Using Sociolinguistic Variables to Reveal Changing Attitudes Towards Sexuality and Gender
Using Sociolinguistic Variables to Reveal Changing Attitudes Towards Sexuality and Gender
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DOI：
10.18653/v1/2021.emnlp-main.782
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发表时间：
2021-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Sky CH-Wang;David Jurgens
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Sky CH-Wang;David Jurgens
个人通过语言选择来表达他们的身份和信仰。对这些选择的总体研究使我们能够研究人口中大规模的态度转变。在这里，我们开发的计算方法来研究词的选择在社会语言学词汇变量交替的话用来表达同一个概念，以测试在美国对性和性别的变化。我们检查两个变量：i）指的是重要的其他人，如“伴侣”一词，ii）指的是一个不确定的人，两者都可以选择性地标记性别。每个变量中的语言选择使我们能够分别研究同性婚姻和性别平等接受率的增加。在对Twitter和Reddit超过8700万条消息的纵向分析中，我们证明了态度正在发生变化，但这些变化是由美国特定的人口统计数据驱动的。此外，在准因果分析，我们表明，在不同的国家的婚姻平等法案的通道是语言变化的驱动程序。
Individuals signal aspects of their identity and beliefs through linguistic choices. Studying these choices in aggregate allows us to examine large-scale attitude shifts within a population. Here, we develop computational methods to study word choice within a sociolinguistic lexical variable—alternate words used to express the same concept—in order to test for change in the United States towards sexuality and gender. We examine two variables: i) referents to significant others, such as the word “partner” and ii) referents to an indefinite person, both of which could optionally be marked with gender. The linguistic choices in each variable allow us to study increased rates of acceptances of gay marriage and gender equality, respectively. In longitudinal analyses across Twitter and Reddit over 87M messages, we demonstrate that attitudes are changing but that these changes are driven by specific demographics within the United States. Further, in a quasi-causal analysis, we show that passages of Marriage Equality Acts in different states are drivers of linguistic change.