Determining characteristics such as socioeconomic status from the way a person uses language.

　　从某人的谈吐来推断其社会经济地位等特征。

　　One Stanford linguistics professor experienced this when he first moved to Palo Alto. When he phoned using his educated, professional voice, he would be told that the house was available - but the landlords would change their minds when they saw him in person. He is African American.

　　He is now doing research on 'linguistic profiling' showing that landlords and others can usually make out a caller's race and class just by their accent, and discriminate accordingly.

　　--"Don't fence them in with real estate," The Straits Times (Singapore)

　　斯坦福大学一位语言学教授刚搬到帕洛阿尔托时有过这样的经历。在他用他受过高等教育的专业人士的声调打电话(表示想租房)时，对方总是对他说，愿意出租这房子，但是房东们在见到他本人时便总是改变主意。因为他是个非洲裔美国人。

　　他现在正在从事"以'言'取人"的研究。研究表明，房东等人通常能仅仅依据打电话人的口音便能推知其人种和社会等级，并据此以不同态度对待。

　　--《莫用房地产把他们隔离》(新加坡《海峡时报》）

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