Investigations into the folk’s mental models of
linguistic varieties^1
Raphael Berthele
Abstract
Most sociolinguists today deny that there is an intrinsic link between the formal
properties of languages and dialects and non-linguists’ language attitudes. In this
study, the question of an intrinsic contribution of vowel phonology is asked, based
on data collected in an exploratory experimental picture mapping task. The task is
used to investigate laypeople’s mental models of languages and administered to
speakers of Swiss German dialects. A particular focus lies on the participants’
perception of dialectal variation within the German varieties. Additional interview
data on the participants’ perception of dialects is discussed and the quite consistent
evidence for a link between closed and high vowels and angular, spiky visual
forms is discussed based on the research results on synaesthesia. The chapter also
discusses cultural models of standard and non-standard languages and integrates
the perceptual and cultural aspects into a holistic perspective that aims to deepen
our understanding of mental and cultural models of linguistic varieties and soci-
olinguistic prestige.
Keywords: folk linguistics, synaesthesia, perceptual dialectology, sociolinguistics,
attitudes, cultural models, metaphors
- Introduction
1.1. Sociolinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics
Sociolinguists have developed very impressive methods of describing pat-
terns of lectal variation both from a qualitative and a quantitative perspec-
tive. Whereas the initial agenda of sociolinguistics was to describe correla-
tions between social strata and linguistic forms or “codes”, a specific