Lozo, C.(2024). Bridging disciplinary demands. From bias to balance in integrating interactional sociolinguistics and acoustic phonetics. Wiener Linguistische Gazette 95, 7–30. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Introduction to "Articulatory techniques for sociophonetic research"
Special Issue "Articulatory techniques for sociophonetic research", 2012
From a functionalist point of view, speaker-specific variation is conceived of as a systematic source of indexical information for both the speaker and the hearer, and directly reflects the ‘structured heterogeneity’ (Weinreich et al. 1968) affecting the transmission of sound change. Focusing on the relationships between phonetic/phonological form and social, regional and interactional-communicative factors, sociophonetics deals with the implications of speech variation on theories of language change. Beside the variationist approach to speech production, recent sociophonetic studies are also concerned with the effects of variation on speech perception, phonological categorisation, speaker identification, and perceptual dialectology. Sociolinguistic research in the speech production domain is traditionally based on auditory and acoustic analysis of segmental properties. Groundbreaking work by William Labov and colleagues has popularised the use of spectrographic analysis in the study of accent variation, focusing mostly on formant analysis of vowels in some dialects of English. Acoustic analysis has also been extended to other aspects of vocalic quality such as duration, as well as consonantal variables and suprasegmental features. On the other hand, the contribution of instrumental articulatory research has been relatively scarce until recently. On the contrary, socially structured variation offers considerable opportunities for experimental phoneticians to exploit the instruments’ sensitivity to the fine granularity of those subtle variations that function socially.
Phonology and Sociolinguistics
The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, 2013
Since the 1960s, there has been a transition in the target of linguistic description, from intuitive representations of the "ideal speaker/listener" to naturalistic data whose gradience is quantified. The transition is captured by Pierrehumbert: [L]anguage exhibits variability at all levels of representation, from phonetics to phonology and syntax, right through to pragmatics. Thus the issue is how variation fits into our scientific understanding of language. . . . [V]ariation penetrates further into the core of the theory than generally supposed, and that variation should be exploited rather than disregarded in investigating language. (1994: 233-234) Related to this are changing views in how human memory, and cognition more generally, work. The present chapter surveys effects of these two developments on the fields of phonology and sociolinguistics, focusing on examples that bring their domains closer. We see resulting developments in more accurate descriptions and robust theoretical models. This chapter reviews instances in which data organized by variationists have served to further develop Lexical Phonology (LP), Optimality Theory (OT), and Exemplar Theory (ET). This transition requires reexamining certain fundamental assumptions of traditional models of generative phonology. We will consider ways in which these developments have influenced sociolinguistic research design and interpretation, particularly regarding which gradient aspects are relevant to social perception and categorization. One goal of this chapter is to provide the groundwork for a unified linguistic model to be developed by collaboration across sociolinguistics, phonology, and other fields. This will allow us to better understand 625 language within the broader context of cognition, to take into account linguistic and nonlinguistic factors in an integrated fashion, and to develop formal models of observed patterns.
Investigators have recently made impressive progress in multiple areas of sociophonetics. One area is the use of increasingly sophisticated phonetic analysis, which is demonstrating that very fine phonetic detail is used for the construction of social identity. A second area is the use of ethnographic approaches, which enable researchers to break free from using traditional social categories that may not be relevant for a particular group of speakers, and to investigate in depth the social meaning of particular phonetic variants. A third area is the application of experimental techniques to probe listeners' uses of sociophonetic detail in speech perception. These research directions are currently pursued by largely disjoint research communities, and the innovations are seldom combined within the scope of a single study. We argue that it is the combination of all these approaches that holds the key to an integrated understanding of how phonetic variation is produced, performed, and perceived in its social context. 89 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2007.36:89-103. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by HARVARD UNIVERSITY on 03/14/09. For personal use only. Sociophonetics: the study of socially conditioned phonetic variation in speech Variable: "a set of alternative ways of saying the same thing, although the alternatives will have social significance" (Fasold 1990, pp. 223-24) Hay · Drager Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2007.36:89-103. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by HARVARD UNIVERSITY on 03/14/09. For personal use only. PUSHING THE PHONETIC AGENDA FORWARD Much of the sociophonetic methodology uses solely auditory analysis and typically treats variables as binary. Part of the reason for this is no doubt historical: To conduct an auditory analysis, all that one needs is a good tape recorder. Acoustic analysis, at least until recently, required specialized equipment. One additional reason why sociolinguists continue www.annualreviews.org • Sociophonetics 91 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2007.36:89-103. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by HARVARD UNIVERSITY on 03/14/09. For personal use only.
2014
This volume collects seven papers in contemporary sociophonetic research. It addresses hot themes in sociophonetics and proposes a fresh look at old problems still open to debate. A variety of approaches is proposed without neglecting the need for a coherent discussion of the nature of variation in speech and how speakers develop a cognitive representation of it. These characteristics distinguish the present volume from the panorama of comparable sociophonetic literature, which mainly consists of textbooks, readers, and journal special issues (as well as individual journal articles, conference proceedings, and informal reports). , contemporary sociophonetics and sociophonology differ from early variationist sociolinguistics for their focus on the cognitive representation of phonetic variation in the mind of the individual. Stated differently, the fundamental purpose of sociophonetic studies should be that of analyzing how the concrete communicative experiences are categorized by the speakers and, most importantly, of establishing the function of such complex nucleus of information in the structuring of linguistic systems. The fusion of sociolinguistics and phonetics occurs therefore within a cognitivist perspective in which the probabilistic nature of the language and the interest for the processes of language use and comprehension play a special role.
A Sociolinguistic Exploration Of The Difference Between Male Speech And That Of Female Speech
Volume 1 Issue 7, 2018
It has been observed that male speech and female speech tend to differ in their form, topic, content, and use. Early writers were highly introspective in their analyses; more recent work has begun to provide empirical evidence. Male speech might be more direct. Men tend to use more of the non-standard variety of languages. However, women, more often than not, are more supportive, polite, expressive, talk more about home and family, etc. This study was conducted to sociolinguistically examine whether male speech is any different from that of female speech if age and level of education are treated as confounding variables.
The social life of phonetics and phonology
In this article we define and illustrate sociophonetic variation within speech, highlighting both its pervasiveness and also the relatively minor role it has played in the development of phonetic and phonological theory. Reviewing evidence from studies of adults and children, we suggest that cognitive representations of words combine linguistic and indexical information, and that both types of information are present from the first stages of acquisition. We suggest that an exemplar-based model of phonological knowledge offers the most productive means of modeling sociophonetic variation. We discuss some of the characteristics of an exemplar-based account of sociophonetic variability and highlight some strands of investigation which would facilitate its further development. r