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Social Psychology and Language: a Taxonomy and Overview

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this overview is briefly to summarise the distinctive contributions of social psychology to the study of language, speech and communi cation. The breadth and depth of these contributions is indicated with the help of a two-dimensional taxonomy in which research is classified according to its emphasis on language production or language reception, and according to its focus on individual, interpersonal or group processes. The cells of this taxonomy are illustrated with reference to research on: attitudes and motivation in second language learning; the externalisation of personality and emotion in speech; the inference of personality and emotion from speech; lexical influences on message reception; interpersonal constructs and impression formation; interaction chrono graphy ; speech accommodation; speech style evaluation; language and social identity; language attitudes and intergroup relations. Two strong themes that cross-cut this taxonomy are research into the influence of social-developmental and situational factors on language production and reception, each of which is briefly considered. This is followed by a survey of interpretive frameworks that have been imported by social psychologists interested in language to aid their endeavours, and an introduction to the applications to which this work has been put. The final section includes a breakdown of the contributions into methodological types, and a brief discussion of theoretical matters in the investigation of language.

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