stereotype (n.)

A term used by some GRAMMARIANS for a sequence of WORDS which resembles a PRODUCTIVE grammatical STRUCTURE but which in fact has been learned as a single unit and has little or no productivity. Proverbs, quotations, aphorisms and several types of idiom can be classed as grammatical stereotypes: the sentence Jack and Jill went up the hill, for example, might be used by a young child who is not yet at the stage of producing CO-ORDINATIONS or past TENSES in spontaneous speech. Stereotyped constructions are particularly common in the speech of those suffering from language handicap.

In SEMANTICS, especially in theories of DIRECT REFERENCE, a term used for a set of properties regarded by a community of speakers as characterizing typical members of a category. The term is intended to allow for inaccurate beliefs on the part of the speaker community, so that actual members of the category may not typically conform to the stereotype at all; none the less, knowledge of the stereotype is required for semantic competence in the language.

In SOCIOLINGUISTICS, a term referring to a linguistic VARIABLE which is a widely recognized characterization of the speech of a particular group, which may or may not reflect accurately the speech of those it is supposed to represent. Examples include the imagined universality of chap in England, look you in Wales and begorrah in Ireland. Some stereotypical features, such as ain’t, may become stigmatized as SUBSTANDARD or incorrect within the speech community. William Labov (b. 1927) distinguishes stereotypes from INDICATORS and MARKERS.