Ambivalent Attitudes: Perception of Sheng and its Speakers

Abstract

Studies in intergroup relations e.g., Tajfel (1982) and Hornsey and Hogg (2000) have pointed out that people engage in social comparisons to cultivate a positive self esteem and preserve their distinctiveness. In turn, this social comparison and subsequent categorization becomes the basis for positive self evaluation and biased evaluation of others. Language as one of the key markers of social categorization becomes a key target of subjective attitudes and stereotype towards the unlike others, or the out-group. This study examines the mixed attitudes on a formerly stigmatized speech variety called Sheng. The perceptual ambivalence of Sheng and its speakers is attributed to raters’ co-membership of overlapping communities of practice that inhibits strict adherence to the norms of a single social category.