Unsettling Languages, Unruly Bodyminds: Imaging a Crip Linguistics

Abstract

People use languages in different ways. Some people use language to help find other people like them. Many people use language in specific ways because of how their body and mind work. Sometimes a person’s environment and material conditions forces them to use language in a certain way. However, when someone languages outside of what people think is normal, others can think that they are bad with language or are not as smart or are broken. We are trying to point out that no one is actually ‘bad with language.’ Our goal with this paper is to help people understand that no language is bad. It is okay to want to change your own language use if it will make you feel better. But no one should make you feel bad about your language. We need a bigger and more flexible understanding of what language is and what it communicates about a bodymind’s capacity.

Perceiving gender while perceiving language: Integrating psycholinguistics and gender theory

“…Variation in beliefs about agency may therefore be useful for predicting differences between linguistic ideologies at the individual and group level. The relative socioeconomic power of groups is demonstrably mutually constructed with their physical and intellectual abilities and their concomitant linguistic and nonlinguistic desirability (Ennser‐Kananen et al, 2021; Henner & Robinson, 2021; St. Pierre, 2015). For example, workers with stigmatized races and accents are often judged to be comparatively less professional, capable, and aesthetically pleasing than their peers, which forms the basis for opposition to their professional advancement (Ramjattan, 2019).…”

“…Variation in beliefs about agency may therefore be useful for predicting differences between linguistic ideologies at the individual and group level. The relative socioeconomic power of groups is demonstrably mutually constructed with their physical and intellectual abilities and their concomitant linguistic and nonlinguistic desirability (Ennser-Kananen et al, 2021;Henner & Robinson, 2021;St. Pierre, 2015).…”

“…Even the choice to focus on speakers , rather than languaging behavior across different modalities, such as visual and tactile signs, reflects an ideological premise positioning speakers as possessing authority that nonspeakers cannot. The literature on language and gender reviewed here focuses on spoken language, reflecting an audist and ableist bias, and a deficit view of disabled language which is unfortunately pervasive in linguistics (Henner & Robinson, 2021). Although our review will focus on speech perception studies, we endeavor to appropriately situate these findings with respect to a broader psycholinguistic inquiry which is explicitly inclusive of more diverse ways of languaging.…”

Mind the data gap(s): Investigating power in speech and language datasets

“…Some of the exclusions are also the result of explicit, established practises. Speakers who report any speech or hearing impairments are commonly excluded from datasets used for speech and language research and technology development (Henner and Robinson, 2021). Second language speakers and multilingual speakers are also routinely excluded.…”

Effects of Age-of-Acquisition on Proficiency in Polish Sign Language: Insights to the Critical Period Hypothesis

“…These differences have sometimes been presented in the literature on signed language acquisition as disorders. As Henner and Robinson (2021) have noted, linguists contribute to deficit perspectives on language varieties and language users by labeling less typical patterns of language use as disordered. Importantly, differences in language usage are often adaptations to environmental conditions beyond the control of the individual language users.…”