Trouble in LADO-Land: How the Brain Deceives the Ear

Abstract

A continuing concern in international immigration policy is the authentication of asylum seekers: are they who they say they are? In the absence of documentation, a primary means of identification has become language. If an applicant is from area X, they should speak one (or more) of the languages of X. This volume discusses many of the problems of such identification, in particular the roles of the specialist (linguist) and the nonlinguist native (or fluent) speaker. This chapter focuses on a pitfall in the use of the latter in particular—the social psychological, attitudinal or, most broadly conceived, language regard (e.g., Preston DR: Variation in language regard. In: Zeigler E, Gilles P, Scharloth J (eds) Variatio delectat: Empirische Evidenzen und theoretische Passungen sprachlicher Variation (für Klaus J. Mattheier zum 65. Geburtstag). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, pp 7–27, 2010) influences on those who might be thought to be particularly well-qualified to carry out such identifications due to their own native or native-like language proficiencies. The difficulties explored here include the misidentification of speakers both as inauthentic (when they are authentic) and authentic (when they are not). The source of such trouble is identified on the basis of long-standing ethnographic work that focuses on sociopolitical and sociocultural norms that override accurate identifications (e.g., Wolff H: Intelligibility and inter-ethnic attitudes. Anthropol Linguist 1(3):34–41, 1959) as well as more recent language regard work that relies on implicit (automatic, nonconscious, e.g., Gawronski B, Keith Payne B: Handbook of implicit social cognition: measurement, theory and applications. The Guilford Press, New York, 2010) influences on respondents which cause them to hear things that are not there and not to hear things that are, including influences from very low-level features of language as well as overall systems. The chapter concludes on a fairly pessimistic note—even the supposed optimal duo of a fluent speaker and a trained linguist will not necessarily detect these failures of correct identification, but a knowledge of their potential should certainly be a part of the arsenal of considerations that the professional side of any such team should have at their disposal.