John Baugh Explained

John Baugh should not be confused with John Bargh.

John Baugh
Birth Date:10 December 1949
Known For:Developing theory of linguistic profiling
Doctoral Advisor:William Labov
Discipline:Linguistics

John Gordon Baugh V (born December 10, 1949)[1] is an American academic and linguist. His main areas of study are sociolinguistics, forensic linguistics, education, and African American language studies. He is currently the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis,[2] Professor Emeritus at Stanford University,[3] and President of the Linguistic Society of America.[4] In 2020 Baugh was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the section on Linguistics and Language Sciences,[5] and in 2021 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6]

Baugh was previously a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and of the Rockefeller Foundation. He served as president of the American Dialect Society from 1992 to 1994 and as the Edward Sapir Professor during the 2019 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute.

Baugh is best known for developing the theory of linguistic profiling, which occurs when someone’s speech triggers discriminatory bias against them, such as when they are seeking employment or housing.[7] As a result of this work, Baugh has served as an expert witness and consultant in various legal cases, frequently working with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the United States Department of Justice, among other organizations.

Baugh is the author or co-editor of twelve books, including Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival; Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice; Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice; and Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice. He has advised and appeared in several linguistic documentaries such as Do You Speak American?[8] and Talking Black in America,[9] and he has been featured in publications including Business Insider,[10] The Washington Post,[11] [12] The Economist,[13] and The Atlantic.[14]

Education

Baugh began his undergraduate studies at Taft College before transferring to Temple University, where he completed his B.A. in Speech, Rhetoric, and Communication. He then earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, under the doctoral supervision of sociologist William Labov. In addition to Labov, Baugh studied extensively under anthropological linguist Dell Hymes and sociologist Erving Goffman.

Professional career

Baugh's first academic appointment was as lecturer in Black Studies and Linguistics at Swarthmore College in 1975. In 1978, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Black Studies, and Linguistics at Swarthmore. The following year, he began teaching at the University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Foreign Language Education. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1984.

In 1990, Baugh became a Professor of Education and Linguistics at Stanford University, where he remained until 2005. During this time, Baugh served as director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program. He became Professor Emeritus at Stanford upon his departure in 2005.[15]

Baugh joined the teaching faculty of Washington University in St. Louis in 2005 as the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences. He served a term as director of African and African American Studies from 2005 to 2010, and he now holds appointments in the departments of Anthropology, Education, English, Linguistics, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Urban Studies.

Research

African American language studies

Baugh’s early research focused on the language and culture of African Americans, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistic methods. Baugh conducted the first longitudinal linguistic study of African American adults, described in his first book, Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival.[16] Its title was chosen in consultation with those whom Baugh interviewed for the project; they often described their vernacular, or most informal manner of speech, as "street speech".

In 1999, while at Stanford University, Baugh wrote Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice.[17] The book contains a combination of linguistic and educational research, including specific ideas about ways to increase literacy among African Americans, who often fall victim to various forms of educational malpractice.

In response to an educational and legal controversy that resulted from a 1996 resolution by the Oakland Unified School District in California that declared Ebonics to be the indigenous language of its 27,000 African American students, Baugh wrote Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice.[18] Baugh debunked many of the misconceptions about the concept of Ebonics (a portmanteau of "ebony" and "phonics", for "black sounds", a term coined by social psychologist Robert Williams) as well as some of the educational policies that emerged in the wake of the controversy.

In 2022, Baugh was named to the advisory board of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English.[19] [20]

Sociolinguistics

Baugh and Joel Sherzer edited Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics, a volume of sociolinguistic studies that includes a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies of language usage in diverse speech communities.[21]

His next editorial collaboration in sociolinguistics was a festschrift in honor of his mentor William Labov that was produced under the editorial leadership of Gregory Guy of New York University. This work, Towards a Social Science of Language, was published in two volumes: Variation and Change in Language and Society and Social Interaction and Discourse Structures.[22] [23] The studies in both volumes pay tribute to Labov’s influence on the field of sociolinguistics.

Linguistic profiling

Baugh's research on linguistic profiling began with his own experience seeking housing in the San Francisco Bay Area as an African American.[24] Baugh noticed that landlords who had given him an appointment after he utilized Standard American English over the phone later denied him the opportunity to rent after meeting in person. Baugh conducted a series of experiments, initially described by Thomas Purnell, William Idsardi, and Baugh in the 1999 article "Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification", showing that discrimination can occur based on dialect and that listeners can identify ethnicity through short samples of speech alone.[25]

Baugh’s findings have been replicated by others,[26] [27] [28] affirming that people who speak with a dialect or accent that is devalued where they live may fall prey to linguistic profiling — having goods or services denied to them, typically sight unseen, during telephone calls after inquiring about those otherwise available goods or services. With long-standing support, primarily from the Ford Foundation, Baugh has continued to study various forms of linguistic discrimination in housing, education, medicine, and the law. His work, initially concentrated in the United States, has expanded to other countries and regions, including Brazil, the Caribbean, France, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Forensic linguistics and legal relevance

Forensic linguistics is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to legal contexts, especially those concerned with linguistic evidence and language use in the judicial process. The field can be traced to the Cullen Davis murder trial, in which Roger Shuy, a professor emeritus of linguistics at Georgetown University, served as an expert witness, using discourse analysis methods to evaluate the speech of suspects and the defendant.[29] Since then, other linguists have engaged in forensic linguistic analyses. For instance, in the Unabomber case, Shuy and FBI Agent James Fitzgerald used the language in Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto to discern his location and age.[30] [31]

Baugh’s contributions to forensic linguistics have built upon his formulation of linguistic profiling, and his work has been used in legal cases involving hostile work environments,[32] unequal access to housing,[33] and murder.[34] Baugh has served as a consultant and as an expert witness in both civil and criminal trials.[35]

Publications

Books

As author

As editor

Select articles and chapters

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Baugh Vitae 2019 John Baugh. 14 January 2021. Washington University in St. Louis.
  2. Web site: John Baugh. 13 January 2021. Washington University in St. Louis Arts & Sciences. 28 May 2019 .
  3. Web site: John Baugh. 14 January 2021. Stanford Graduate School of Education. 15 July 2010 .
  4. Web site: 9 November 2020. Three Elected to LSA Executive Committee. 13 January 2021. Linguistic Society of America.
  5. 27 November 2020. 2020 AAAS Fellows approved by the AAAS Council. Science. 370. 6520. 1048–1052. 10.1126/science.370.6520.1048. 0036-8075. free.
  6. Web site: New Members: Elected in 2021. 6 June 2021. American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
  7. Web site: Rice. Patricia. 2 February 2006. Linguistic profiling: The sound of your voice may determine if you get that apartment or not. 18 January 2021. The Source. Washington University in St. Louis.
  8. Web site: Do You Speak American Viewer's Guide. 18 January 2021. PBS.
  9. Web site: Producers. 18 January 2021. Talking Black in America.
  10. Web site: Abadi. Mark. 8 July 2018. 'Sorry to Bother You' is right — minorities are judged by the sound of their voice, and there's science to prove it. 14 January 2021. Business Insider.
  11. News: Beachum. Lateshia. Shammas. Brittany. 9 October 2020. Black officers, torn between badge and culture, face uniquely painful questions and insults. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201009214810/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/09/black-law-enforcement-protests/. 9 October 2020. 14 January 2021. The Washington Post.
  12. News: Rao. Sonia. 6 July 2018. 'What's up with that white voice?': The tricky art of linguistic code-switching. Washington Post. live. 26 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20180805040145/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/whats-up-with-that-white-voice-the-tricky-art-of-linguistic-code-switching/2018/07/06/f083e34e-8044-11e8-bb6b-c1cb691f1402_story.html. 5 August 2018. 0190-8286.
  13. News: 2 August 2018. Black voices, white voices: the cost of accents. The Economist. live. 2021-01-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20180823083140/https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/08/02/black-voices-white-voices-the-cost-of-accents. 23 August 2018. 0013-0613.
  14. Web site: Serhan. Yasmeen. 31 March 2020. The Case Against Waging 'War' on the Coronavirus. 14 January 2021. The Atlantic.
  15. Web site: 28 May 2018. Get to Know Your Instructors: John Baugh. 15 January 2021. 2019 Linguistic Institute University of California, Davis.
  16. Book: Baugh, John. Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival. University of Texas Press. 1983. 978-0-292-70743-6.
  17. Book: Baugh, John. Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice By John Baugh. University of Texas Press. 1999. 978-0-292-70872-3.
  18. Book: Baugh, John. Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice. Oxford University Press. 2000. 0-19-512046-9. 41548315.
  19. Web site: Jefferson . Brandie . Baugh named to board of Oxford Dictionary of African American English . The Source . Washington University in St. Louis . 6 October 2022 . 6 September 2022.
  20. Web site: ODAAE Project Team . Oxford English Dictionary . 6 October 2022.
  21. Book: Baugh. John. Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics. Sherzer. Joel. Prentice-Hall. 1984. 978-0-13-522996-5. 850644109.
  22. Book: Towards a Social Science of Language: Papers in Honor of William Labov, Volume 1: Variation and Change in Language and Society. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 1996. 1-55619-581-8.
  23. Book: Towards a Social Science of Language: Papers in Honor of William Labov, Volume 2: Social Interaction and Discourse Structures. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 1997. 978-90-272-7601-8. 768761306.
  24. Web site: Hemphill. Evie. Lally. Caitlin. 4 September 2018. Wash U linguist analyzes American dialects, discrimination. 19 January 2021. St. Louis Public Radio.
  25. Purnell. Thomas. Idsardi. William. Baugh. John. March 1999. Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 18. 1. 10–30. 10.1177/0261927X99018001002. 28519479. ResearchGate.
  26. Squires. Gregory D.. Chadwick. Jan. January 2006. Linguistic Profiling: A Continuing Tradition of Discrimination in the Home Insurance Industry?. Urban Affairs Review. 41. 3. 400–415. 10.1177/1078087405281064. 154136739. 1078-0874.
  27. Leech. Tamara G.J.. Irby-Shasanmi. Amy. Mitchell. Anne L.. December 2018. "Are you accepting new patients?" A pilot field experiment on telephone-based gatekeeping and Black patients' access to pediatric care. Health Services Research. 54. Suppl 1 . 234–242. 10.1111/1475-6773.13089. 6341201. 30506767. ResearchGate.
  28. Bavan. Meena S.. 2007. Does Housing Discrimination Exist Based on the 'Color' of an Individual's Voice?. Cityscape. 9. 1. 93–107. 1089454. SSRN.
  29. Web site: Zimmerman. Gail Abbott. 13 May 2017. Professor's testimony has a strong impact on Cullen Davis' case. 26 January 2021. CBS News.
  30. Web site: Davies. Dave. 22 August 2017. FBI Profiler Says Linguistic Work Was Pivotal In Capture Of Unabomber. 26 January 2021. NPR.
  31. Web site: Do You Speak American? Linguistic Profiling. 26 January 2021. PBS.
  32. Zentella. Ana Celia. December 2014. TWB (Talking while Bilingual): Linguistic profiling of Latina/os, and other linguistic torquemadas. Latino Studies. en. 12. 4. 620–635. 10.1057/lst.2014.63. 143525723. 1476-3435. ResearchGate.
  33. Massey. Douglas S.. Lundy. Garvey. 1 March 2001. Use of Black English and Racial Discrimination in Urban Housing Markets: New Methods and Findings. Urban Affairs Review. en. 36. 4. 452–469. 10.1177/10780870122184957. 153772577. 1078-0874.
  34. Web site: 1 January 2019. Schedule for Annual Conference in New York City, Jan. 3–6, 2019. 1 March 2021. American Dialect Society.
  35. Web site: Erard. Michael. July 2002. Language Matters. 1 March 2021. Legal Affairs.

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