Testing Speakers' Use of the Social Meaning Potential of Variable Liaison in Spoken French: Implications for Sociolinguistic Dynamics in Nigeria

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between perception and production of social meaning in language use, focusing on the phenomenon of variable liaison in spoken French. Variable liaison involves the pronunciation of normally silent final consonants when followed by a vowel-initial word, governed by lexical and grammatical factors. While traditionally believed that social meanings associated with linguistic variables are reflected in both perception and production, recent findings suggest a more complex relationship. Drawing upon the pragmatic sociology of critique, this research revisits a matched guise experiment where listeners associated the presence of liaison with traits like professionalism, particularly in formal contexts. However, a subsequent production task involving amateur and professional actors revealed that speakers did not strategically increase their use of variable liaison in formal scenarios, adhering instead to lexically determined patterns. This discrepancy highlights that the connection between perception and production is not automatic and may depend on the specific linguistic variable, suggesting that features like liaison may be less available for conscious manipulation even when they carry social meaning for listeners.