PSYU3333 Language & Social Interaction PDF

PSYU3333 Language & Social Interaction Dr Anita Szakay Department of Linguistics Topics for Today • Language Variation in Speech • Linguistic vs Indexical Information • Social Information in Speech Production • inter-speaker variation • intra-speaker variation • Speech Accommodation • Social Info...

PSYU3333 Language & Social Interaction Dr Anita Szakay Department of Linguistics Topics for Today • Language Variation in Speech • Linguistic vs Indexical Information • Social Information in Speech Production • inter-speaker variation • intra-speaker variation • Speech Accommodation • Social Information in Speech Perception • Language Attitudes and Linguistic Stereotyping LANGUAGE VARIATION IN SPEECH Inter-Speaker Variation • Do you sound different from other people? • How? • age • gender • region • social class • ethnicity • integration into local community Intra-Speaker Variation • Do you ever change the way you sound? • How? • style • formality • setting • context • audience LINGUISTIC AND INDEXICAL INFORMATION IN SPEECH What information is in the speech signal? • every time we say something the speech signal carries two different types of information: WHAT AM I SAYING? • linguistic = "what was said" • indexical = "who said it” WHO AM I? What information is in the speech signal? • every time we say something the speech signal carries two different types of information: • linguistic = "what was said" • indexical = "who said it” • speaker age, gender, ethnicity, regional and social background etc. Expressions of Identity • social identity is expressed symbolically • symbols may vary from culture to culture but typically include adornment and possessions • language is the most accessible of all mechanisms for expressing identity • it is inexpensive, simple to achieve and all pervasive • we use linguistic variation to express social identity – the socio-indexical function of language SOCIAL INFORMATION IN SPEECH PRODUCTION -- inter-speaker variation -- New York City Department Stores • Bill Labov (1966) - The Social Stratification of English in New York City • examined the variable (r) • sociolinguistic variable: a set of alternative ways of saying the same thing, where the alternatives will have social significance • e.g. the word ‘floor’ can be pronounced as [flor] or [flo] • 3 department stores • Saks high class • Macy’s middle class • Klein’s lower class • rapid and anonymous survey 4th floor New York City Department Stores • “Where are the women’s shoes?” • “Fourth floor.” • “Excuse me?” • “Fourth floor.” 100 • Results: • most [r] pronounced in Saks • fewer [r] pronounced in Macy’s • almost no [r] pronounced in Klein’s all [ r ] 80 some [ r ] 60 no [ r ] 40 20 0 S. Klein Macy's Saks low class middle class high class • Frequency of use of the prestige variant [r] correlated with social class. Latina Gangs • Norma Mendoza-Denton (1998) Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice Among Latina Youth Gangs. Wiley-Blackwell (2007) • Norte and Sur Latina girl gangs • ethnographic approach • explores the relationship between language and the body • tattoos, make-up, and clothing of the gang members • how elements of speech and bodily practices are used to signal social affiliation and come together to form youth gang styles Latina Gangs • speech of girls in Latina gangs in California • finding: • correlation between • pronunciation of the short i vowel /ɪ/ (e.g. ‘ship’) • length of eyeliner Correlation ≠ Causation • the pronunciation of /ɪ/ correlates with • BUT • using more eyeliner does not cause you to pronounce a higher /ɪ/ vowel! • and pronouncing a higher /ɪ/ vowel does not cause your eyeliner to grow! • /ɪ/ and are both predicted by the degree of centrality inside the group SOCIAL INFORMATION IN SPEECH PRODUCTION -- intra-speaker variation -- Audience Design • Audience Design (Bell 1984) • speech style is essentially a speaker’s response to their audience • in audience design, speakers accommodate primarily to their addressee • but third persons can also affect speech style • e.g. non-participants such as auditors and overhearers Oprah Winfrey • Hay et al (1999) • /aɪ/ ⟶ [a:] • e.g. mine is pronounced [ma:n] • a feature of both Southern US English and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) • examined Oprah’s variable use of [aɪ] and [a:] • analyzed portions of the talk show where • no guest on stage • Oprah facing the camera • addressing the studio and TV audience • referee is an absent party about whom Oprah is talking, or is about to introduce Oprah Winfrey • ethnicity of the referee influenced Oprah’s vowels • more monophthongs [a:] when the guest was African American • more diphthongs [aɪ] when the guest was not African American • topic based style-shifting [a:] [aɪ] Gladys Berejiklian • Gladys Berejiklian’s variable pronunciation of “Dr Chant” in COVID-19 press conferences (Szakay et al. 2021) Dr Kerry Chant Chief Health Officer Gladys Berejiklian Former NSW Premier DANCE vowel in Australia • shows regional variation • in South Australia high rates of PALM /ɐː/ realisations • low rates in NSW where HAND /æ/ is more common (Bradley 2004; Horvath & Horvath 2001; Oasa, 1989) • in Sydney the use of PALM /ɐː/ is associated with British English and increased formality (Bradley 2004) • the indexical field (Eckert 2008) for the PALM /ɐː/ variant may extend beyond associations with formality and education • could include social meanings such as seriousness and gravitas • which may affect its use in these press conferences Preliminary Analysis • 20 press conferences • 5 days in March 2020 • 15 days in June-July 2021 • auditory coding of 152 tokens of ‘Dr Chant’ • 111 tokens (73%) realized with HAND /æ/ • 37 tokens (24%) realized with PALM /ɐː/ • 4 ambiguous tokens • simple regression model • variant (HAND/PALM) as dependent variable • coded for topic/addressee, gesture, preceding variant, daily new covid case numbers Preliminary Results Daily New COVID Cases • significant effect of the number of daily new cases • more new cases of COVID-19 predicts significantly greater use of the PALM variant (Intercept) new_cases range = 2 to 211 Estimate 0.1644 0.0013 SE t 0.0537 3.061 0.0005 2.236 p 0.0026 ** 0.0268 * Gladys and Style-Shifting • HAND is the default variant in the Premier’s speech • but she can draw on the social meanings associated with variation in the DANCE vowel • to take on a more serious stance by using the PALM variant • special type of style shifting • same type of audience • same formal context SPEECH ACCOMMODATION Speech Accommodation • the process by which speakers’ linguistic behaviour converges • often called speech convergence • a shift in linguistic behaviour towards the speech of the interlocutor • may be driven by • imitation that is often below conscious awareness • or by conscious choice made according to context • divergence • people accentuate the speech and non-verbal differences between themselves and their interlocutors Dialect Divergence and Convergence • Babel (2010) shadowing task in Wellington, NZ • • • • participants are asked to repeat aloud a word they are listening to check baseline pronunciation before the task check shadowed pronunciation if different – evidence for convergence (or divergence!) • New Zealand speakers accommodated to a male Australian English talker • they shifted their vowels towards the Aussie speaker’s pronunciation Dialect Divergence and Convergence • but the strength of accommodation was mediated by Australia bias presented before the task • participants were in one of two conditions • condition one: positive bias • info about the Australian talker suggests he likes New Zealand • condition two: negative bias • info about the Australian talker suggests he dislikes New Zealand Babel (2010) – Australia Bias Conditions • Positive Condition • “The Australian talker you are about to hear was actually born in Auckland. At a young age, however, he and his parents moved to Melbourne where he has lived since. His grandparents and the rest of his extended family still live in New Zealand, so he visits frequently. In fact, he is currently looking for employment in New Zealand so that his children may live closer to their great-grandparents.” • Negative Condition • “The Australian talker you are about to hear was born in Sydney. Like many Australians, he has strong negative opinions of New Zealand. For one, he thinks that New Zealanders are rather stupid and that they lack culture. In addition, he finds the entire population backwards and naïve. In his mind, New Zealand is provincial and has a horrid cricket team. He never intends to visit New Zealand because of these views.” Dialect Divergence and Convergence • NZ participants in the positive Australia bias condition accommodated more • their vowel pronunciation became a lot more like the Australian model talker’s • NZ participants in the negative Australia bias condition accommodated less • their vowel pronunciation became just a little bit like the Australian model talker’s • degree of convergence is influenced by the interlocutor’s characteristics Speech Accommodation & Cognitive Load • the degree of but also influenced by cognitive load • Abel & Babel (2017) Cognitive Load Reduces Perceived Linguistic Convergence Between Dyads. Language and Speech. 60(3):479-502 • pairs who engaged in less cognitively demanding LEGO tasks were perceived as converging with their partners when early and late parts of the task were compared • in support of automatic models of the mechanisms underlying speech convergence Speech Accommodation & Other Factors • can be modulated by a range of linguistic, individual personality, social, and task-related factors lexical frequency (Goldinger 1998) dialect difference between talkers (Kim et al. 2011) a talker’s tendency to engage in socially desirable behaviours (Natale 1975) the level of phonetic talent a talker has (Lewandowski 2012) social status (Gregory et al. 1993) whether a partner in a dyadic interaction task is giving or receiving instructions (Pardo 2006) • personality traits like openness (Yu et al. 2013) • • • • • • • but also those with strong attention focus (subscore of Autism-Spectrum Quotient) • and who liked the model talker accommodated more Language Accommodation & Speed Dating • links between romantic matching and language accommodation • investigated if accommodation in dyad’ use of function words predicts outcomes for romantic relationships • analysed 40 transcripts of speed dates • found that greater accommodation predicted increased likelihood of mutual romantic interest (odds ratio = 3.05) • 33% of pairs with accommodation above the median mutually desired future contact, compared with only 9% of pairs with accommodation at or below the median • Ireland et al. (2011) Language Style Matching Predicts Relationship Initiation and Stability. Psychological Science 22(1):39-44. SOCIAL INFORMATION IN SPEECH PERCEPTION Indexical information in Perception • listeners use indexical properties of the speaker’s voice to facilitate a phonetic interpretation of the linguistic content of the message • a speaker’s sex can influence whether we perceive a certain consonant as [s] or [ʃ] (e.g. Strand 1999 – “sin” vs “shin”) • a speaker’s perceived regional origin can affect what vowel we think they are producing (e.g. Hay, Nolan, Drager 2006 – vowel in “fish & chips”) • a speaker’s perceived age can affect how we perceive a vowel (e.g. Drager 2011 - “bad” vs “bed”) • listeners are able to identify a speaker’s ethnicity based on speech alone (e.g. Szakay 2008) New Zealand English Ethnic Dialect Identification • Pākehā English • mainly spoken by people of European descent • standard • Māori English • mainly spoken by the indigenous population • non-standard • phonetic differences in vowels and consonants • but also in speech rhythm, intonation, voice quality • Can people identify Māori English based on speech rhythm and intonation information alone? Original Speech • • listeners overall able to identify speaker ethnicity – even from rhythm & intonation alone but people who are highly integrated into Māori society perform better LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND LINGUISTIC BIAS Language Attitudes • social beliefs interact with language attitudes = social evaluations of speakers based on speech • listeners make social judgements about speakers based on language and accent • these judgements often reflect broader stereotypes about the social groups associated with those languages and accents (e.g. Anisfield & Lambert 1964) • listeners can use speech to infer social information about speakers (Labov 2006) • listeners also use cues in speech to link a speaker to stereotypes based on the perceived social identity (e.g. Lambert et al. 1960, Preston 2014) • ‘linguistic stereotyping’ (Lambert et al. 1960) • listeners make stereotyped judgements about speakers’ personal traits based on speech alone • e.g. intelligence, friendliness, attractiveness etc Language Attitudes – Canada • listeners evaluate social traits of speakers based on the speaker’s voice alone • ‘matched guise’ paradigm (same voice, different accent) • voices heard in different language conditions are identical apart from the language variety being spoken • language and accent differences cause listeners to significantly alter their evaluations of speakers’ non-linguistic traits • even traits like height or attractiveness! • both English and French Canadians rated speakers of English as more attractive and intelligent than speakers of French (Lambert 1960) • even though the voice they heard for each language belonged to the same bilingual speaker • reflected Canadian cultural stereotypes that favoured English Canadians over French Canadians Language Attitudes – Southern USA • Southern English voice rated as less educated but more pleasant than speakers of other English dialects • reflecting the American cultural stereotype that Southerners are friendly but uneducated (e.g., Fridland et al, 2005; Kinzler & DeJesus 2013) • in both cases the results show that listeners use language and accent as a cue to social identities and their associated stereotypes • this kind of ‘linguistic stereotyping’ has been found across many regions and language varieties (Giles & Billings 2004, Giles & Rakic 2014, Preston 2014) • broad social beliefs and biases become so linked to speech associated with particular social groups, that language alone is often sufficient for listeners to make stereotyped social evaluations Language Attitudes • participants negatively evaluate speakers and accents perceived as non-standard (Lindemann & Subtirelu 2013, Purnell et al., 1999) • in educational settings • both for adult language learners as well as for instructors who are not native speakers of the language of instruction (Kang & Rubin 2009, Rubin 1992, Subtirelu & Lindemann 2014) • in professional life • accent a factor in discriminatory hiring practices and workplace behaviour (Gluszek & Dovidio 2010, Lippi-Green 2012) • non-standard here can include foreign-accented speech as well as native language non-standard dialects Non-Native Speech • prejudice against non-native speakers • listeners negatively evaluating non-native speakers’ accent strength, comprehensibility, even personal traits • native English-speaking participants may perceive a non-native speaker as less comprehensible and more accented • when the speech is presented with a visual cue of an Asian face instead of a white face (e.g. Babel & Russell 2015) • listener experiences in a multicultural and multilingual urban environment can have negative effects on speech assessments for native speakers of non-White backgrounds • Chinese Canadians are less intelligible and perceived as less-natively accented when listeners know they are hearing the speech of Chinese Canadians • even when native speakers of the local variety of English! Non-Native Speech • American undergraduates’ reactions to the speech of international teaching assistants • a speaker’s perceived ethnicity was more important to listeners’ comprehension of non-native speech than the speaker’s actual level of language proficiency or accent (Rubin & Smith 1990) • even when all speakers used native-accented English, participants showed lower listening comprehension and gave higher accentedness ratings for speakers they visually identified as Asian (Rubin 1992) Zheng & Samuel (2017) Purnell, Idsardi & Baugh (1999) • Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18:10-29 • tri-dialectal speaker • Standard American English (SAE) • African American Vernacular English (AAVE) • Chicano English (ChE) • “Hello, I’m calling about the apartment you have advertised in the paper.” SAE AAVE ChE Prof John Baugh Scharinger et al. (2011) You had me at “Hello”: Rapid extraction of dialect information from spoken words. NeuroImage 56:2329-2338. Linguistic Profiling • Can listeners distinguish Black American and White American voices? • important issue for linguistic understanding of perception, as well as issues of social inequality • listeners are quite good at distinguishing them • Which acoustic parameters may influence listeners’ judgments? • distinctive patterns of intonation, prosody, and voice quality associated with varieties of African American Language • but the specific acoustic characteristics not well-described • intonational features are especially important in the analysis of linguistic profiling because of their perceptual salience • “Speaking While Black” - the phenomenon by which African Americans experience discrimination, sight-unseen, because their speech may act as an indicator of their race (Baugh 2015) Linguistic Profiling • understanding how listeners make ethnicity judgments is crucial for working against discrimination and linguistic profiling • discrimination in the courtroom, in housing, in the workplace (Baugh 2015) • we know that listeners make these judgments, the question of exactly how they make these judgements is still not properly answered by sociolinguists • until we know how linguistic profiling occurs, we cannot provide professionals and the public with strategies to recognize and combat this type of discrimination