Gender and the Social Meaning of Non-Modal Phonation Types

Robert J. PodesvaGeorgetown University

rjp39@georgetown.edu

Stanford UniversityFebruary 11, 2011

Voice Quality Variation

• The last decade has witnessed an increase in the number of sociolinguistic and sociophonetic studies on variation in voice quality.

• Stuart-Smith 1999, Lefkowitz 2007, Mendoza-Denton 2007, Szakay 2008, Nielsen 2010, Yuasa 2010, Sicoli 2010, Chun and Podesva 2010, Lopez 2010

• Many studies both directly and indirectly associate gender with non-modal phonation types.

2

PhonationIntroduction

twenty-one or -two years ago

thereʼs a lot of variety

that house wasnʼt like that

somebody just got shot

alright talk to you later

they didnʼt

modal

creaky

falsetto

breathy

whispery

harsh

(Bill, 65, white, male)

(Carla, 37, white, female)

(Carrie, 30, Afr Am, female)

(Carrie, 30, Afr Am, female)

(Zara, 21, Afr Am, female)

(Frank, 40, Afr Am, male)

3

Gendered PhonationIntroduction

Creaky Voice and Masculinity

• Observed Correlations

• males in Glasgow (Stuart-Smith 1999)

• males with high social status in Edinburgh (Esling 1978)

• male speakers of RP and ʻModified Northernʼ English (Henton and Bladon 1988)

• Indirect Associations

• gang-affiliated Latina adolescents when telling fight narratives (Mendoza-Denton 2007)

Falsetto and Femininity

• Observed Correlations

• mothers (vs. fathers) in child-directed speech (Blount and Padgug 1976)

• Indirect Associations

• expressiveness (Podesva 2007)

4

Frequency CodeIntroduction

The association of high frequency with smallness and low frequency with largeness (Ohala 1994)

Examples

• Geenberg (2010)

• Adults exhibit higher F0 and F2 levels when telling a stuffed baby pig toy that she is cute.

• Sicoli (2007, 2010)

• Zapotec speakers use falsetto to communicate respect/deference. Speakers make themselves smaller (e.g. rolling the spine and shoulders forward) when producing ʻsmallʼ falsetto voices.

5

ExceptionsIntroduction

• Creaky voice noted in speech of young women

• Lefkowitz (2007) - prevalent in college-aged womenʼs speech

• Tannen (unpublished) - women use creak to soften assertions

• Yuasa (2010) - young Californian women use creaky voice more than young men and Japanese women

• Falsetto noted in the speech of African American men

• Alim (2004) - notes his own use of falsetto when battlin to emphasize a point or challenge an interlocutor

• Lopez (2010) - male characters in film use falsetto to perform a hip-hop persona

• Nielsen (2010) - adolescent African American boys use falsetto to express indignation

6

Current StudyIntroduction

Phonation Variation Patterns in Washington, DC

Main Points1. It is important to consider the culturally specific ways in which

the Frequency Code is interpreted.2. In spite of robust correlations between phonation patterns and

identity categories, the social meanings of particular phonation types should not be reduced to purely iconic or straightforward associations to gender (or race).

Goals1. In exploring the connection between phonation and gender, to

show that gender and race cannot be analyzed as independent social factors.

2. Identify linguistic (prosodic, discourse) constraints on phonation Sinae Lee

7

LCDC ProjectMethods

Language and Communication in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area

• Natalie Schilling, Rob Podesva

Investigate how district residents use variation and discourse to project and construct identities in community.Seriously understudied, even though it ranks as ninth-largest metropolitan area in United States.Largely Black/African American (56%) and white (36%). Small but growing Hispanic and Asian American populations.

8

DataMethods

32 Speakers

Sociolinguistic Interviews

• Given potential for wide variation across topics, we considered only talk about the local community, a topic well represented in all interviews.

African American

female male

21 30 40 40 55 55 69 75 29 35 40 42 44 55 57 73

White

female male

18 25 37 44 45 55 56 65 23 29 37 41 45 57 59 65

9

AnalysisMethods

Utterances were exhaustively parsed into intonational phrases (N = 9,879), excluding filled pauses in isolation and back-channeling.

Coding

Each syllable (N = 55,496) was coded for the realization of phonation type and double-checked by a second researcher.modal creaky falsetto breathy whispery harsh

Social Factors Linguistic Factorssex constructed dialogue vs. notrace distance from end of IP (# syllables)age distance from beginning of IP (# syllables)speaker length of IP (# syllables)

10

StatisticsMethods

The percentage of each phonation type produced in each IP was calculated (e.g. 3 creaky syllables out of 9 total syllables in IP = 33.33% creaky IP).

Mixed effects linear regression treating each IP as a token

• Dependent variable: percentage of creaky voice (plus a separate regression for each of the other non-modal phonation types)

• Independent variables: age, sex, and race (factorially crossed), constructed dialogue, length of IP, and speaker (random effect)

Binomial logistic regression treating each syllable as a token

• Dependent variable: whether a token was creaky (plus a separate regression for each of the other non-modal phonation types)

• Independent variables: distance from beginning of IP, distance from end of IP, length of IP

11

DistributionResults

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

modal creaky falsetto breathy whispery harsh

0.082

0.5820.706

0.860

18.90078.700

mean

% o

f IP

12

Linguistic Factors

Position in IP%

of I

P

# syllables from beginning of IP

100%

0%

50%

75%

25%

Creaky VoiceCreaky voice more likely to occur at ends of IPs (p < 0.0001).

This phenomenon may relate to declination, which many believe to be a consequence of respiration. Creaky voice at the ends of IPs may also serve as a means of marking turn ends.

# syllables from beginning of IP

% o

f IP

10%

0%

5%

7.5%

2.5%

FalsettoFalsetto more likely to occur at beginnings of IPs (p < 0.0001).

If highest f0 levels occur at the beginnings of IPs, it is easier to produce the high f0 levels characteristic of falsetto IP-initially. Falsetto may also be a means of realizing IP-initial H boundary tones.

% o

f IP

4%

0%

2%

3%

1%

# syllables from beginning of IP

Breathy VoiceBreathy voice more likely to occur at beginnings of IPs (p < 0.0003).

As airflow diminishes over the course of an utterance, it becomes progressively more difficult to phonate in breathy voice.

13

Results Linguistic Factors

Constructed DialogueResults

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

creaky falsetto breathy whispery harsh

mea

n %

of I

P

constructed dialogue nonconstructed dialogue

p < 0.0001 p < 0.0001 p < 0.0001 p < 0.0435

n.s.

14

Non-Modal PhonationFunctions in Constructed Dialogue

Results

1. Mark a shift in footing, whereby a speaker distinguishes his or her voice in the present interaction from that of either another speaker or a past or future self

• First day, for about half an hour, they had me mopping up floors. And after that, they was like, “Cassius, you donʼt have to mop floors no more.” (Cassius, 29, Afr Am, male)

2. Take a stance relating to the quotation itself, its speaker, or events in the narrative.• It was three hundred dollars a person for dinner to start with. And I was

like, “Thatʼs insane.” (Carla, 37, white, female)

15

Social Factors

Gender and RaceResults

0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

female male

mea

n %

of I

P

Creaky VoiceFemales use creaky voice more than males (p < 0.0003), and gender does not interact with race.

0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

female malem

ean

% o

f IP

African American White

FalsettoFemales use falsetto more than males (p < 0.0297), and this pattern is attributable to African American females, as there was a significant gender*race interaction (p < 0.201).

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

female male

mea

n %

of I

P

African American White

Whispery VoiceGender and race interact significantly (p < 0.0362), such that white females use more whispery voice than white males. White females are no more whispery than African American females or males.

Neither gender nor race has an effect on the use of breathy voice or harsh voice. 16

Whispery Voice &White Men

Discussion

Pattern: whispery voice least common in the speech of white men

female male0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

mea

n %

of I

P

White African American

white masculinity

(low rates of)

whispery voice

femininity

17

Creaky Voice &Women

Discussion

Pattern: creaky voice more common in the speech of women

creaky voice masculinity

?

18

Social Meaning of Creaky Voice

Discussion

commiseratingcomplaining

authoritative

non-aggressive

tough

gang-affiliated Latina

young professional womanmen

American^?

19

Falsetto &African American Women

Discussion

femininity

Pattern: falsetto more common in the speech of African American women

whitefalsetto

African American

African Americanfemininity

masculinity

20

Falsetto as a Feature ofAfrican American Identity

Discussion

12345678910111213141516

you know like slavery and oppression has like messed us up(but) we have never lost our culturelike it's- it's different but it's still therelike the way we practice religion the way we talk to our friends even- even in the way we talk like I was telling my mom how she used to always get on me for how I talkedcos I talk like this when I'm at homeand I be talking to my dad likesee ʻI be talkingʼI be talking to my dad likeʻ<suck-teeth> I mean, dad.ʼ ʻ<incomprehensible> I don't understandʼyou know

(Zara, 21, Afr Am, female) 21

Social Meaning ofFalsetto

Discussion

African American

expressive

Gay Divaoppositional

excitedentertaining

22

Operationalizing StanceDiscussion

stance: a speakerʼs evaluation of ʻsome object of discourse or an interlocutorʼ (Clift 2010: 518).

subject 1

subject 2

object

evaluatespositions

evaluatespositionsaligns

stance triangle (Du Bois 2007)

Heath: Oh cool. I like it.

Heath

dress

Eliza

23

Selection of Data Discussion

Assumption: the most telling examples are those in which falsetto is most prominent

We examined turns meeting the following criteria:• two or more utterances contained falsetto• falsetto utterances contained three or more falsetto syllables

Turn: stretch of speech on the same topic in which interviewer utters nothing more than a minimal response

These criteria yielded 17 “highly falsetto” turns for closer analysis.

24

GeneralizationsDiscussion

Alignment• Speakers used falsetto

when expressing disalignment in all cases.

Stancetaking Subjects• 13 of 17 produced by

African Americans• 10 of these 13 produced by

African American womenStance Objects• 5 of 10 are about

gentrification• 3 of 10 are about racism

disalignment

African American

women

gentrification racism

25

GentrificationDiscussion

12345678910111213

the property taxes are going upand people are on their fixed incomes and you canʼt afford (502 Hz) to repair your house and pay your taxes so you just kind of have to choose (407 Hz)which oneso I think itʼs (470 Hz) happening but I donʼt think itʼs (392 Hz) happening all of the time on purposeI think in some of the communitiesI think it does (543 Hz) happen on purpose

(Mona, 40, Afr Am, female) 26

IntersectionalityDiscussion

• African American Woman ≠ African American + woman

• emphasizes the power relations in the marginalization of the multiply oppressed

• places a focus on the unique lived experiences of those we study

Most Vociferous Falsetto Users

• Zara - student at Howard unversity

• Carrie - audio technician at radio station

• Mona - works for a local non-profit

• Olivia - president of her neighborhood association

Strong falsetto use attributable to the strongly local positions they occupy in DC. Falsetto is a linguistic act of resistance to the sometimes hostile environment in which they live and work.

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Phonation and GenderConclusion

Finding Creaky voice used more commonly by women

Falsetto used more commonly by African American women

Problem(s) for Frequency Code

Creaky voice characterized by low f0, not typical of womenʼs voices relative to those of men.

Falsetto not particularly common among white women; falsetto functions as a powerful feature.

Explanation Long closed phase gives impression of discontinuous speech.

High intensity or dynamism in f0 may convey powerfulness (Gussenhoven and Chenʼs 2000 Effort Code).

Phonetic Multidimensionality of PhonationFrequency is only one of the phonetic dimensions that characterizes phonation. It is likely that different phonetic dimensions of phonation index different meanings. Decomposing the phonetic dimensions of particular voice qualities will facilitate the semantic decomposition of the meanings they convey.

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Future DirectionsConclusion

• Comparative study with community with different racial composition

• Scalar phonetic properties of phonation

• Phonatory historical change?

• Additional linguistic constraints - e.g. (-t) glottalization

• In DC, women both use creaky voice and glottalize (-t) more than men, which may be indicative of more general tendency toward laryngealization.

• Perceptual approach to studying social meaning of creak and falsetto

29

ConclusionsConclusion

• Phonation as a rich site for sociolinguistic investigation

• Importance of diverse speaker samples

• Social meanings of phonation types should not be reduced to purely iconic or unanalyzed associations with either gender or race.

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