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Research Questions for Citizen Sociolinguistics

As we are considering where research questions come from, I thought this recent twitter post might be worth reflecting on:


And some of the responses from (self-deprecating?) linguists:



This feed, and the role of "linguist" it projects seems counter to all we have been discussing in class as we start thinking about our own "research questions" and where they come from.  We have been thinking about research questions as arising not out of the typical "research gap" (suggested here by the questions about cot/caught regional variation or pluralization), but arising from those situations of language wonderment or arrest that we encounter when everyday people start talking about language in ways that are interesting to them, thought maybe not to linguists.  What if we started listening to what questions or compelling concerns the "happy and healthy" (or any other people going about their own lives) have about language instead of forcing our own questions and methods onto them like this crazed goose? This is the perspective-switch that citizen sociolinguistics demands... And I had to add my own tweet to this thread, even though it might be considered annoying and critical:

What questions have you heard out there--those generated by wonderment or arrest--that you might follow up on?



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