Victoria Ky-Khim
The title of this blog post must have intrigued you. The chameleon effect. How is this related to sociolinguistics, you may ask? Fear not, we are getting there. Let us start with a definition of sociolinguistics. What exactly is sociolinguistics? Well, it is hard to say. It depends on who you ask. According to Van Herk (2018), it is a “scientific study of the relationship(s) between language and society” (p. 2). This is quite a broad definition and sure enough, it encompasses the chameleon effect which deals with language and interaction.
Nowadays, many of us are second or even additional language learners. As language learners, we refer to a model, oftentimes a teacher or tutor, and we end up imitating them. Just like how children imitate their parents, learners imitate their teachers. Time and again, the teacher’s pronunciation or accent will rub off on the learner. Indeed, just last year, one of my international classmates, who is Chinese, happened to have a British accent, which we (other students, local and international alike) were quick to notice. The reason behind her accent was that she had an English teacher with a British accent.
Apart from teacher-student interactions, you might have noticed that your accent changes depending on who you are talking to. Many factors affect language, these include but are not restricted to education, society, place, social status, etc. In this case, the interaction with an interlocutor can certainly affect how we speak. It might feel like we are adjusting to their accent, but really, we are imitating or mimicking their accent. Did I know this phenomenon was called the chameleon effect? Certainly not. But a quick Google search (why does my accent change depending on who I talk to?) informed me of that. In their abstract, Chartrand & Bargh (1999) defined the chameleon effect as “nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one’s interaction partners, such that one’s behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one’s current social environment”. Now I know, and so do you. For more information about the chameleon effect, I invite you to watch this YouTube video.
Although the chameleon effect seems mostly associated with the field of psychology, it would certainly be interesting to investigate its relation to sociolinguistics since it concerns both language and interaction. Most of all, the chameleon effect touches upon accent which remains a controversial topic in the field of sociolinguistics.
Questions
- Have you noticed instances where you imitate your interlocutor’s accent? If yes, when does it happen most? In which languages?
- Does the interlocutor notice you have adapted their way of speech? If yes, how do you think it makes them feel?
References
Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: the perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of personality and social psychology, 76(6), 893–910. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.76.6.893
Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
