Sociolinguistics

October 27, 2008

Sociolinguistics: Methods

1. Observation 2. Observation of a small group over a period

of time 3. Interview 4. Surveys and questionnaires 5. Accent Judgment Test 6. Language attitude studies 7. Role-playing 8. Discourse Completion Tests

1. Observations, interviews

Pronunciation of /r/ in Labov’s New York City Study:

Ex 1: Labov: /r/ in New York City

the absence or presence of consonantal /r/ in postvocalic position

reason for that type of pronunciation.

Hypothesis: --There is a certain social

significance in the way of producing this sound, that there is a distinct difference in the social environment of the people with or without deletion of postvocalic /r/.

Labov did his research in three New York stores.

Three stores: Saks 5th Avenue (upper middle class) Macy’s (lower middle class) S. Klein (working class)

informants---employees

To get comparable results Labov asked for a department on the fourth flour.

“Fourth floor.” “Excuse me?”

a more careful pronunciation of “Fourth floor” transcription of the pronounciation of /r/ in ``fourth'' and

``floor'' both in the first response and in the careful pronunciation

Results of the New York City interviewsOverall Distribution of /r/ in Labov's Department Store Study,

NYC

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Saks' Macy's Klein

Department Store

variable /r/

100% /r/

% /r/ per repetition

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

fourth floor FOURTH FLOOR

Saks'

Macy's

Klein

1. Observations

The preferred dialect of pop music (social situation)

Trudgill Peter. 1983. ‘Acts of Conflicting Identity. The Sociolingistics of British Pop-Song Pronunciation’.

In 1960s British pop songs were usually sung with what was perceived as an American accent:

- flap for intervocalic /t/- /æ/ instead of /a:/ in dance, last, half, can’t etc. - rhotic /r/- [a:] instead of diphthongs for /life/, /my/ etc. - words like love with a long schwa- body, top etc.. with unrounded vowel. (No single British variety has all these features, although all can be found

somewhere in Britain.)

Historical analysis:

The percentage of potential postvocal /r/s actually realized was 36% in 1950-60, and 4% in late 1970s (?).

Same pattern for /t/ and /æ/ instead of /a:/ (can’t, half)… except for Mick Jagger, who always uses /æ/.

Why? Because the need to imitate became

weaker: Britain dominated the field from the mid 1960s.

3. Interviews

-g dropping Trudgill (1983)

UMC LMC UWC LWC

Men 6.3 32.4 40.0 90.1

Women 0.0 1.4 35.6 58.9

5. Accent Judgment Tests

In these tasks, listeners hear speakers of different dialects and attempt to determine whether or not the speaker is or is not from a certain location.

5. Accent Judgment Tasks

Study: Perceptions of Utah English

In this study, listeners were asked to determine whether or not a speaker was from Utah

What do these signs have in common?

Utahisms!

5. Accent Judgment Tests

Research Questions:part 1: dialect recognition1. can native English speakers recognize the

difference between two very similar varieties of English?

2. what factors influence this ability (linguistic, listener, speaker characteristics)?

part 2: dialect prejudice3. for stigmatized varieties, can/do listeners

distinguish between non-standard features and dialect specific features?

method

participants: Adult American English Speakers (n=63)

demographics: online test

judging:

scale from 0 (no Utah accent) to 6 (strong Utah accent)

Linguistic items noted as part of variety

phonological items lexical1. fail/fell merger2. cord/card merger3. bowl/bull merger4. intrusive ‘t’ (else as

eltse)5. glottal stop

(mountain as moun’ an)

6. intrusive glottal stop (conference as con?ference)

7. singing as singkingk8. pronounced ‘l’ (in

words like folk)

1. lurpy 2. sluff3. ignert4. oh my heck!

(interesting expletives)

syntactic1. propredicate do2. time + that3. up to the store4. we was5. might could

stimuli: part 1

12 speakers, 6 from Utah, 6 from other Western states differed in age (20, 40, or 60 years old) and gender read paragraph full of Utahisms

Man, tests really stress me out. I think they’re giving me ulcers. My mom says the calcium in warm milk really helps, but I think she’s full of it. Sometimes I just feel rotten like there’s no pleasure in life.

a. b. c.

stimuli: part 1

12 speakers, 6 from Utah, 6 from other Western states differed in age (20, 40, or 60 years old) and gender read paragraph full of pronunciations of Utahisms

Man, tests really stress me out. I think they’re giving me ultcers. My mom says the caltcium in warm melk really helps, but I think she’s foll of it. Sometimes I just fill ro??en like there’s no playzure in life.

research question 1

can native English speakers recognize the difference between Utah and non-Utah speakers?

Utah vs. non Utah

0

1

2

3

4

5

Utah Non Utah

3.39

2.72

p<.0001

*

YES!

research question 1 (cont.)

are native speakers of the variety (Utah speakers) better at recognizing their variety than are non speakers (Westerners and Non-Westerners)?

are the aspects used to recognize speakers of Utah English the same for participants regardless of their native variety of English (Utahans, Westerners, Others)

place of origin and dialect recognition

0

1

2

3

4

5

Utahns Westerners Other

Utahns Non Utahns

*

Non-Westerners, people from places other than Utah and the West could not recognize the Utah from non-Utah speakers

p<.05

kind of . . .

*

research question 2 what factors influence dialect recognition?

linguistic factors phonological aspects that differ from other

surrounding varieties speaker demographic factors

age gender

1. fail/fell merger2. deal/dill merger3. pool/pole merger4. cord/card merger5. bowl/bull merger6. intrusive ‘t’ (else as eltse)7. glottal stop (mountain as moun’ an)8. intrusive glottal stop (conference as con?

ference)9. singing as singkingk10. pronounced ‘l’ (in words like folk)11. Sunday as Sundee

1. linguistic factors

1. fail/fell merger2. deal/dill merger3. pool/pole merger4. cord/card merger5. bowl/bull merger6. intrusive ‘t’ (else as eltse)7. glottal stop (mountain as moun’ an)8. intrusive glottal stop (conference as con?

ference)9. singing as singkingk10. pronounced ‘l’ (in words like folk)11. Sunday as Sundee

1. linguistic factors

combined: r2 = .98

linguistic factors

are the aspects used to recognize speakers of Utah English the same for participants regardless of their native variety of English (Utahans, Westerners, Others)

linguistic factors

Utahans Westerners Others

fail/fell r = .78 fail/fell r = .59intrusive /t/ r = .94folk with /l/ r = .96

fail/fell r = .78deal/dill r = .84

Yes!

2. demographic factors: speakers specific features examined:

age gender

speaker’s age

0

1

2

3

4

5

20 year olds 40 year olds 60 year olds

2.7

3.9

*p<.001

3.5

*

speaker’s gender

0

1

2

3

4

5

Male Female

3.94

3.16

*p<.001

*

part 2: research question 3

can/do listeners distinguish between non-standard features and dialect specific features?

part 2: stimuli

4 female speakers (average age: 22) none of speakers were from Utah read sentences with typical lexical and

syntactic characteristics of either Utah English or non-standard American English

part 2: procedure

judged whether the speaker was or was not from Utah on same 6 point Likert scale

typical Utah: And oh my heck! You can’t believe

how many people were trying to get through it at the same time.

Well, it’s been at least a year that we haven’t talked to each other.

typical non-standard: She just said that I might could be on

the team.

I told her we was going to the game.

typical characteristics of Utah and non-standard American EnglishUtahisms ‘boughten’ ‘sluff’ ‘my heck’ ‘reservoir’ ‘for cute’ propredicate do

(‘I used to do’) time that compass directions ‘moisture’ ‘tend’ for babysitting ‘frontage road’

Non Standard Features focuser/quotative ‘like’ ‘you bet’ ‘might could’ ‘pop’ positive ‘anymore’ ‘there’s’ comparative ‘way’ ‘come with’ ‘what’s that?’ ‘ain’t’ double negatives ‘we was’

typical characteristics of Utah and non-standard American EnglishUtahisms ‘boughten’ ‘sluff’ ‘my heck’ ‘reservoir’ ‘for cute’ propredicate do

(‘I used to do’) time that compass directions ‘moisture’ ‘tend’ ‘frontage road’

Non Standard Features focuser/quotative ‘like’ ‘you bet’ ‘might could’ ‘pop’ positive ‘anymore’ ‘there’s’ comparative ‘way’ ‘come with’ ‘what’s that?’ ‘ain’t’ double negatives ‘we was’

non-standard items vs. Utah items do listeners identify the same non-standard

items as properties of Utah English regardless of their native variety of English (Utahans, Westerners, Others)?

non-standard items vs. Utah items

All Utahan Western Other

my heck reservoir my heck my heck

won them my heck won them for cute

for cute pop pop pop

pop tend sluff won them

boughten sluff might could sluff

reservoir you’re ok boughten quotative like

tend for cute for cute boughten

non-standard items vs. Utah items

All Utahan Western Other

my heck reservoir my heck my heck

won them my heck won them for cute

for cute pop pop pop

pop tend sluff won them

boughten sluff might could sluff

reservoir you’re ok boughten quotative like

tend for cute for cute boughten