Użycie i percepcja alternatywnych wariantów w wymowie na przykładzie amerykańskiej odmiany języka angielskiego

Abstract

Language use is variable in three major dimensions: regional, social and stylistic. Undeniably, every speaker has his/her own accent which might differ considerably to other accents and which might be perceived differently by other speakers. This pertains to both foreign accented speakers and regional accented speakers who are either members of the same language groups or members of the same dialect. Language attitude studies have demonstrated the existence of numerous attitudes and perceptions towards language varieties. One makes various judgments about the way people talk, which are subjective, biased and which contribute to the occurrence of discrimination in the society (Preston, 1989). Additionally, as language varieties give rise to a number of judgments and perceptions, it is also common to judge speakers who speak in a particular accent. This paper deals with the perception of “standard” and “non‑standard” features and the speakers whose dialectal features are in opposition to those encountered in the so-called “standard” varieties of English. It describes a study designed to investigate Polish speakers’ language attitudes towards regional varieties of American English – the attitudes of Polish students of English philology towards regional varieties of American English and the speakers themselves. The participants were asked to rate two possible realizations of selected sounds in given words and also label possible features concerning the speakers, such as personality characteristics, social factors, etc. The results obtained confirm the assumptions that the less standard the speech is, the more negative features are ascribed to its users.