16 Dirk Geeraerts, Gitte Kristiansen and Yves Peirsman
cents. The results speak of consistent type-token relationship and a statisti-
cally significant increase in correct identification. As shown by data col-
lected in an additional questionnaire, a high degree of success correlated
with accents presenting a high degree of social stereotyping. In the light of
the findings the author discusses the experiential grounding of linguistic
stereotype formation and concludes that formal characteristics (such as
phonetic salience) have fewer effects on correct identification than relative
social salience (such as social stereotyping).
The starting-point of the next chapter, which examines dialect evalua-
tion rather than dialect identification, is the opposite perspective. In “Inves-
tigations into the folk’s mental models of linguistic varieties”, Raphael
Berthele questions the general view that negative or positive attitudes to-
wards certain lects are due to cultural stereotypes and imposed norms and
not to inherent characteristics of the varieties. In his study, Berthele em-
ploys visual stimulus mapping tasks and attribution tasks to elicit gestalt-
based mental models of language varieties in the form of consistent patterns
between visual traits and phonological features. Findings from these expe-
riments (which investigate folk perception of Swiss German dialects) and
from additional interviews provide evidence for a link between dialects
with a high percentage of high vowels and chiseled, sharp and pointy
forms. Berthele concludes that some of the evidence is consistent with the
controversial “inherent value hypothesis”, i.e. the claim that some language
attitudes are due to inherent features of the systems and not only due to
culturally or socially imposed norms, stereotypes or socio-cultural connota-
tions. However, as the author points out, a focus on inherent and potentially
universal features does not automatically entail a universalist, non-relativist
position. Rather, the goal is to show how potentially universal perceptual
mappings of sounds and forms interact with cultural and other mental mod-
els of social or ethnic groups, languages and varieties.
The volume closes off with the contribution “A cognitive approach to
quantitative sociolinguistic variation: Evidence from th-fronting in Central
Scotland”, by Lynn Clark and Graeme Trousdale. The aim of this inves-
tigation was to examine the cognitive and social factors involved in a pho-
nological change in progress (th-fronting) in East-Central Scotland. The
data were collected over a period of 30 months from a group of 54 speakers
who play in pipe bands in West Fife, Scotland and who form friendship
groups who either favor or disfavor the use of the labiodental fricative un-
der scrutiny. Data-gathering was thus carried out by means of ethnographic
long-term participant observation, a technique commonly used in variation-