Sociophonetics

Bernd Möbius

Winter semester 2023/2024, LSF/HIS #144586

Seminar

M.Sc. Language Science and Technology
M.Sc. Language and Communication Technologies
B.Sc. Computerlinguistik

Fri 14:15-15:45, C7.2/-1.05

Updated Feb 5, 2024


Entrance requirements

Some background in Phonetics and Speech Science (strongly recommended).

Course description

Sociophonetics is a sub-branch of phonetics and linguistics that has attracted a great deal of attention over the last two decades. Recent advances in speech science and their technological simulations allow increasingly sophisticated studies of the progress of intralingual language contact and change. These studies, particularly those at the level of pronunciation, show that language variety is robust and socially embedded in interesting ways. Instrumental studies of language variety contact and change have focused on the role of social categories and attitudes in variety perception as well as production. Some of the studies covered in this course look at the specific role of social factors in the formation, progress, and deterrence of intralingual contact and change; while others look at the ways in which social identities and beliefs influence a listener's ability to identify and comprehend varieties. These studies use detailed acoustic analyses of production speech data and of responses to samples of data based on such analyses. The course also provides a review of practices in the field, including those of collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Course credits

7 CP (presentation and paper) or 4 CP (presentation only).
Active participation on a regular basis required.

Requirements

Participation: You are expected to be physically present throughout the seminar and take part in the discussion.
You may miss maximally one class without formal consequences. Please send me an email message in this case, just saying that you will not take part, no explanation required. In case you cannot make it a second or third time, you have to write and submit a summary of the papers to be read (minimum one page per paper).

Reading: For each class, you are required to read one or two papers. For each paper, please send me one question that you want to be answered or discussed in class (on the day preceding the class, before midnight).

Presentation: An oral presentation of 30-45 minutes, typically based on a core paper and maybe some complementary reading. Please contact me (1) when you have been assigned a topic/paper and want to start working on it; (2) when you have a pre-final draft version of the presentation. After your presentation I will provide feedback to you. The final version of your slides will be posted on the course homepage.

Term Paper: MSc students opting for the 7 CP version have to write a term paper (approx. 15 pages, deadlines see below). The topic of the paper need not be identical or overlap with the topic of your oral presentation.

Specific instructions for term papers and the use of LMM-based generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT or similar): It is your responsibility to verify any information that you include in the term paper with respect to correctness and reliability of the source. LLM tools generate text based on probabilities without guaranteeing the veracity of information. This also pertains to bibliographic sources, which need to be verified. If you use such tools in the process of writing your term paper, you must indicate this in the declaration that the paper is your own academic work. You must also provide the prompts you used. See UdS guidelines (page 6).

Deadlines

Registration for course in LSF: Oct 25, 2023
Exam registration: Feb 2, 2024
Term paper: March 31, 2024

Contact:
  Prof. Dr. Bernd Möbius
  Email
  C7.2/4.10
  0681/302-4500

Schedule

Session Topic/Paper Presented by Slides / Questions
03.11. Planning and organization Möbius
10.11. Paper assignment
discuss Gordon:2006, Hay/Drager:2007
Möbius
all
 
questions
17.11. discuss Mendoza/etal:2003, Pierrehumbert:2006a all questions
24.11. Clopper/Pisoni:2005 Helena slides - questions
08.12. Hay/etal:2006a George slides - questions
15.12. Heffernan:2004 Diana slides - questions
12.01. Strand:1999 Hanna slides - questions
19.01. Keiser/etal:1997 Yan slides - questions
26.01. Johnson:2006a Alexander slides - questions
02.02. Jannedy/Weirich:2014, Jannedy/etal:2015 Sahra slides - questions

Preliminary list of papers (updated Nov 2)

Papers
- Background
  . Kendall/etal:2023, review paper - pdf
  . Gordon:2006, Interview mit Labov [all] - pdf
  . Hay/Drager:2007, Sociophonetics - pdf
  . Labov:2006, Sociolinguistics and sociophonetics - pdf
- Methods
  . Mendoza/etal:2003, Probabilistic sociolinguistics - pdf
  . Pierrehumbert:2006a, Next toolkit - pdf
  . Sankoff/Labov:1979, VARBRUL - pdf
- Sociophonetic studies
  . Foulkes/Docherty:2006, Phonetics and phonology - pdf
  . Harrington:2006, Queen's English - pdf
  . Hay/etal:2006a, AUS vs. NZL - pdf
  . Hay/etal:2006b, Context for merger - pdf
  . Jannedy/etal:2015, Hood German fricatives - pdf
  . Jannedy/Weirich:2014, Hood German diphthongs - pdf
  . Johnson:2006a, Emergence of social identity - pdf
- Sociolinguistic studies
  . Cheshire:2002, Sex and gender - pdf
  . Clopper/Pisoni:2005, Dialect perception - pdf
  . Gluszek/Dovidio:2010, L2 accent stigma - pdf
  . Heffernan:2004, Social marker of gender - pdf
  . Keiser/etal:1997, Northern cities shift - pdf
  . Strand:1999, Gender stereotypes - pdf

Bibtex references

@Book{Chambers/etal:2002,
  title = 	 {The Handbook of Language Variation and Change},
  editor = 	 {Chambers, J.~K. and Trudgill, Peter and
		  Schilling-Estes, Natalie},
  publisher = 	 {Blackwell},
  year = 	 2002,
  address =	 {Oxford, UK}
}

@InCollection{Cheshire:2002,
  author = 	 {Cheshire, Jenny},
  title = 	 {Sex and gender in variationist research},
  booktitle = 	 {The Handbook of Language Variation and Change},
  pages =	 {423--443},
  publisher =	 {Blackwell},
  year =	 2002,
  editor =	 {Chambers, J.~K. and Trudgill, Peter and
                  Schilling-Estes, Natalie}
}

@InCollection{Clopper/Pisoni:2005,
  author = 	 {Clopper, Cynthia~G. and Pisoni, David~B.},
  title = 	 {Perception of dialect variation},
  booktitle = 	 {The Handbook of Speech Perception},
  pages =	 {313--337},
  publisher =	 {Blackwell},
  year =	 2005,
  editor =	 {Pisoni, David~B. and Remez, Robert~E.},
  address =	 {Oxford, UK}
}

@Article{Foulkes/Docherty:2006,
  author = 	 {Foulkes, Paul and Docherty, Gerard},
  title = 	 {The social life of phonetics and phonology},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  number =	 4,
  pages =	 {409--438}
}

@Article{Gluszek/Dovidio:2010,
  author = 	 {Gluszek, Agata and Dovidio, John~F.},
  title = 	 {The way \textit{they} speak: A social psychological
                  perspective on the stigma of nonnative accents in
                  communication},
  journal = 	 {Personality and Social Psychology Review},
  year = 	 2010,
  volume = 	 14,
  number = 	 2,
  pages = 	 {214--237}
}

@Article{Gordon:2006,
  author = 	 {Gordon, Matthew~J.},
  title = 	 {Interview with {William Labov}},
  journal = 	 {Journal of English Linguistics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  number =	 4,
  pages =	 {332--351},
  annote =	 {[http://eng.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/4/332.pdf]}
}

@Article{Harrington:2006,
  author = 	 {Harrington, Jonathan},
  title = 	 {An acoustic analysis of `happy-tensing' in the
                  Queen's Christmas broadcasts},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  pages =	 {439--457}
}

@Article{Hay/Drager:2007,
  author = 	 {Hay, Jennifer and Drager, Katie},
  title = 	 {Sociophonetics},
  journal = 	 {Annual Review of Anthropology},
  year = 	 2007,
  volume =	 {36},
  pages =	 {89--103}
}

@Article{Hay/etal:2006a,
  author = 	 {Hay, Jennifer and Nolan, Aaron and Drager, Katie},
  title = 	 {From \textit{fush} to \textit{feesh}: Exemplar
                  priming in speech perception},
  journal = 	 {The Linguistic Review},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 23,
  pages =	 {351--379}
}

@Article{Hay/etal:2006b,
  author = 	 {Hay, Jennifer and Warren, Paul and Drager, Katie},
  title = 	 {Factors influencing speech perception in the context
                  of a merger-in-progress},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  pages =	 {458--484}
}

@Article{Heffernan:2004,
  author = 	 {Heffernan, Kevin},
  title = 	 {Evidence from {HNR} that /s/ is a social marker of
                  gender},
  journal = 	 {Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics},
  year = 	 {2004},
  volume =	 23,
  number =	 2,
  pages =	 {71--84}
}

@InProceedings{Jannedy/Weirich:2014,
  author = 	 {Jannedy, Stefanie and Weirich, Melanie},
  title = 	 {Linguistic influences on diphthong realization of
                  /oy/ in {Hood German}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 10th International Seminar on
                  Speech Production (ISSP, Cologne, Germany)},
  year = 	 2014,
  pages = 	 {214--217}
}

@InProceedings{Jannedy/etal:2015,
  author = 	 {Jannedy, Stefanie and Weirich, Melanie and Helmeke, Luisa},
  title = 	 {Acoustic analyses of differences in [ç] and [ʃ]
                  productions in {Hood German}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Congress of
                  Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2015, Glasgow, UK)},
  year = 	 2015,
  pages = 	 {??},
  note = 	 {Paper \#328}
}

@Article{Johnson:2006a,
  author = 	 {Johnson, Keith},
  title = 	 {Resonance in an exemplar-based lexicon: The
                  emergence of social identity and phonology},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  number =	 4,
  pages =	 {485--499}
}

@Article{Keiser/etal:1997,
  author = 	 {Keiser, Steve~H. and Hinskens, Frans and Migge,
                  Bettina and Strand, Elizabeth~A.},
  title = 	 {The {Northern Cities Shift} in the {Heartland}? A
                  study of radio speech in {Columbus, Ohio}},
  journal = 	 {OSU Working Papers in Linguistics},
  year = 	 1997,
  volume =	 50,
  pages =	 {41--68}
}

@Article{Kendall/etal:2023,
  author = 	 {Kendall, Tyler and Pharao, Nicolai and Stuart-Smith,
                  Jane and Vaughn, Charlotte},
  title = 	 {Advancements of phonetics in the 21st century:
                  Theoretical issues in sociophonetics},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2023,
  volume = 	 98,
  pages = 	 {1--37},
  doi = 	 {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101226}
}

@Article{Labov:2006,
  author = 	 {Labov, William},
  title = 	 {A sociolinguistic perspective on sociophonetic research},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  pages =	 {500--515}
}

@InCollection{Mendoza/etal:2003,
  author = 	 {Mendoza-Denton, Norma and Hay, Jennifer and Jannedy,
                  Stefanie},
  title = 	 {Probabilistic sociolinguistics: Beyond variable rules},
  booktitle = 	 {Probabilistic Linguistics},
  pages =	 {97--138},
  publisher =	 {MIT Press},
  year =	 2003,
  editor =	 {Bod, Rens and Hay, Jennifer and Jannedy, Stefanie}
}

@Book{Paolillo:2002,
  author =	 {Paolillo, J.~C.},
  title = 	 {Analyzing Linguistic Variation: Statistical Models
                  and Methods},
  publisher = 	 {CSLI Publications},
  year = 	 2002,
  address =	 {Stanford, CA}
}

@Article{Pierrehumbert:2006a,
  author = 	 {Pierrehumbert, Janet~B.},
  title = 	 {The next toolkit},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Phonetics},
  year = 	 2006,
  volume =	 34,
  pages =	 {516--530}
}

@Article{Sankoff/Labov:1979,
  author = 	 {Sankoff, David and Labov, William},
  title = 	 {On the uses of variable rules},
  journal = 	 {Language in Society},
  year = 	 1979,
  volume =	 8,
  number =	 2,
  pages =	 {189--222}
}

@InCollection{Sankoff:1988,
  author = 	 {Sankoff, David},
  title = 	 {Variable rules},
  booktitle = 	 {Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of the
                  Science of Language and Society},
  pages =	 {984--997},
  publisher =	 {Walter de Gruyter},
  year =	 1988,
  editor =	 {Ammon, Ulrich and Dittmar, Norbert and Matheier, Klaus~J.},
  volume =	 {I},
  address =	 {Berlin}
}

@Article{Strand:1999,
  author = 	 {Strand, Elizabeth~A.},
  title = 	 {Uncovering the role of gender stereotypes in speech
                  perception},
  journal = 	 {Journal of Language and Social Psychology},
  year = 	 1999,
  volume =	 18,
  number =	 1,
  pages =	 {86--99}
}

bm 5.2.2024