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Linguistic Variation, Identity Construction and Cognition

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Linguistic variation, identity construction and cognition Katie K. Drager language Studies in Laboratory Phonology 2 science press Studies in Laboratory Phonology Chief Editor: Martine Grice Editors: Doris Mücke, Taehong Cho In this series: 1. Cangemi, Francesco. Prosodic detail in Neapolitan Italian. 2. Drager, Katie K. Linguistic variation, identity construction and cognition. ISSN: 2363-5576 Linguistic variation, identity construction and cognition Katie K. Drager language science press Katie K. Drager. 2015. Linguistic variation, identity construction and cognition (Studies in Laboratory Phonology 2). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/75 © 2015, Katie K. Drager Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-946234-24-1 (Digital) 978-3-946234-25-8 (Hardcover) 978-3-944675-56-5 (Softcover) ISSN: 2363-5576 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Katie K. Drager, Sebastian Nordhoff, Felix Kopecky Proofreading: Svetoslava Antonova-Baumann, Timo Buchholz, Andreea Calude, Hugo Cardoso, Christian Döhler, Martin Haspelmath, Andreas Hölzl, Maria Maldonado, Aviva Shimelman, Charlotte van Tongeren Fonts: Linux Libertine, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Language Science Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, ac- curate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first publication but Language Science Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. To Mom and Dad Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi 1 The separation of the social and the linguistic 1 1.1 Introduction ............................. 1 1.2 The social, the linguistic, and the cognitive ............ 4 1.3 Waves of variationist studies .................... 7 1.3.1 First Wave .......................... 9 1.3.2 Second Wave ........................ 9 1.3.3 Third Wave ......................... 11 1.4 Gradience and acoustic analysis .................. 13 1.5 Experimental sociolinguistics .................... 15 1.6 Laboratory phonology ....................... 17 1.6.1 Token frequency ...................... 18 1.6.2 Lemmas, lexemes, and phonetic detail .......... 18 1.7 Multiple methodologies ....................... 19 2 Social groups at Selwyn Girls’ High 23 2.1 Methodology ............................. 23 2.1.1 Background ......................... 23 2.1.2 The students ......................... 24 2.1.3 Integrating myself into SGH ................ 25 2.1.4 The formal .......................... 26 2.1.5 My role at SGH ....................... 28 2.1.6 The myth of the neutral ethnographer .......... 29 2.2 Selwyn Girls’ High ......................... 31 2.3 Groups of friends .......................... 33 2.3.1 CR groups .......................... 35 2.3.2 NCR groups ......................... 44 2.3.3 Outside of lunchtime .................... 53 2.4 Salience and stance ......................... 54 Contents 2.5 A bit of self reflection ........................ 61 2.5.1 The BBs ........................... 61 2.5.2 The Trendy Alternatives .................. 62 2.5.3 The PCs ........................... 63 2.5.4 The Real Teenagers ..................... 64 2.5.5 The Relaxed Group ..................... 64 2.5.6 The Pasifika Group ..................... 65 2.5.7 The Goths .......................... 65 2.5.8 The Christians and The Geeks ............... 65 2.5.9 The Sporty Girls ...................... 65 2.5.10 Rochelle’s Group ...................... 66 2.5.11 Sonia’s Group ........................ 66 2.5.12 When research and friendship blend ........... 66 2.5.13 Shaping interpretations .................. 68 2.6 Conclusion .............................. 70 3 Like: Frequency and phonetic realisations 73 3.1 Methodology of interviews ..................... 73 3.2 Variation in use of like ....................... 75 3.2.1 Use of quotative like at SGH ................ 78 3.2.2 Use of discourse particle like at SGH ........... 84 3.3 Phonetic variation of like ...................... 86 3.3.1 Methodology for acoustic phonetic analysis ....... 87 3.3.2 Results ............................ 95 3.4 Discussion .............................. 105 3.4.1 Frequency effects ...................... 106 3.4.2 Special status of discursive tokens ............ 109 3.4.3 Changes in progress .................... 112 3.4.4 Prosody and phonetic variation .............. 113 3.4.5 Identity construction .................... 113 3.4.6 Reflection on influence from researcher ......... 120 3.4.7 Storage of phonetic detail in the mind .......... 121 4 Variation in speech perception 123 4.1 Experiment 1 ............................. 127 4.1.1 Methodology ........................ 127 4.1.2 Results ............................ 130 4.2 Experiment 2 ............................. 134 4.2.1 Methodology ........................ 134 vi Contents 4.2.2 Results ............................ 136 4.3 Experiment 3 ............................. 138 4.3.1 Methodology ........................ 139 4.3.2 Results ............................ 140 4.4 Discussion .............................. 142 4.4.1 Lack of social effects in function identification tasks .. 143 4.4.2 Theoretical implications .................. 144 5 Toward a cognitive model of stylistic variation in identity construction 147 5.1 Summary of results ......................... 147 5.1.1 Maintaining and rejecting norms ............. 147 5.1.2 Patterns in production ................... 148 5.1.3 Patterns in perception ................... 148 5.2 Social theory ............................. 150 5.2.1 Phonetic information and identity construction ..... 150 5.3 Probabilistic linguistics ....................... 151 5.3.1 Bayesian model of syntactic parsing ........... 151 5.3.2 Exemplar Theory ...................... 153 5.4 Indexation of social information .................. 157 5.5 Conclusion .............................. 163 6 Looking forward 165 6.1 Speakers as style-creators ...................... 166 6.2 Concluding remarks ......................... 170 A Measures of familiarity 175 A.1 CR Groups .............................. 175 A.1.1 The Sporty Girls ...................... 175 A.1.2 The PCs ........................... 176 A.1.3 Trendy Alternatives .................... 177 A.1.4 Rochelle’s Group ...................... 177 A.1.5 The BBs ........................... 178 A.1.6 The Relaxed Group ..................... 179 A.2 NCR Groups ............................. 180 A.2.1 The Pasifika Group ..................... 180 A.2.2 The Goths .......................... 180 A.2.3 The Real Teenagers ..................... 181 A.2.4 The Christians ........................ 181 A.2.5 Sonia’s Group ........................ 182 vii Contents A.2.6 The Geeks .......................... 182 A.2.7 Cecily’s Group ....................... 183 A.2.8 Loners ............................ 183 B Production data 185 C Stimuli for perception experiments 187 D Perception experiment data 219 References 227 Index 238 Name index ................................. 238 Subject index ................................ 242 viii Acknowledgements This book is a slightly altered version of my Ph.D. dissertation, which Icompleted with the insightful and generous help from the wonderful mentors I had while at the University of Canterbury. First and foremost, I would like to thank Jen Hay. I can’t begin to express how indebted I am to her. She is my mentor, my role model, and my good friend and it has been an incredible honour to work with her. Through knowing Jen, I have come to understand the kind of teacher, researcher, and mentor that I would like to be. I am also extremely grateful to Alex D’Arcy, my associate supervisor, for her valuable critiques of my work and her wonderfully caring and supportive nature. Additionally, I would like to thank Christian Langstrof, Anita Szakay, Elizabeth Gordon, Heidi Quinn, and Jeanette King. I would also like to thank Abby Walker, who I have had countless academic discussions with and who has been there for me on a personal level more times than I can count. After completing the ethnographic portion of this study, I had the opportunity to spend time as a visiting student at two overseas universities: Stanford Uni- versity and the University of Oxford. While at Stanford, I had the pleasure of working with Penny Eckert, with whom every discussion resulted in a new in- sight. I am also grateful to John Coleman for allowing me to work at the Oxford Phonetics Lab, where I completed the majority of the acoustic analysis that is presented in this book. I am extremely appreciative of the helpful comments made by Margaret Macla- gan, Felcity Cox, Jane Stuart-Smith, Lauren Hall-Lew, Laura Staum Casasanto, Rebecca Greene, Paul Foulkes, Benjamin Munson, ‘Ōiwi Parker Jones, and Keith Johnson. I would also like to thank Gerry Docherty, who served as a reviewer for this book and whose comments and suggestions were especially valuable. I am also indebted to the many proofreaders who volunteered their time. Thank you to Carolyn Morris, Martin Fuchs, and Norma Mendoza-Denton for providing
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