The Spatiality of Perceptual Dialectology

Abstract

A criticism that has been leveled against modern sociolinguistic research is that “space [has been] carefully controlled out of” studies and that "spatial variation [... is] not examined" (Britain 2010b, p. 3). This dissertation responds to this criticism by using the tools and theories of perceptual dialectology to reincorporate physical space into analyses of sociolinguistic data. This is done through a study that uses the concept of spatiality as proposed by David Britain (2010a, 2010b) in the creation of a draw-a-map task (Preston, 1989) and the interpretation of the results. I propose that the three components of spatiality (physical, social, and psychological space) can be used in the analysis of data collected through perceptual dialectology methods when addressing the evaluation problem of language variation and change (Weinreich, Labov, & Herzog, 1968). I further explore how content analysis (Krippendorff, 1989) and critical discursive psychology (Edley and Wetherell, 2001) can aid in the analysis of qualitative data in creating aggregate maps of non-linguists’ perceptions of linguistic variation in their communities. This is accomplished by analyzing the mental maps of dialect regions collected from respondents online. The results are based upon the perceived linguistic variation by individuals in the state of Maine and is analyzed with regards to the sociodemographic and physical geography of the state.