Aesthetics in Styles and Variation

A Fresh Flavor

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7635240
AutoresMiriam Meyerhoff (0000-0002-2599-1870, University of Oxford, autor de correspondencia), 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)
Año2022
Volumen51
Número1
Páginas103-120
Fecha de publicación2022-10-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnnual Review of Anthropology (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0084-6570 • E-ISSN: 1545-4290
EditorialAnnual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110056
OpenAlexW4293060259
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias 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