At a job interview for a prestigious law firm, the applicant — a native speaker of the r-less New York dialect — decides to speak Standard American English. Her reasons for this could be said to be due to
[ Select ]
jargon
hypercorrection
slang
covert prestige
dialect leveling
overt prestige
.

Question

At a job interview for a prestigious law firm, the applicant — a native speaker of the r-less New York dialect — decides to speak Standard American English. Her reasons for this could be said to be due to 
[ Select ]
jargon
hypercorrection
slang
covert prestige
dialect leveling
overt prestige
 .

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question describes a scenario where a native speaker of the r-less New York dialect chooses to speak Standard American English (SAE) in a job interview at a prestigious law firm. This situation involves how language varieties carry social meaning and status in a formal setting.

In sociolinguistic terms, overt prestige refers to the social elevation or high status attached to the use of a prestige variety—in this case, SAE—that is valued in formal institutions like law firms. The speaker is adopting SAE to align with the standard, formal register that is likely to be rewarded in such an environment, which is what overt prestige predicts.

If we consider other possible labels commonly discussed in sociolinguistics:
- Jargon typically denotes specialized terminology used within a particular field or group; it’s not about prestige or adopting a standard variety in a broad social context.
- Slang refers to informal, nonstandard vocabulary often associated with subcultures and not with professional standards in a formal interview.
- Hypercorrection describes overcorrecting speech towards the prestige variety in a misguided attempt to sound correct, which can backfire if it sounds artificial rather than genuine.
- Covert prestige is the opposite of overt prestige: a non-standard variety that carries social value within a specific group, not in formal institutional contexts.
- Dialect leveling is the process of reducing regional dialect differences, often through adopting a widely used standard; while related, it emphasizes broader social convergence rather than the signaling of prestige in a high-status setting.

Given the aim of gaining acceptance in a prestigious professional context, choosing SAE aligns with the idea of leveraging overt prestige—the social value attributed to the standard language variety—to maximize perceived competence and professionalism.

Note: The provided data indicates only one answer, overt prestige, and there are no additional answer options listed to evaluate alongside it. The reasoning above explains why overt prestige is the appropriate concept for this scenario in contrast to the other typical options mentioned in sociolinguistic discussions.

LING 200 A Homework 6 (Socioling)

At a job interview for a prestigious law firm, the applicant — a native speaker of the r-less New York dialect — decides to speak Standard American English. Her reasons for this could be said to be due to [ Select ] jargon hypercorrection slang covert prestige dialect leveling overt prestige .

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Similar Questions

True or false: There is no way to linguistically determine which dialect is "better" or "worse".

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