligentsia as well as those speaking for popular culture

Chronotope · Epistemology · Framing (construction) · Ideology · Intelligentsia · Linguistics · Mythology · Nature versus nurture · Politics · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociolinguistics · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies in Language · Law · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

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