The relationship between production and perception

Abstract Language production and perception are clearly intertwined, but linguists are still trying to figure out the exact nature of their relationship. This chapter draws on work in sociolinguistics to highlight a number of social factors that researchers in this area need to consider even if they do not believe they are doing sociolinguistic work. Specifically, the chapter highlights the roles that (changing) community patterns, social meaning, and speaker identity can have on the outcomes of common production–perception experimental paradigms. It also offers some possible directions for sociolinguistically informed research on the production–perception link.