Tourists’ Attitudes towards Linguistic Variation in Scotland

Lauren Hall-Lew, Amie Fairs, Alan A. Lew

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

This paper joins studies of linguistic variation (e.g., Labov 1972; Dubois & Horvath 2000) and discourse (e.g., Jaworski & Lawson 2005; Jaworski & Pritchard 2005; Thurlow & Jaworski 2010) that consider the intersection between language and tourism. By examining the language attitudes that tourists hold toward linguistic variability in their host community, we find that attitudes differ by context and with respect to tourists’ travel motivations. We suggest that these results are particularly likely in a context like Edinburgh, Scotland, where linguistic variation has an iconic link to place authenticity. We propose that the joint commodification of ‘intelligibility’ and ‘authenticity’ explains this variability. The results raise questions about how the commodity value of travel motivation and the associated context of language use influence language attitudes.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLanguage variation - European Perspectives V
Place of PublicationAmsterdam / Philadelphia
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages99-110
ISBN (Electronic)9789027268815
ISBN (Print)9789027234971
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Publication series

NameStudies in Language Variation (SILV)
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Volume17
ISSN (Print)1872-9592

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • sociolinguistcs
  • language attitudes
  • Scotland
  • tourism
  • social capital
  • variation

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