Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) have dramatically transformed the AI landscape. They can produce remarkable fluent text and exhibit a range of natural language understanding and generation capabilities. This article explores how LLMs might be used for sociolinguistic research and, conversely, how sociolinguistics can contribute to the development of LLMs. It argues that both areas of research will benefit from a thoughtful, engaging collaboration. Sociolinguists are not merely end users of LLMs; they have a crucial role to play in the development of LLMs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e70010 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-15 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Language and Linguistics Compass |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 The Author(s). Language and Linguistics Compass published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Funding
I'd like to thank the members of the NLP & Society Lab, Kees van Deemter, Jack Grieve, Jakub Dotlacil, Albert Gatt and Anne-France Pinget for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article. All remaining errors are my own. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. This work is part of the research programme Veni with project number VI. Veni.192.130, which is (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| NLP & Society Lab | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek |
Keywords
- language variation
- large language models
- LLMs
- natural language processing
- NLP
- sociolinguistics