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Sociolinguistics

October 27, 2008

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Sociolinguistics: Methods

1. Observation

2. Observation of a small group over a periodof time

3. Interview4. Surveys and questionnaires

5. Accent Judgment Test

6. Language attitude studies

7. Role-playing

8. Discourse Completion Tests

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1. Observations, interviews

Pronunciation of /r/ in Labovs New York City

Study:

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

the absence or presence ofconsonantal /r/ in

postvocalic position

reason for that type ofpronunciation.

Hypothesis: --There is a certain social

significance in the way ofproducing this sound, that thereis a distinct difference in thesocial environment of thepeople with or without deletionof postvocalic /r/.

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Labov did his research in three New

York stores.

Three stores:

Saks 5th Avenue (upper middle class)

Macys (lower middle class)

S. Klein (working class)

informants---employees

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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

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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/

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% /r/ per repetition

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

fourth floor FOURTH FLOOR

Saks'

Macy's

Klein

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1. Observations

The preferred dialect of pop music (social situation)

Trudgill Peter. 1983. Acts of Conflicting Identity. The Sociolingistics ofBritish Pop-Song Pronunciation.

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

- flap for intervocalic /t/

- // instead of /a:/ in dance, last, half, cant 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 foundsomewhere in Britain.)

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Historical analysis:

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

Same pattern for /t/ and // instead of /a:/(cant, half) except forMick Jagger,who always uses //.

Why?

Because the need to imitate became

weaker: Britain dominated the fieldfrom the mid 1960s.

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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

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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.

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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

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What do these signs have in

common?

Utahisms!

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5. Accent Judgment Tests

Research Questions:part 1: dialect recognition

1. can native English speakers recognize the differencebetween 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 specificfeatures?

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method

participants:

Adult American English Speakers (n=63)

demographics: online test

judging:

scale from 0 (no Utahaccent) to 6 (strong Utahaccent)

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Linguistic items noted as part ofvariety

phonological items lexical

1. fail/fell merger

2. cord/card merger

3. bowl/bull merger4. intrusive t (else as eltse)

5. glottal stop (mountain asmoun an)

6. intrusive glottal stop

(conference as con?ference)

7. singingas singkingk

8. pronounced l (in words likefolk)

1. lurpy

2. sluff

3. ignert4. oh myheck! (interesting

expletives)

syntactic1. propredicate do

2. time + that3. up to the store

4. we was

5. might could

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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 theyre givingme ulcers. My mom says the calcium in warm milkreallyhelps, but I thinkshes full of it. Sometimes I

just feel rotten like theres no pleasure in life.

a. b. c.

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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 theyre givingme ultcers. My mom says the caltcium inwarmmelk reallyhelps, but I think shes foll of it.Sometimes I just fill ro??en like theres no playzure

in life.

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research question 1

can native English speakers recognize thedifference between Utahand non-Utah

speakers?

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Utahvs. non Utah

0

1

2

3

4

5

Utah Non Utah

3.39

2.72

p

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research question 1 (cont.)

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

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

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place of origin and dialectrecognition

0

1

2

3

4

5

Ut s W st s Ot

Utahn Non Utahn

*

Non-Westerners, people from places other than Utahand the

West could not recognize the Utah from non-Utah speakersp

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research question 2

what factors influence dialect recognition?

linguistic factors phonological aspects that differ from other surroundingva

rieties speaker demographic factors

age

gender

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1. fail/fell merger

2. deal/dill merger

3. pool/pole merger

4. cord/card merger5. bowl/bull merger

6. intrusive t (else as eltse)

7. glottal stop (mountain as moun an)

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

9. singingas singkingk

10. pronounced l (in words like folk)

11. Sundayas Sundee

1. linguistic factors

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1. fail/fell merger

2. deal/dill merger

3. pool/pole merger

4. cord/card merger

5. bowl/bull merger

6. intrusive t (else as eltse)

7. glottal stop (mountain as moun an)

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

9. singingas singkingk

10. pronounced l (in words like folk)

11. Sundayas Sundee

1. linguistic factors

combined: r2

= .98

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linguistic factors

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

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linguistic factors

Utahans Westerners Others

fail/fell r = .78 f ail/fell r = .59

intrusive /t/ r = .94

folkwith /l/ r = .96

fail/fell r = .78

deal/dill r = .84

Yes!

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2. demographic factors: speakers

specific features examined:

age

gender

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speakers age

0

1

2

3

4

5

20 year olds 40 year olds 60 year olds

2.7

3.9

*p

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speakers gender

0

1

2

3

4

5

Male Female

3.94

3.16

*p

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part 2: research question 3

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

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part 2: stimuli

4 female speakers (average age: 22)

none of speakers were from Utah

read sentences with typical lexical and syntacticcharacteristics of either Utah English or non-standard

American English

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part 2: procedure

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

typical Utah:

And oh my heck! You cant believe how manypeople were trying to get through it at the same time.

Well, its been at least a year thatwe havent talkedto each other.

typical non-standard:

She just said that I might could be on the team.

I told herwe was going to the game.

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typical characteristics of Utahand

non-stand

ard Americ

an Englis

hUtahisms boughten

sluff

myheck

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

theres

comparative way

come with

whats that?

aint

double negatives

we was

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typical characteristics of Utahand

non-stand

ard Americ

an Englis

hUtahisms boughten

sluff

myheck

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

theres

comparative way

come with

whats that?

aint

double negatives

we was

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non-standard items vs. Utah items

do listeners identify the same non-standard items asproperties of Utah English regardless of their native varietyof English (Utahans, Westerners, Others)?

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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 youre ok boughten quotative like

tend for cute for cute boughten

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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 youre ok boughten quotative like

tend for cute for cute boughten