2. General terms and ideas

To begin with, the important terms of the observer's paradox and vernacular will be explained:

Observer's Paradox

Linguists want to know how people talk when they are not being watched. The problem is that in order to retrieve information, the informants' speech must be observed in a structural manner which, in principle, will have a counter-productive effect on the gathered data as it will have lost much of its desired authentic naturalness. The observer's paradox, thus denotes the circumstance that the only way of finding out how people speak when they are not being observed is by means of observation. This confronts the interviewer with an obstacle he/she must try to overcome. The trick is to create an atmosphere in which the interviewee can speak naturally and subconsciously attributes a secondary meaning to the inevitable structural observation. If the fieldworker fails to establish such an atmosphere, people are likely to use a more formal speech style and are more thoughtful about their language, due to a constant awareness of the interview situation. The observer's paradox also holds true for other methods such as questionnaires where informants are aware that they are being watched and observed (cf. Milroy 2001: 49; Milroy 1987a: 59-60). This website will provide a range of strategies to avoid this paradox, especially through on the spot transcription/recording, participant observation, rapid and anonymous surveys and different strategies for an interview.

Vernacular

In general, this is the speech type that the fieldworker will want to look for and record. It is the variety that a person acquires first and therefore comes most naturally to him/her with hardly any attention being given to speech-style. It is freest of hyper-correction and style-shifting and it is the style from which all other speech-styles of a person must be calibrated. By knowing the vernacular of a person all other speech behaviors can be understood (cf. Tagliamonte 2006: 8; Milroy 1987a: 57-64; Milroy 1987b: 24-26, Milroy and Gordon 2001: 49).

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