Effects of Turkish Language Reform on Person Perception

Abstract

As a result of Turkish language reform, modern Turkish spans a range of styles from traditional to reformed. This range has political implications, in that traditional vocabulary is preferred by right-wing, traditionalist, and religious sectors of the population, while reformed terms are preferred by left-wing, modernist, and secular sectors. Turkish students were presented with matched pairs of paragraphs, differing only in use of traditional or reformed vocabulary, with the task of rating the authors on a variety of attitudinal and semantic differential scales. Students evaluated the two styles differently, and attributed attitudes and values to writers on the basis of vocabulary choice alone. In addition, such attributions and evaluations were related to the student's own political position.