The Indeterminacy of Social Meaning Linked to 'Mexico' and 'Texas' Spanish

Examining Monoglossic Language Ideologies among Heritage and L2 Spanish Listeners

Bibliographic Data

ID5900974
AuthorsBrendan Regan (0000-0002-4766-6921, Texas Tech University, corresponding author), Jazmyn L Martinez (Texas Tech University)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue4
Pages266
Publication date2023-11-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8040266
OpenAlexW4388684157
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited78

This study examines how implied speaker nationality, which serves as a proxy for bilingual/monolingual status, influences social perception and linguistic evaluation. A modified matched-guise experiment was created with the speech of eight bilingual U.S. Spanish speakers from Texas talking about family traditions; the speech stimuli remained the same, but the social information provided about the speakers-whether they were said to be from Mexico (implied monolingual) or from Texas (implied bilingual)-varied. Based on 140 listeners' responses (77 L2 Spanish listeners, 63 heritage Spanish listeners), quantitative analyses found that overall listeners evaluated 'Mexico' voices as more able to teach Spanish than 'Texas' voices. However, only heritage listeners perceived 'Mexico' voices as being of higher socioeconomic status and of more positive social affect than 'Texas' voices. Qualitative comments similarly found that heritage listeners evaluated 'Mexico' voices more favorably in speech quality and confidence than 'Texas' voices. The implications are twofold: (i) the social information of implied monolingualism/bilingualism influences listeners' social perceptions of a speaker, reflecting monoglossic language ideologies; and (ii) there exists indeterminacy between language and social meaning that varies based on differences in lived experiences between L2 and heritage Spanish listeners. Extending on previous findings of indeterminacy between linguistic variants and meaning, the current study shows this also applies to (implied) language varieties, demonstrating the role of language ideologies in mediating social perception

First language · Heritage language · Ideology · Indeterminacy (philosophy · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Perception · Political science · Politics · Social group · Social identity theory · Speech perception · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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