Cover not available
Part of
Acquiring Sociolinguistic Variation
Edited by Gunther De Vogelaer and Matthias Katerbow
[Studies in Language Variation 20] 2017
► pp. 117–154

Chapter 5
Acquiring attitudes towards varieties of Dutch

A quantitative perspective

| University of Münster
| Ghent University
Even though adolescence is well-known to be a key period for the acquisition of vernacular varieties, there seems to be little research on how attitudes change during adolescence. In addition, most sociolinguistic studies on adolescent language hardly discuss developmental factors. This study tries to mend these gaps in our knowledge, by investigating how attitudes towards a number of varieties of Dutch change in Flemish children between 8 and 18 years of age. Adolescence is shown to be a period in which attitudes further emerge and change considerably. The youngest children in our sample do seem to recognize Standard Dutch as a model for their own speech, and are thus competent to distinguish between different varieties of Dutch, but they hardly attribute any non-linguistic significance to language variation. As children grow older, they realize that there is a correlation between language variation and societal prestige. In addition, they become more sensitive to the ‘covert prestige’ of, especially, the local variety, which is increasingly evaluated as indexing integrity and as a means towards social and/or in-group success. Significant parallels are revealed between sociolinguistic and psychosocial development, including 11–12-year-olds’ tendency to think in terms of ‘perceived popularity’ (Cillessen and Rose 2005), and the peak around the age of 16 in conventional and social-clique dominated reasoning about friendship (Turiel 1983; Horn 2003).
Keywords: language attitudes, children, adolescents, Dutch, Flemish, dialect, standard language, sociolinguistic competence, language acquisition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Acquiring attitudes as a part of sociolinguistic competence
  • 2.Attitudes in Flanders: Context
  • 3.Measuring attitudes: Method
    • 3.1General considerations
    • 3.2A quantitative study in Kluisbergen
  • 4.Attitudes in East Flemish children and adolescents: Results
    • 4.1General picture
    • 4.2Age group 8–10
    • 4.3Age group 11–12
    • 4.4Age group 13–14
    • 4.5Age group 17–18
    • 4.6Critical assessment
  • 5.Discussion: Triggers for attitude change
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 30 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.20.05dev
References (83)
References
Absillis, Kevin, Jürgen Jaspers, and Sarah Van Hoof. 2012. “De manke usurpator: Inleiding.” In De manke usurpator. Over Verkavelingsvlaams, ed. by Kevin Absillis, Jürgen Jaspers, and Sarah Van Hoof, 3–35. Gent: Academia Press.Google Scholar
Auer, Peter. 2005. “Europe's Sociolinguistic Unity, or: A Typology of European Dialect/Standard Constellations.” In Perspectives on Variation: Sociolinguistic, Historical, Comparative, ed. by Nicole Delbecque, Johan van der Auwera, and Dirk Geeraerts, 7–42. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barbu, Stéphanie, Aurélie Nardy, Jean-Pierre Chevrot, and Jacques Juhel. 2013. “Language Evaluation and Use during Early Childhood: Adhesion to Social Norms or Integration of Environmental Regularities?” Linguistics 51 (2): 381–411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 2004. “The Role of Peer Interaction in Later Pragmatic Development: The Case of Speech Representation.” In Language Development across Childhood and Adolescence, ed. by Ruth A. Berman, 191–210. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Roger, and Albert Gilman. 1960. “The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity.” In Style in Language, ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, 253–276. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cajot, José. 1998. “Een omgangstaal voor alledag: Vlaanderens eigen weg.” Streven 65 (11): 999–1008.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1992. “Dialect Acquisition.” Language 68 (4): 673–705. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003. Sociolinguistic Theory: Linguistic Variation and Its Social Significance. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cillessen, Antonius H.N., and Amanda J. Rose. 2005. “Understanding Popularity in the Peer System.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 14 (2): 102–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Craig, Holly K., and Washington, Julie A. (eds). 2006. Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students from Preschool – 5th Grade. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Cremona, Cristiana, and Elizabeth Bates. 1977. “The Development of Attitudes toward Dialect in Italian Children.” Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 6: 223–232.Google Scholar
Davies, Winifred V. 2008. “‘Sprachkultur’ in Lay and Academic Discourse in Modern Germany.” German Life and Letters 61 (4): 435–450. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012. “Myths We Live and Speak By: Ways of Imagining and Managing Language and Languages.” In Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History, ed. by Matthias Hüning, Ulrike Vogl, and Oliver Moliner, 45–69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Day, Richard R. 1980. “The Development of Linguistic Attitudes and Preferences.” TESOL Quarterly 14 (1): 27–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1982. “Children’s Attitudes toward Language.” In Attitudes towards Language Variation: Social and Applied Contexts, ed. by Ellen Bouchard Ryan, and Howard Giles, 116–131. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
De Houwer, Annick. 2003. “Language Variation and Local Elements in Family Discourse.” Language Variation and Change 15 (3): 329–349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deprez, Kas. 1999. “De taal van de Vlamingen.” In Nationalisme in België: Identiteiten in beweging (1780–2000), ed. by Kas Deprez, and Louis Vos, 106–116. Antwerpen: Houtekiet. [reprinted in Absilis, Jaspers, and Van Hoof 2012]Google Scholar
Dillard, Joey L. 1972. Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 1989. Jocks and Burnouts: Social Identity in the High School. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
. 2012. “Three Waves of Variation Study: The Emergence of Meaning in the Study of Sociolinguistic Variation.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 87–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Erik H. 1959. Identity and the Life Cycle: Selected Papers. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Fasold, Ralph W. 1972. Tense Marking in Black English: A Linguistic and Social Analysis: Urban Language Series, No. 8. Arlington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. 1959. “Diglossia.” Word 15: 325–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Floccia, Caroline, Joseph Butler, Frédérique Girard, and Jeremy Goslin. 2009. “Categorization of Regional and Foreign Accent in 5- to 7-Year-Old British Children.” International Journal of Behavioral Development 33 (4): 366–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Peter. 2007. “Language attitudes.” In The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics, ed. by Carmen Llamas, Louise Mullany, and Peter Stockwell, 116–121. London, and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2010. Attitudes to Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garrett, Peter, Nikolas Coupland, and Angie Williams. 1999. “Evaluating Dialect in Discourse: Teachers‘ and Teenagers’ Responses to Young English Speakers in Wales.” Language in Society 28 (3): 321–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghimenton, Anna. 2015. “Reading between the Code Choices: Discrepancies between Expressions of Language Attitudes and Usage in a Contact Situation.” International Journal of Bilingualism 19: 115–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghimenton, Anna, and Jean-Pierre Chevrot. 2006. “Language Acquisition in a Multilingual Society: A Case Study in Veneto, Italy.” In Language Variation – European Perspectives: Selected papers from the Third International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 3), Amsterdam, June 2005, ed. by Frans L. Hinskens, 71–81. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghyselen, Anne-Sophie. 2009. “Ne zelfzekere leraar of gewoon nen enthousiaste mens?: Een matched-guise onderzoek naar de attitude tegenover tussentaal bij West-Vlamingen.” Taal en Tongval 61: 83–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016. Verticale structuur en dynamiek van het gesproken Nederlands in Vlaanderen. Een empirische studie in Ieper, Gent en Antwerpen. Ph.D. Dissertation Ghent University.Google Scholar
Ghyselen, Anne-Sophie, and Gunther De Vogelaer. 2013. “Endoglossic Standardisation in Flanders: An Attitudinal Perspective.” In Language (De)standardisation in Late Modern Europe: Experimental Studies, ed. by Tore Kristiansen, and Stefan Grondelaers, 153–170. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, and Andrew C. Billings. 2004. “Language Attitudes.” In The Handbook of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Alan Davies, and Catherine Elder, 187–209. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giles, Howard, Chris Harrison, Clare Creber, Philip M. Smith, and Norman H. Freeman. 1983. “Developmental and Contextual Aspects of Children's Language Attitudes.” Language & Communication 3 (2): 141–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goossens, Jan. 1970. “‘Belgisch beschaafd Nederlands’ en Brabantse expansie.” De Nieuwe Taalgids 63: 54–70.Google Scholar
. 2000. “De toekomst van het Nederlands in Vlaanderen.” Ons Erfdeel 43: 3–13.Google Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, and Roeland van Hout. 2011. “The Standard Language Situation in the Low Countries: Top-down and Bottom-up Variations on a Diaglossic Theme.” Journal of Germanic Linguistics 23 (3): 199–243. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondelaers, Stefan, Roeland van Hout, and Dirk Speelman. 2011. “A Perceptual Typology of Standard Language Situations in the Low Countries.” In Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe, ed. by Tore Kristiansen, and Nikolas Coupland, 199–222. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Horn, Stacey S. 2003. “Adolescents’ Reasoning about Exclusion from Social Groups.” Developmental Psychology 39 (1): 11–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoyle, Susan M., and Carolyn T. Adger. 1998. “Introduction.” In Kids Talk: Strategic Language Use in Later Childhood, ed. by Susan M. Hoyle, and Carolyn T. Adger, 3–22. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Impe, Leen, and Dirk Speelman. 2007. “Vlamingen en hun (tussen)taal. Een attitudineel mixed guiseonderzoek.” Handelingen van de Koninklijke Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis 61: 109–128.Google Scholar
Jaspers, Jürgen. 2005. Tegenwerken, belachelijk doen: Talige sabotage van Marokkaanse jongens op een Antwerpse middelbare school: Een sociolinguïstische etnografie. Brussel: VUB press.Google Scholar
. 2011. “Strange Bedfellows: Appropriations of a Tainted Urban Dialect.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 15 (4): 493–524. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaspers, Jürgen, and Reinhild Vandekerckhove. 2009. “Jong Nederlands.” Nederlandse Taalkunde 14 (1): 2–7. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaspers, Jürgen, and Sarah Van Hoof. 2013. “Hyperstandardisation in Flanders: Extreme Enregisterment and Its Aftermath.” Pragmatics 23 (2): 331–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kerswill, Paul. 1996. “Children, Adolescents, and Language Change.” In Language Variation and Change 8 (2): 177–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kerswill, Paul, and Ann Williams. 2000. “Creating a New Town Koine: Children and Language Change in Milton Keynes.” Language in Society 29 (1): 65–115. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kerswill, Paul, Jenny Cheshire, Sue Fox, and Eivind Torgersen. 2013. “English as a Contact Language: The Role of Children and Adolescents.” In English as a Contact Language: Studies in English language, ed. by Daniel Schreier, and Marianne Hundt, 258–282. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Killen, Melanie, Adam Rutland, and Noah Simon Jampol. 2009. “Social Exclusion in Childhood and Adolescence.” In Handbook of Peer Interactions, Relationships, and Groups, ed. by Kenneth H. Rubin, William M. Bukowski, and Brett Laursen, 249–266. New York: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Kinzler, Katherine D., and Jasmine M. DeJesus. 2013. “Northern = Smart and Southern = Nice: The Development of Accent Attitudes in the United States.” The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 66 (6): 1146–1158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Gitte. 2010. “Lectal Acquisition and Linguistic Stereotype Formation: An Empirical Study.” In Advances in Cognitive Sociolinguistics, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts, Gitte Kristiansen, and Yves Peirsman, 225–264. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kristiansen, Tore. 2011. “Attitudes, Ideology and Awareness.” In The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed. by Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone, and Paul E. Kerswill, 265–278. London: SAGE Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuppens, An, and Annick De Houwer. 2006. “Van Alijs tot Zapt’em: De zelfgerapporteerde taal van Antwerpse jongeren.” In Artikelen van de vijfde sociolinguïstische conferentie, ed. by Tom Koole, Jacomine Nortier, and Bert Tahitu, 319–329. Delft: Eburon.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1964. “Stages in the Acquisition of Standard English.” In Social Dialects and Language Learning, ed. by Roger W. Shuy, Alva Davis, Robert Hogan, 77–103. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
. 1972. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Hannah Franckel, and G. Richard Tucker. 1966. “Judging Personality through Speech: A French-Canadian Example.” Journal of Communication 16 (4): 305–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lambert, Wallace E., Richard C. Hodgson, Robert C. Gardner, and Samuel Fillenbaum. 1960. “Evaluational Reactions to Spoken Languages.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 60 (1): 44–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lybaert, Chloé. 2014. Het gesproken Nederlands in Vlaanderen. Percepties en attitudes van een spraakmakende generatie. Ph.D. Dissertation, Ghent University.Google Scholar
Niedzielski, Nancy A., and Dennis R. Preston. 2003. Folk linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Payne, Arvilla. 1980. “Factors Controlling the Acquisition of the Philadelphia Dialect by Out-of-State Children.” In Locating Language in Time and Space, ed. by William Labov, 143–178. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Plevoets, Koen. 2008. Tussen spreek- en standaardtaal. Een corpusgebaseerd onderzoek naar de situationele, regionale en sociale verspreiding van enkele morfosyntactische verschijnselen uit het gesproken Belgisch-Nederlands. Ph.D. Dissertation, KU Leuven.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Marilyn S. 1974. “The Magic Boxes: Pre-School Children’s Attitudes toward Black and Standard English.” The Florida FL Reporter 12: 55–93.Google Scholar
Ryan, Ellen Bouchard 1979. “Why Do Low-Prestige Varieties Persist?” In Language and Social Psychology, ed by. Howard Giles, and Robert N.St. Clair, 145–157. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rys, Kathy. 2007. Dialect as a Second Language: Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Factors in Secondary Dialect Acquisition by Children and Adolescents. Ph.D. Dissertation, Ghent University.Google Scholar
Sankoff, Gillian, and Hélène Blondeau. 2007. “Longitudinal Change across the Lifespan: R in Montreal French.” Language 83 (3): 560–588. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sarnoff, Irving 1970. “Social Attitudes and the Resolution of Motivational Conflict.” In Attitudes, ed. by Marie Jahoda, and Neil Warren, 279–285. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sayers, Dave. 2014. “The Mediated Innovation Model: A Framework for Researching Media Influence in Language Change.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 18 (2): 185–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jennifer, Mercedes Durham, and Liane Fortune. 2007. “‘Mam, My Trousers is Fa’in Doon!’: Community, Caregiver, and Child in the Acquisition of Variation in a Scottish Dialect.” Language Variation and Change 19 (1): 63–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith-Christmas, Cassie. 2014. “Being Socialised into Language Shift: The Impact of Extended Family Members on Family Language Policy.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 35 (5): 511–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soukup, Barbara. 2013. “The Measurement of ‘Language Attitudes’: A Reappraisal from a Constructionist Perspective.” In Language (De)standardisation in Late Modern Europe: Experimental Studies, ed. by Tore Kristiansen, and Stefan Grondelaers, 251–266. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Stewart, William A. 1965. “Urban Negro Speech: Sociolinguistic Factors Affecting English Teaching.” In Social Dialects and Language Learning, ed. by Roger W. Shuy, 10–18. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Taeldeman, Johan. 2008. “Zich stabiliserende grammaticale kenmerken in Vlaamse tussentaal.” Taal en Tongval 60 (1): 26–50.Google Scholar
Turiel, Elliot. 1983. The Development of Social Knowledge: Morality and Convention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van de Mieroop, Dorien, Eline Zenner, and Stefania Marzo. 2016. “Standard and Colloquial Belgian Dutch Pronouns of Address: A Variationist-Interactional Study of Child-Directed Speech in Dinner Table Interactions.” Folia Linguistica 50 (1): 31–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Hofwegen, Janneke, and Walter A. Wolfram. 2010. “Coming of Age in African American English: A Longitudinal Study.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 14 (4): 427–455. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Hoof, Sarah. 2014. Feiten en fictie: Een sociolinguïstische analyse van het taalgebruik in fictiereeksen op de Vlaamse openbare omroep (1977–2012). Gent: Academia Press.Google Scholar
Van Hoof, Sarah, and Bram Vandekerckhove. 2013. “Feiten en fictie: Taalvariatie in Vlaamse televisiereeksen vroeger en nu.” Nederlandse taalkunde 18 (1): 35–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Hoof, Sarah, and Jürgen Jaspers. 2012. “Hyperstandaardisering.” Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 128 (2): 97–125.Google Scholar
Vandekerckhove, Reinhild, and Judith Nobels. 2010. “Code Eclecticism: Linguistic Variation and Code Alternation in the Chat Language of Flemish Teenagers.” Journal of sociolinguistics 14 (5): 657–677. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vosters, Rik, Gijsbert Rutten, and Marijke van der Wal. 2010. “Mythes op de pijnbank. Naar een herwaardering van de taalsituatie in de Nederlanden in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw.” Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 120: 93–112.Google Scholar
Willemyns, Roland. 2005. “Verkavelingsbrabants: Werkt het integratiemodel ook voor tussentalen?” Neerlandica extra muros 43: 27–40.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. 1969. A Sociolinguistic Description of Detroit Negro Speech. Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Zahn, Christopher J., and Robert Hopper. 1985. “Measuring Language Attitudes: The Speech Evaluation Instrument.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 4 (2): 113–123. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Kaiser, Irmtraud & Gudrun Kasberger
2021. Chapter 6. Children’s sociolinguistic preferences. In Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan [Studies in Language Variation, 26], ► pp. 130 ff. DOI logo
Zenner, Eline, Laura Rosseel & Dirk Speelman
2021. Starman or Sterrenman: An acquisitional perspective on the social meaning of English in Flanders. International Journal of Bilingualism 25:3 ► pp. 568 ff. DOI logo
Zenner, Eline & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2021. Chapter 3. The alternation between standard and vernacular pronouns by Belgian Dutch parents in child-oriented control acts. In Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan [Studies in Language Variation, 26], ► pp. 52 ff. DOI logo
Annick De Houwer & Lourdes Ortega
2018. The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.