David Bowie | University of Alaska Anchorage (original) (raw)

Articles & book chapters (peer-reviewed) by David Bowie

Linguistics Vanguard, 2019

Speech in the western states: Volume 2: The inland states, ed. Valerie Fridland, Tyler Kendall, Betsy Evans & Alicia Wassink, 2017

Though “the West” was identified as a single dialect region by Labov, Ash, & Boberg (2006), more ... more Though “the West” was identified as a single dialect region by Labov, Ash, & Boberg (2006), more recent work has found that varieties spoken in the Western United States might best be thought of as related, but certainly not uniform. This is, of course, one of the core motivations for this volume, in that it provides a view into the linguistic systems of several parts of the West. This chapter focuses on the Wasatch Front region of Utah, using archival data—specifically, recordings of radio and, later, television broadcasts—to provide insight into the historical development of the local variety via an apparent time analysis (Bailey et al. 1991; Bailey 2005) of the vowel system. In many ways paralleling McLarty, Kendall and Farrington 2016, this chapter uses archival data to examine the progression of the vowel features that were found to characterize speech in many of the West Coast states in Volume I (PADS 101).

Language & Communication, 2015

Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic difference... more Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic differences. We break this down further by investigating whether there are also differences between Mormons who actively participate in the religion and those who do not, and find significant differences with a medium or larger effect size between the groups for multiple variables. We conclude that when investigating the linguistic correlates of religious affiliation in a community, it is vital to elicit not just respondents' religious affiliations, but also their level of participation within that religion.

Language development: The lifespan perspective, ed. Anja Voeste & Annette Gerstenberg, 2015

This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are lingu... more This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are linguistically stable throughout adulthood. A sample of twelve speakers with recorded speech spanning at least thirty years were analyzed with regard to the variable production of syllable-initial (wh). Each speaker’s production at single points in time was contrasted with their production at other times; the analysis shows that the speakers generally show stability in their production of the variable. However, a majority of the speakers have at least one point in time in which their production deviates significantly, and often to a large degree, leading to the conclusion that we cannot simply assume that individuals are linguistically stable throughout their adult lives.

The Oxford handbook of historical phonology, ed. Patrick Honeybone & Joseph Salmons, Nov 3, 2015

This chapter compares phonological change in apparent time with change in real time, showing that... more This chapter compares phonological change in apparent time with change in real time, showing that the first can be skewed by, e.g., age grading or changes in attitudes. Further, it compares trend and panel studies as methods to overcome such limitations, and reviews evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of each type of study. In addition, the findings of real time studies that have been conducted demonstrate that individuals’ linguistic behaviour changes throughout the lifespan, and the chapter discusses the importance of that finding for our understanding of historical phonology.

Language and Cognition, 2015

Three quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evalu... more Three quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evaluative (i.e., agree/true) and the meta-cognitive (i.e., understand) response, and to determine which type of response people are more likely to provide when responding to one-sentence assertive statements. In Studies 1 and 2, participants performed two separate tasks in which they were asked to indicate the levels of: (i) understanding and (ii) agreement/perceived truthfulness of 126 one-sentence statements. The results indicated that participants were likely to provide a negative evaluative response (i.e., disagree/false) to a statement that they did not understand. In Study 3, participants were asked to evaluate the same 126 statements and choose between four response options: agree, disagree, understand, do not understand. The results indicated that people are more likely provide an evaluative response regardless of the understandability of a statement. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (i) pragmatic perspective of how people infer speakers’ meaning, and (ii) cognitive processes underlying evaluative and meta-cognitive response.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2015

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation betwee... more This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation between the metacomprehension (i.e., understand/do not understand) and evaluative (i.e., agree/disagree) response to a simple one-sentence statement to compare the relative timing in which these two responses are generated in the course of sentence processing. In the study, participants were asked to provide metacomprehension and evaluative judgements to simple one-sentence assertions, and their response times were measured. Two of the main findings are: first, the response time for the evaluative judgement is faster than the response time for the metacomprehension judgement and, second, the faster response time of the evaluative judgement relative to the metacomprehension judgement is more pronounced either when they are not sure about whether they understand a statement or when they feel they do not understand a statement. The findings are analysed in relation to a multiple constraint satisfaction model of sentence comprehension to generate a possible processing model of a simple one-sentence assertion underlying the generation of metacomprehension and evaluative responses.

Language and Linguistics Compass, 2014

Age has proven to be an extremely useful variable in many social science fields, and linguistics ... more Age has proven to be an extremely useful variable in many social science fields, and linguistics is no exception: it is widely used in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and (especially) sociolinguistics. This makes sense—given that even casual observation tells us that humans behave differently at different points in the life cycle, it is quite reasonable to take age into account when investigating human behavior. In turn, the use of age as a variable has led to a wide range of methods and analytical tools that rely on the use of age (e.g., the apparent time construct in sociolinguistics). However, it turns out that even though age is often treated in a rather simple way, it is actually a complicated concept that can be difficult to pin down precisely and that the usual linguistic view of age as a simple reflection of the linear passage of time is lacking. That fact has repercussions for how linguists should deal with age, including not just issues like how to record metadata relating to it, but even methodological concerns such as how to do the initial elicitation in the first place.

Dialectologia, Jun 1, 2012

During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phon... more During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phonological variables (among others): the cot-caught merger, the cord-card merger, and /ai/-monophthongization. Based on an analysis of audio recordings of twenty-six natives of Utah born during the nineteenth century, changes in these variables over apparent time are tracked. The analysis finds a trend toward completion of the two mergers and increased /ai/-monophthongization. This is contrasted with the current situation, in which the cot-caught merger has progressed to a state of completion in perception and very small differences in production, the cord-card merger is being abandoned, and /ai/-monophthongization exists only at a very low level. Possible reasons for this include a movement toward regional rather than local norms resulting from greater contact between varieties in the Intermountain West during the twentieth century.

Language, culture, and the dynamics of age, ed. Anna Duszak & Urszula Okulska, 2011

Language and identities, ed. Carmen Llamas & Dominic Watt, 2010

American Speech, Jan 1, 2008

Several claims have been put forward to explain the character of Utah’s card-cord merger, in whic... more Several claims have been put forward to explain the character of Utah’s card-cord merger, in which /ɔɹ/ is variably produced as [ɑɹ]. Instances of words containing /ɑɹ/ from the running speech of a Utahn who variably exhibits the merger were rated by a panel of speakers on whether they were produced as [ɔɹ] or [ɑɹ], allowing utterances to be classified as merged (into [ɑɹ]), unmerged, or intermediate. Merged and unmerged instances were not found to be separated cleanly when taking just F1 and F2 into consideration, but looking at F1, F2, and F3 simultaneously resulted in a clean split between those categories, with the intermediate cases falling along the border between them. Further, the formant values did not match up with any simple articulatory explanation for the merger and its attendant distinction. Not only does this demonstrate that Utah’s card-cord merger is the result of the simultaneous manipulation of multiple articulatory features, it raises the possibility that clear separation between phonetic categories could be found in other cases that might generally be expected to have some overlap.

American Speech, Jan 1, 2003

The history of the merger of /ɑr/ & /ɔr/ in Utah English, also known as the card-cord merger, is ... more The history of the merger of /ɑr/ & /ɔr/ in Utah English, also known as the card-cord merger, is clarified by a variationist analysis of audio recordings of church conferences from the late 1930s; speakers are male church leaders born in Utah between 1853 & 1893 (N=26). All instances of words in three historical word classes exemplified by for, four, & horrible are coded for phonetic realization of the stressed vowel & submitted to VARBRUL analysis for four potential conditioning factors: historical word class, preceding sound, S's age, & grammatical category. In comparison with findings of other studies, results suggest that the merger slowly gained strength during the formative period in Utah, grew rapidly during the early 20th century, & was discarded later; unrounded pronunciations in the first stage are most likely after a glide.

Journal of English Linguistics, Jan 1, 2001

A reversal of the Southern US monophthongization of English /ay/ to, e.g., [a:] is reported from ... more A reversal of the Southern US monophthongization of English /ay/ to, e.g., [a:] is reported from fieldwork in Waldorf, MD, a community near Washington, DC, that lies on or near the South/South Midland isogloss according to William A. Kretzschmar et al. (1993) & well within the Southern region according to Hans Kurath & Raven I. McDavid, Jr. (1961). Data consist of word lists, minimal pairs, & personal narratives elicited from white middle-class natives of Waldorf (N = 14 females & 11 males); tokens of /ay/ are coded for Ss' age & sex, presence vs. absence of a glide, stress, language style, & syntactic, morphological, & phonological environments. Results of a multivariate VARBRUL analysis show (1) a strong effect of the following sound, as resonants & voiced obstruents favor monophthongization & voiceless obstruents disfavor it; (2) a steady decrease in monophthongization with successive decades of birth; & (3) a preference for monophthongization among males as opposed to females. The roles of majority forms, marked regionalisms, & phonological simplicity in the actuation of this change are explored.

Current work in linguistics, ed. Alexis Dimitriadis, Hikyoung Lee, Laura Siegel, Clarissa Surek-Clark & Alexander Williams, 1997

Conference proceedings by David Bowie

Selected papers from NWAV 37, ed. Kyle Gorman & Laurel MacKenzie, Apr 21, 2010

The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the produc... more The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the production of several vowel mergers typical of the area (i.e., fell-fail, pool-pole-pull,card-cord). To do so, we asked self-identified members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and self-identified non-Mormons to produce these vowel contrasts. Next, three naïve raters trained in phonetics but unfamiliar with how English is spoken in Utah were asked to judge which of the two vowels in a vowel pair contrast was produced by the speakers. Findings demonstrated clear evidence of differences based on self-described religious affiliation for several of the vowel mergers (hot-caught, pin-pen, bag-beg, fail-fell, and pool-pull-pole), in that those who self-described as Mormons who actively participate in religious activities exhibited significantly different linguistic behavior from those who self-described as non-Mormons. Most interestingly, though, we found that even when both groups merged two vowels in a vowel pair (hot-caught) they did so in ways slightly different from each other. From all this, we conclude that religions that require a high time commitment of their members facilitate the development of social networks based on religious affiliation, leading to linguistic differences between adherents and non-adherents. Therefore, we urge sociolinguists to investigate religious affiliation as a possible social factor in their studies of communities, particularly when a religion in the community requires a large involvement of time on the part of its members.

TRB 88th Annual Meeting compendium of papers DVD, 2009

In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey in... more In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey information to the driver; however, experience shows that drivers can understand a traffic sign using only one or two of these characteristics. For example, traffic signs can become covered with snow, obscuring the color and legend while the shape of the traffic sign remains apparent. As another example, many of the basic traffic signs in Canada follow the US MUTCD guidelines except that words are omitted or altered.

LACUS forum XXXV: Language and linguistics in North America 1608–2008: Diversity and convergence, ed. Bill Coleman, 2009

There have been a number of studies investigating differences in the perception of linguistic and... more There have been a number of studies investigating differences in the perception of linguistic and nonlinguistic inputs. These studies have taken many different forms, focusing on phenomena as diverse as infant reactions to sounds, the effects of brain injuries, and dichotic listening experiments (for some early examples, see Catlin & Neville 1976; Jusczyk et al. 1977; Morse 1972; Oscar-Berman, Goodglass & Donnenfeld 1974; Soderquist & Hoenigmann 1973; Wood, Goff & Day 1971, among many others), but they have generally found that there are differences in the way humans processes, for example, a word as opposed to a bird’s chirp. In nearly all cases, however, these look at reactions to linguistic inputs as they are generally found in the ordinary course of hearing language as compared to parallel nonlinguistic stimuli.1 However, there are many cases in which linguistic stimuli are encountered in other situations, and in this paper we focus on one of these: road signs.

Papers from NWAV 33, ed. Suzanne Evans Wagner, Jun 1, 2005

Linguistics Vanguard, 2019

Speech in the western states: Volume 2: The inland states, ed. Valerie Fridland, Tyler Kendall, Betsy Evans & Alicia Wassink, 2017

Though “the West” was identified as a single dialect region by Labov, Ash, & Boberg (2006), more ... more Though “the West” was identified as a single dialect region by Labov, Ash, & Boberg (2006), more recent work has found that varieties spoken in the Western United States might best be thought of as related, but certainly not uniform. This is, of course, one of the core motivations for this volume, in that it provides a view into the linguistic systems of several parts of the West. This chapter focuses on the Wasatch Front region of Utah, using archival data—specifically, recordings of radio and, later, television broadcasts—to provide insight into the historical development of the local variety via an apparent time analysis (Bailey et al. 1991; Bailey 2005) of the vowel system. In many ways paralleling McLarty, Kendall and Farrington 2016, this chapter uses archival data to examine the progression of the vowel features that were found to characterize speech in many of the West Coast states in Volume I (PADS 101).

Language & Communication, 2015

Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic difference... more Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic differences. We break this down further by investigating whether there are also differences between Mormons who actively participate in the religion and those who do not, and find significant differences with a medium or larger effect size between the groups for multiple variables. We conclude that when investigating the linguistic correlates of religious affiliation in a community, it is vital to elicit not just respondents' religious affiliations, but also their level of participation within that religion.

Language development: The lifespan perspective, ed. Anja Voeste & Annette Gerstenberg, 2015

This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are lingu... more This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are linguistically stable throughout adulthood. A sample of twelve speakers with recorded speech spanning at least thirty years were analyzed with regard to the variable production of syllable-initial (wh). Each speaker’s production at single points in time was contrasted with their production at other times; the analysis shows that the speakers generally show stability in their production of the variable. However, a majority of the speakers have at least one point in time in which their production deviates significantly, and often to a large degree, leading to the conclusion that we cannot simply assume that individuals are linguistically stable throughout their adult lives.

The Oxford handbook of historical phonology, ed. Patrick Honeybone & Joseph Salmons, Nov 3, 2015

This chapter compares phonological change in apparent time with change in real time, showing that... more This chapter compares phonological change in apparent time with change in real time, showing that the first can be skewed by, e.g., age grading or changes in attitudes. Further, it compares trend and panel studies as methods to overcome such limitations, and reviews evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of each type of study. In addition, the findings of real time studies that have been conducted demonstrate that individuals’ linguistic behaviour changes throughout the lifespan, and the chapter discusses the importance of that finding for our understanding of historical phonology.

Language and Cognition, 2015

Three quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evalu... more Three quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evaluative (i.e., agree/true) and the meta-cognitive (i.e., understand) response, and to determine which type of response people are more likely to provide when responding to one-sentence assertive statements. In Studies 1 and 2, participants performed two separate tasks in which they were asked to indicate the levels of: (i) understanding and (ii) agreement/perceived truthfulness of 126 one-sentence statements. The results indicated that participants were likely to provide a negative evaluative response (i.e., disagree/false) to a statement that they did not understand. In Study 3, participants were asked to evaluate the same 126 statements and choose between four response options: agree, disagree, understand, do not understand. The results indicated that people are more likely provide an evaluative response regardless of the understandability of a statement. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (i) pragmatic perspective of how people infer speakers’ meaning, and (ii) cognitive processes underlying evaluative and meta-cognitive response.

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2015

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation betwee... more This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation between the metacomprehension (i.e., understand/do not understand) and evaluative (i.e., agree/disagree) response to a simple one-sentence statement to compare the relative timing in which these two responses are generated in the course of sentence processing. In the study, participants were asked to provide metacomprehension and evaluative judgements to simple one-sentence assertions, and their response times were measured. Two of the main findings are: first, the response time for the evaluative judgement is faster than the response time for the metacomprehension judgement and, second, the faster response time of the evaluative judgement relative to the metacomprehension judgement is more pronounced either when they are not sure about whether they understand a statement or when they feel they do not understand a statement. The findings are analysed in relation to a multiple constraint satisfaction model of sentence comprehension to generate a possible processing model of a simple one-sentence assertion underlying the generation of metacomprehension and evaluative responses.

Language and Linguistics Compass, 2014

Age has proven to be an extremely useful variable in many social science fields, and linguistics ... more Age has proven to be an extremely useful variable in many social science fields, and linguistics is no exception: it is widely used in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and (especially) sociolinguistics. This makes sense—given that even casual observation tells us that humans behave differently at different points in the life cycle, it is quite reasonable to take age into account when investigating human behavior. In turn, the use of age as a variable has led to a wide range of methods and analytical tools that rely on the use of age (e.g., the apparent time construct in sociolinguistics). However, it turns out that even though age is often treated in a rather simple way, it is actually a complicated concept that can be difficult to pin down precisely and that the usual linguistic view of age as a simple reflection of the linear passage of time is lacking. That fact has repercussions for how linguists should deal with age, including not just issues like how to record metadata relating to it, but even methodological concerns such as how to do the initial elicitation in the first place.

Dialectologia, Jun 1, 2012

During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phon... more During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phonological variables (among others): the cot-caught merger, the cord-card merger, and /ai/-monophthongization. Based on an analysis of audio recordings of twenty-six natives of Utah born during the nineteenth century, changes in these variables over apparent time are tracked. The analysis finds a trend toward completion of the two mergers and increased /ai/-monophthongization. This is contrasted with the current situation, in which the cot-caught merger has progressed to a state of completion in perception and very small differences in production, the cord-card merger is being abandoned, and /ai/-monophthongization exists only at a very low level. Possible reasons for this include a movement toward regional rather than local norms resulting from greater contact between varieties in the Intermountain West during the twentieth century.

Language, culture, and the dynamics of age, ed. Anna Duszak & Urszula Okulska, 2011

Language and identities, ed. Carmen Llamas & Dominic Watt, 2010

American Speech, Jan 1, 2008

Several claims have been put forward to explain the character of Utah’s card-cord merger, in whic... more Several claims have been put forward to explain the character of Utah’s card-cord merger, in which /ɔɹ/ is variably produced as [ɑɹ]. Instances of words containing /ɑɹ/ from the running speech of a Utahn who variably exhibits the merger were rated by a panel of speakers on whether they were produced as [ɔɹ] or [ɑɹ], allowing utterances to be classified as merged (into [ɑɹ]), unmerged, or intermediate. Merged and unmerged instances were not found to be separated cleanly when taking just F1 and F2 into consideration, but looking at F1, F2, and F3 simultaneously resulted in a clean split between those categories, with the intermediate cases falling along the border between them. Further, the formant values did not match up with any simple articulatory explanation for the merger and its attendant distinction. Not only does this demonstrate that Utah’s card-cord merger is the result of the simultaneous manipulation of multiple articulatory features, it raises the possibility that clear separation between phonetic categories could be found in other cases that might generally be expected to have some overlap.

American Speech, Jan 1, 2003

The history of the merger of /ɑr/ & /ɔr/ in Utah English, also known as the card-cord merger, is ... more The history of the merger of /ɑr/ & /ɔr/ in Utah English, also known as the card-cord merger, is clarified by a variationist analysis of audio recordings of church conferences from the late 1930s; speakers are male church leaders born in Utah between 1853 & 1893 (N=26). All instances of words in three historical word classes exemplified by for, four, & horrible are coded for phonetic realization of the stressed vowel & submitted to VARBRUL analysis for four potential conditioning factors: historical word class, preceding sound, S's age, & grammatical category. In comparison with findings of other studies, results suggest that the merger slowly gained strength during the formative period in Utah, grew rapidly during the early 20th century, & was discarded later; unrounded pronunciations in the first stage are most likely after a glide.

Journal of English Linguistics, Jan 1, 2001

A reversal of the Southern US monophthongization of English /ay/ to, e.g., [a:] is reported from ... more A reversal of the Southern US monophthongization of English /ay/ to, e.g., [a:] is reported from fieldwork in Waldorf, MD, a community near Washington, DC, that lies on or near the South/South Midland isogloss according to William A. Kretzschmar et al. (1993) & well within the Southern region according to Hans Kurath & Raven I. McDavid, Jr. (1961). Data consist of word lists, minimal pairs, & personal narratives elicited from white middle-class natives of Waldorf (N = 14 females & 11 males); tokens of /ay/ are coded for Ss' age & sex, presence vs. absence of a glide, stress, language style, & syntactic, morphological, & phonological environments. Results of a multivariate VARBRUL analysis show (1) a strong effect of the following sound, as resonants & voiced obstruents favor monophthongization & voiceless obstruents disfavor it; (2) a steady decrease in monophthongization with successive decades of birth; & (3) a preference for monophthongization among males as opposed to females. The roles of majority forms, marked regionalisms, & phonological simplicity in the actuation of this change are explored.

Current work in linguistics, ed. Alexis Dimitriadis, Hikyoung Lee, Laura Siegel, Clarissa Surek-Clark & Alexander Williams, 1997

Selected papers from NWAV 37, ed. Kyle Gorman & Laurel MacKenzie, Apr 21, 2010

The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the produc... more The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the production of several vowel mergers typical of the area (i.e., fell-fail, pool-pole-pull,card-cord). To do so, we asked self-identified members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and self-identified non-Mormons to produce these vowel contrasts. Next, three naïve raters trained in phonetics but unfamiliar with how English is spoken in Utah were asked to judge which of the two vowels in a vowel pair contrast was produced by the speakers. Findings demonstrated clear evidence of differences based on self-described religious affiliation for several of the vowel mergers (hot-caught, pin-pen, bag-beg, fail-fell, and pool-pull-pole), in that those who self-described as Mormons who actively participate in religious activities exhibited significantly different linguistic behavior from those who self-described as non-Mormons. Most interestingly, though, we found that even when both groups merged two vowels in a vowel pair (hot-caught) they did so in ways slightly different from each other. From all this, we conclude that religions that require a high time commitment of their members facilitate the development of social networks based on religious affiliation, leading to linguistic differences between adherents and non-adherents. Therefore, we urge sociolinguists to investigate religious affiliation as a possible social factor in their studies of communities, particularly when a religion in the community requires a large involvement of time on the part of its members.

TRB 88th Annual Meeting compendium of papers DVD, 2009

In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey in... more In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey information to the driver; however, experience shows that drivers can understand a traffic sign using only one or two of these characteristics. For example, traffic signs can become covered with snow, obscuring the color and legend while the shape of the traffic sign remains apparent. As another example, many of the basic traffic signs in Canada follow the US MUTCD guidelines except that words are omitted or altered.

LACUS forum XXXV: Language and linguistics in North America 1608–2008: Diversity and convergence, ed. Bill Coleman, 2009

There have been a number of studies investigating differences in the perception of linguistic and... more There have been a number of studies investigating differences in the perception of linguistic and nonlinguistic inputs. These studies have taken many different forms, focusing on phenomena as diverse as infant reactions to sounds, the effects of brain injuries, and dichotic listening experiments (for some early examples, see Catlin & Neville 1976; Jusczyk et al. 1977; Morse 1972; Oscar-Berman, Goodglass & Donnenfeld 1974; Soderquist & Hoenigmann 1973; Wood, Goff & Day 1971, among many others), but they have generally found that there are differences in the way humans processes, for example, a word as opposed to a bird’s chirp. In nearly all cases, however, these look at reactions to linguistic inputs as they are generally found in the ordinary course of hearing language as compared to parallel nonlinguistic stimuli.1 However, there are many cases in which linguistic stimuli are encountered in other situations, and in this paper we focus on one of these: road signs.

Papers from NWAV 33, ed. Suzanne Evans Wagner, Jun 1, 2005

Selected proceedings of the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society 2000 Symposium, ed. Lynn E. Henrichsen, 2003

LACUS forum XXVIII: Evidence in linguistics, ed. Ruth M. Brend, Bill Sullivan & Arle R. Lommel, Jan 1, 2002

Selected papers from NWAV 29, ed. Tara Sanchez & Daniel Ezra Johnson, Jan 1, 2001

LACUS forum XXVII: Speaking and comprehending, ed. Ruth M. Brend, Alan K. Melby, & Arle R. Lommel, 2001

Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, ed. Alexis Dimitriadis, Laura Siegel, Clarissa Surek-Clark & Alexander Williams, 1997

PhD dissertation, Jan 1, 2000

Several studies have demonstrated that there is a "critical period" for language acquisition endi... more Several studies have demonstrated that there is a "critical period" for language acquisition ending at some point approaching puberty, beyond which language acquisition can occur only imperfectly. Other studies, primarily focusing on adolescents, have also found that this concept applies to second dialect acquisition in situations of dialect contact. Even so, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the linguistic changes that can occur in dialect contact situations. This is an important question particularly because it is such a common situation - adults are, for example, faced with constant exposure to a second dialect if they move away from where they acquired their native dialect. This study investigates this issue by comparing the linguistic perception and production of two groups of individuals, one made up of individuals who have lived in the same town their entire lives and the other made up of individuals who grew up in that town but moved away as adults. The results of sociolinguistic interviews and commutation tests are used to determine the extent to which the adult emigrants from the community gained or lost features of their native dialect, or accommodated to their new dialect. The investigation finds that adult migrants do make changes in their linguistic production and perception upon constant exposure to a second dialect, though not all features prove susceptible to change. The changes the individuals make involve both accommodations to the new dialects they are surrounded by as well as changes that do not involve such accommodation. The major generalization drawn from the data is that the linguistic features that are most susceptible to change in dialect contact situations are those features that are undergoing change in the individuals' native dialect. This result has direct applications in the field of dialectology and the speech recognition industry, as both of these fields can benefit from a deeper knowledge of the sorts of "hybridized" dialect systems than can result from dialect contact.

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2007

The use of linguistic evidence is based on a number of methodological assumptions. In some cases,... more The use of linguistic evidence is based on a number of methodological assumptions. In some cases, if the assumptions are false, the evidence that has been collected is most likely useless for the purposes it was gathered for. For example, in order for introspective syntactic ...

Journal of language and aging research, Apr 5, 2024

Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium, 2000

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, May 15, 2024

Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, May 15, 2024

During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phon... more During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phonological variables (among others): the cot-caught merger, the cord-card merger, and //ai//-monophthongization. Based on an analysis of audio recordings of twenty-six natives of Utah born during the nineteenth century, changes in these variables over apparent time are tracked. The analysis finds a trend toward completion of the two mergers and increased /ai/-monophthongization. This is contrasted with the current situation, in which the cot-caught merger has progressed to a state of completion in perception and very small differences in production, the cord-card merger is being abandoned, and /ai/-monophthongization exists only at a very low level. Possible reasons for this include a movement toward regional rather than local norms resulting from greater contact between varieties in the Intermountain West during the twentieth centuryDurante el siglo XIX, los hablantes nativos del inglés e...

The Publication of the American Dialect Society

The Publication of the American Dialect Society, 2017

Dialectologia Revista Electronica, 2012

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2015

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation betwee... more This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation between the metacomprehension (i.e., understand/do not understand) and evaluative (i.e., agree/disagree) response to a simple one-sentence statement to compare the relative timing in which these two responses are generated in the course of sentence processing. In the study, participants were asked to provide metacomprehension and evaluative judgements to simple one-sentence assertions, and their response times were measured. Two of the main findings are: first, the response time for the evaluative judgement is faster than the response time for the metacomprehension judgement and, second, the faster response time of the evaluative judgement relative to the metacomprehension judgement is more pronounced either when they are not sure about whether they understand a statement or when they feel they do not understand a statement. The findings are analysed in relation to a multiple constraint satisfaction model of sentence comprehension to generate a possible processing model of a simple one-sentence assertion underlying the generation of metacomprehension and evaluative responses.

paper to be, 2009

In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey in... more In designing traffic signs, traffic engineers use shape, color, and symbols or words to convey information to the driver; however, experience shows that drivers can understand a traffic sign using only one or two of these characteristics. For example, traffic signs can become covered with snow, obscuring the color and legend while the shape of the traffic sign remains apparent. As another example, many of the basic traffic signs in Canada follow the US MUTCD guidelines except that words are omitted or altered. In both cases, ...

Dialectologia: revista electr��nica, 2012

Resum During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in thre... more Resum During the nineteenth century, English-speaking natives of Utah exhibited variation in three phonological variables (among others): the cot-caught merger, the cord-card merger, and//ai//-monophthongization. Based on an analysis of audio recordings of twenty-six natives of Utah born during the nineteenth century, changes in these variables over apparent time are tracked. The analysis

University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, Apr 21, 2010

The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the produc... more The current study examined whether religious affiliation in Utah County, Utah affected the production of several vowel mergers typical of the area (ie, fell-fail, pool-pole-pull, card-cord). To do so, we asked self-identified members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and self-identified non-Mormons to produce these vowel contrasts. Next, three na��ve raters trained in phonetics but unfamiliar with how English is spoken in Utah were asked to judge which of the two vowels in a vowel pair contrast was ...

Linguistics Vanguard, 2019

The BIT, BING, BET, BAT, BAN, BOOK, and BUT vowels of ten Utah English speakers (born 1883–1928) ... more The BIT, BING, BET, BAT, BAN, BOOK, and BUT vowels of ten Utah English speakers (born 1883–1928) were analyzed over the course of several decades of their adult lives. Most speakers participated in the Western Vowel System by lowering BIT and BET, retracting BAT, and raising BAN, with some fronting BOOK and BUT. Speakers generally did not exhibit monotonic change across the years from expected positions for BET, BAT, and BAN, and for the most part for BOOK and BUT; however, most speakers showed change with regard to BIT, though speakers differed from each other on the direction of change. Even for those vowels with no consistent direction of intraindividual change, however, in many cases speakers were inconsistent in their production from year to year. Further, speakers’ envelopes of variation were different for various vowels, with the widest range of intraindividual variation in BET and BAT, less variation in BAN and BUT, and little in BIT and BOOK. It is suggested that the envelo...