Nach einiger Vorlaufzeit ist nun endlich der Sammelband Responses to Language Varieties. Variability, Processes, and Outcomes, herausgegeben von Dennis Preston & Alexei Prikhodkine, erschienen, zu dem ich ein Kapitel beisteuern durfte. Es handelt sich bei dem Text um einen neuen Definitionsversuch für das in den Sozialwissenschaften weit verbreitete Konzept der Einstellung.

Abstract des Textes

This text is devoted to a new theoretical framework for (language) attitudes (REACT) integrating both the traditional idea of attitudes as (more or less stable) cognitive assessment categories and the constructivist view on attitudes as situated evaluative practices. The text discusses five constitutive elements to the theory (Relevance, Evaluation, Activation, Construction, and Targeting) against the background of respective theories: a theory of actional relevance (cf. Schütz 1970), a listener judgment theory (cf. Purschke 2011), a model for cognitive activation (cf. Kroeber-Riel et al. 2009), a constructivist symbol theory (cf. Cassirer 2010), and a model for attitude functions (cf. Katz 1960). The paper then concludes with proposing an integrative definition of attitudes as evaluation routines in social practices that conforms to the constructivist criticism of classic attitude theory, while at the same time taking account of the fundamental structuring patterns of social interaction that also determine the structure and dynamics of attitudes.

Literatur

  • Cassirer, Ernst (2010): Philosophie der symbolischen Formen. Erster Teil: Die Sprache. Zweiter Teil: Das mythische Denken. Dritter Teil: Phänomenologie der Erkenntnis. Hamburg: Meiner.
  • Katz, Jerrold (1960): The functional approach to the study of attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly 24: 163–204. DOI: 10.1086/266945
  • Kroeber-Riel, Werner / Weinberg, Peter / Gröppel-Klein, Andrea (2009): Konsumentenverhalten. 9. edition. Munich.
  • Purschke, Christoph (2011): Regionalsprache und Hörerurteil. Grundzüge einer perzeptiven Variationslinguistik. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik. Beihefte 149. Stuttgart: Steiner. Link
  • Schütz, Alfred (1970): Reflections on the Problem of Relevance, edited, annotated, and with an introduction by Richard Zaner. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.