DOCSLIB.ORG

MALLINSON, CHRISTINE LOUISE. the Dynamic Construction of Race, Class, and Gender Through Linguistic Practice Among Women in a Black Appalachian Community

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
MALLINSON, CHRISTINE LOUISE. the Dynamic Construction of Race, Class, and Gender Through Linguistic Practice Among Women in a Black Appalachian Community ABSTRACT MALLINSON, CHRISTINE LOUISE. The Dynamic Construction of Race, Class, and Gender through Linguistic Practice among Women in a Black Appalachian Community. (Under the direction of L. Richard Della Fave.) This dissertation conceptualizes and analyzes the dynamic construction of race, class, and gender through linguistic practice in a way that integrates the sociological study of social organization with the study of language in its social context. I illustrate the efficacy of the approach in its application to a field study of the black Southern Appalachian community of Texana, North Carolina. I begin by contextualizing the setting using qualitative evidence from naturalistic observation and interviews with residents. I then focus on the social and linguistic habits of two groups of four women in the community. Drawing from observation and interviews, I analyze qualitative data on the groups’ contemporary situations, shared memories, and ways of life. The qualitative data provides content for interpreting quantitative analyses of sociolinguistic data with regard to race, class, and gender identities. Drawing on both data sources, I show that the two groups of women exhibit distinctions based on lifestyle and presentation that divide them into discrete status groups. I thus provide evidence to show how social status is articulated with local character, in everyday practice, but is also rooted in the system of stratification in ways that intersect with gender, race, and language. My findings exemplify how agentive social actors use language as symbolic vehicles in daily interaction, in concert with other social practices, to constitute intersecting social structures. I draw these conclusions from within an integrative framework that incorporates three bodies of social theory: intersectionality and structuration theories from sociology and community of practice theory as it has developed within variationist sociolinguistics. In framing variationist sociolinguistics with two bodies of current social theory, I establish viable avenues for cross-disciplinary collaboration and insight. THE DYNAMIC CONSTRUCTION OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER THROUGH LINGUISTIC PRACTICE AMONG WOMEN IN A BLACK APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY by Christine Mallinson A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy SOCIOLOGY Raleigh 2006 APPROVED BY: ________________________________ _________________________________ Dr. Barbara Risman Dr. Anne Schiller ________________________________ _________________________________ Dr. Walt Wolfram Dr. Mary Bucholtz ________________________________ Chair of Advisory Committee Dr. L. Richard Della Fave DEDICATION To the community of Texana To my family ii BIOGRAPHY CHRISTINE MALLINSON was born on September 8, 1978, in Salisbury, North Carolina, and lived there until beginning college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated summa cum laude from UNC in May of 2000, with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Sociology and a second major in German. Mallinson then began her graduate study at North Carolina State University in August of 2000 and received a Master of Arts degree in English with a concentration in sociolinguistics in May 2002. She continued her graduate studies in August 2002 by pursuing a doctorate in Sociology at North Carolina State University, with concentrations in race, class, and gender inequality and sociolinguistics. She completed her degree and graduated with her Ph.D. in May 2006. She has accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in the interdisciplinary Language, Literacy & Culture program, to begin August 2006. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I don’t know how to begin to thank all the people whose influence and encouragement have been crucial to me in the dissertation process. First and foremost, to my parents Jim and Carla, and my brother Stephen, thank you for being my sounding boards and near-therapists throughout this entire process… offering boundless support, encouragement, and grounded perspective when I was busy getting lost in academia. To my friends, particularly all of the graduate students in the linguistics and sociology programs—I couldn’t have done it without any of you, who are too numerous to mention… I’m so grateful to have such a strong support network! Phillip Carter deserves special thanks for being, without a doubt, the best office mate and friend I could have hoped to have, throughout graduate school and beyond. I also couldn’t have conducted any of the research in this dissertation without the help of Becky Childs, my longstanding colleague and friend, who not only took countless research trips with me, but has also given me invaluable insight into the world of fieldwork, graduate school, dissertations, and the academic job search. I also want to thank those who participated in this research in other ways—by helping conduct interviews in Texana and gather information about the community, by discussing this work with me, by commenting on earlier drafts of this dissertation, and/or just by giving their general support: Michael Adams, Michele Allen, Agnes Bolonyai, Amy Caison, Ceci Davis, Connie Eble, Kirk Hazen, Deborah Hicks, Brian José, Denise Troutman, Don Winford, and doubtless many more. I am also so fortunate to have gotten to know Robin Dodsworth, who shares my dedication to bridging sociolinguistics and sociology, and who I can always count on to provide feedback, support, insight, and encouragement in our shared commitment to doing interdisciplinary research. iv In my tenure as a graduate student, I perpetually count my blessings for having been a student of Walt Wolfram. Walt, thanks for everything—for being a sounding board and the ultimate resource for knowledge and advice over the past six years, for helping set up this interdisciplinary track in my doctoral program, for all the funding!, for treating me as both a friend and as a colleague, for giving me the opportunity to conduct research on my own, and for above all giving me the space and the never-failing support to pursue my own path. Above all, you’ve given me a model for the kind of academic I hope to be. The rest of my committee from NC State’s sociology department—Barbara Risman, Anne Schiller, and above all, Rick Della Fave—similarly deserves special thanks for supporting my research that tested the boundaries of typical sociological and anthropological research. Rick, in particular, has been one of the few sociologists who I could count on to always find relevance in discussions about sociolinguistics, and in return I always came away from our talks with new sociological insights. Finally, I am also indebted to Mary Bucholtz, whose Language and Gender class at the 2003 Summer Linguistic Institute inspired me to conduct much of the research in this dissertation, and whose mentorship and support, both academic and professional, I could not have done without. To close, I would like to thank the residents of Texana yet again for agreeing to participate in this project. Becky and I always felt welcome in your community, and I learned so much from the opportunity to get to know you all. Thank you for being willing to share your stories. Finally, I am grateful to the National Science Foundation (Grant BCS- 0236838), the William C. Friday Endowment at NC State, and the NC State Sociology Graduate Student Association for helping fund this research. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1.…....Sociological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society.…..... 1 Introduction to the Study…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..….1 The Scope of Chapter 1..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………… 2 Sociological Perspectives on Language in Society..…..…..…..…..…..…..………… 3 Sociological Research on Language and Culture Refining Sociological Perspectives on Language in Society Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..12 Variationist Sociolinguistic Research Refining Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Language in Society Chapter Summary..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..….. ..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…….35 Chapter 2..…………Language in Society in Integrated Theoretical Perspective ...………. 37 The Scope of Chapter 2..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……….. 37 The Relevance of Sociological Theory to the Study of Language in Society……… 38 Intersectionality Theory Addressing Social Class in Critiques of Intersectionality Theory Structuration Theory Addressing Agency in Critiques of Structuration Theory Community of Practice Theory Critiques of Community of Practice Theory Integrating Structuration, Intersectionality, and Community of Practice Theories…56 Chapter Summary..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………59 Chapter 3……………………..The Setting: Texana, North Carolina……………………..61 The Scope of Chapter 3..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………..61 Portraying Texana..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………..61 Heritage..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………………..69 Social Geography..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..………………78 Early History..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………………..81 Integration..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………………..88 Social Class..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……………………93 Family..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………………………101 The Youngest Generation..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..……..105 Attachment to Place..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…………...111
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Writing Speech: Lolcats and Standardization Brittany Brannon Denison University
    Articulāte Volume 17 Article 5 2012 Writing Speech: LOLcats and Standardization Brittany Brannon Denison University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Brannon, Brittany (2012) "Writing Speech: LOLcats and Standardization," Articulāte: Vol. 17 , Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate/vol17/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Denison Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articulāte by an authorized editor of Denison Digital Commons. Writing Speech: LOLcats and Standardization refined men...in their speech and writing" (quoted in Lerer 159). What becomes apparent in Gil's statement is that for the orthoepists, education was Brittany Brannon '12 tied to class—and, therefore, proper language was based as much on class interests as it was on the speech of the educated. It is here that Lerer's use of the term "educated" begins to become problematic. Today, most people in our society believe that education is From the time we are small, we are taught that there are only certain largely separate from class concerns. The American dream tells us that forms of spelling and grammar that are appropriate for written work, anyone who works hard enough can make something of themselves, often regardless of how closely those forms align with our speech. This distinction through education. This myth perpetuates the common lack of recognition is not an innocent one. The inability to use standard written English has that one's level of education still often has more to do with socioeconomic many social judgments attached to and embedded in it.
    [Show full text]
  • Language and Identity in Linguistic Ethnography
    Paper Language and identity in linguistic ethnography by © Miguel Pérez-Milans (The University of Hong Kong) [email protected] April 2015 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ This is the early draft of a contribution to S. Preece (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Language & Identity. (New York & London: Routledge) Language and identity in linguistic ethnography Miguel Pérez-Milans The University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong SAR) Abstract The study of language and identity from the perspective of linguistic ethnography (LE) has received increasing attention during the last decade. Resting upon the social and discursive turns in the social sciences, LE has ontological and epistemological consequences for the way researchers approach language, culture and community, and it has been especially relevant to instability and unpredictability in late modernity. LE originated in the UK, but scholars elsewhere are now drawing it into a fuller account of political economy, a move outlined in the latter part of this paper. 1. Introduction Linguistic ethnography (LE) is a relatively new term that originated in the United Kingdom (UK) and broadly speaking, designates “a particular configuration of interests within the broader field of socio- and applied linguistics [which constitute] a theoretical and methodological development orientating towards particular, established traditions but defining itself in the new intellectual
    [Show full text]
  • Working Paper 7: Hilmar Schäfer, Current Issues in Practice Theory ([email protected]) August 2014
    Please Note: The following working paper was presented at the workshop “Demanding ideas: where theories of practice might go next” held 18-20 June 2014 in Windermere, UK. The purpose of the event was to identify issues and topics that constitute ‘unfinished business’ for people interested in social theories of practice and in the relevance of such ideas for the DEMAND Research Centre. This working paper should not be quoted without first asking the author’s permission. Working Paper 7: Hilmar Schäfer, Current issues in practice theory ([email protected]) August 2014 In order to generate ideas for future developments in practice theory, I would like to start by identifying some of its strengths and weaknesses at the outset. Practice theory’s most important value lies in the decentring of common sociological approaches towards the social. It is concerned with overcoming traditional dichotomies like the separation between society and the individual, culture and the material or thinking and acting. In line with that, it rejects essentialist beliefs and instead advocates a view according to which contextual relations determine identity. By focusing on practices instead of individuals or structure, practice theory offers a relational perspective on the social which parts with monocausal explanations of action. Similar to interpretive approaches, practice theory emphasizes the local production of the social, but it asserts that no situation can exist for itself and that the analysis thus cannot be centred around situational interaction alone. In this regard, it distinguishes itself from the interactionist stance. Rather, the identity of practices, subjects or material things is determined in contexts, which transcend any given situation and which constitute identity in relation to other occurring practices, in relation to the past as well as to different sites.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Change and Social Networks
    COMMUNICATIONS IN COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS Commun. Comput. Phys. Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 935-949 April 2008 Language Change and Social Networks Jinyun Ke1,∗, Tao Gong2 and William S-Y Wang2 1 English Language Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2028, USA. 2 Language Engineering Laboratory, Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Received 5 August 2007; Accepted (in revised version) 27 August 2007 Communicated by Dietrich Stauffer Available online 11 December 2007 Abstract. Social networks play an important role in determining the dynamics and outcome of language change. Early empirical studies only examine small-scale lo- cal social networks, and focus on the relationship between the individual speakers’ linguistic behaviors and their characteristics in the network. In contrast, computer models can provide an efficient tool to consider large-scale networks with different structures and discuss the long-term effect of individuals’ learning and interaction on language change. This paper presents an agent-based computer model which simu- lates language change as a process of innovation diffusion, to address the threshold problem of language change. In the model, the population is implemented as a net- work of agents with age differences and different learning abilities, and the population is changing, with new agents born periodically to replace old ones. Four typical types of networks and their effect on the diffusion dynamics are examined. When the func- tional bias is sufficiently high, innovations always diffuse to the whole population in a linear manner in regular and small-world networks, but diffuse quickly in a sharp S-curve in random and scale-free networks.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociology Teaching and Learning Guide
    Sociology Teaching and Learning Guide Overview Sociology is the rigorous and methodical study of society. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organisations, and societies, and how people interact in various contexts. Anthony Giddens (2013) offers the following definition: Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behaviour as human beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of global social processes. The scope of sociology is extremely wide and may encompass a multitude of topic areas and theoretical perspectives. For instance, sociologists are interested in everything from the fleeting interactions of people in everyday life, to gender representations in the media, to large social processes such as globalisation and migration. As such, sociology may be said to be the broadest of social science disciplines and in many ways complements other disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, geography, history and political science, and even subjects like art and literature. While aiming for scientific objectivity, sociologists generally acknowledge that sociology cannot be viewed as a wholly dis-interested enterprise. Being conducted by people already involved in what they study (i.e. society), sociologists acknowledge that values, morals and political perspectives are intertwined with the ‘science of society’. Scientific objectivity and rigour is thus a guiding ideal, but it is recognised that no one has a ‘God’s-eye view’ of reality and sociology is an interpretive undertaking. Rationale Why study sociology? By studying sociology, students develop a critical awareness and understanding of social issues in both local and global contexts.
    [Show full text]
  • Systems Theory
    1 Systems Theory BRUCE D. FRIEDMAN AND KAREN NEUMAN ALLEN iopsychosocial assessment and the develop - nature of the clinical enterprise, others have chal - Bment of appropriate intervention strategies for lenged the suitability of systems theory as an orga - a particular client require consideration of the indi - nizing framework for clinical practice (Fook, Ryan, vidual in relation to a larger social context. To & Hawkins, 1997; Wakefield, 1996a, 1996b). accomplish this, we use principles and concepts The term system emerged from Émile Durkheim’s derived from systems theory. Systems theory is a early study of social systems (Robbins, Chatterjee, way of elaborating increasingly complex systems & Canda, 2006), as well as from the work of across a continuum that encompasses the person-in- Talcott Parsons. However, within social work, sys - environment (Anderson, Carter, & Lowe, 1999). tems thinking has been more heavily influenced by Systems theory also enables us to understand the the work of the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy components and dynamics of client systems in order and later adaptations by the social psychologist Uri to interpret problems and develop balanced inter - Bronfenbrenner, who examined human biological vention strategies, with the goal of enhancing the systems within an ecological environment. With “goodness of fit” between individuals and their its roots in von Bertalanffy’s systems theory and environments. Systems theory does not specify par - Bronfenbrenner’s ecological environment, the ticular theoretical frameworks for understanding ecosys tems perspective provides a framework that problems, and it does not direct the social worker to permits users to draw on theories from different dis - specific intervention strategies.
    [Show full text]
  • Macro-Sociolinguistics Page 1 MACRO SOCIOLINGUISTICS
    MACRO SOCIOLINGUISTICS: INSIGHT LANGUAGE Rohib Adrianto Sangia Abstract: Language can be studied internally and externally. As externally, Sociolinguistics as the branch of linguistics looked or put position in relation to language speakers in the community, because in human society is no longer as individuals, will remain as a social community. Sociolinguistics concerns with two aspects of civilization, language and society, there are appropriate terms which are micro and macro in sociolinguistics. The main differences of them are micro-sociolinguistics or sociolinguistics –in narrow sense- is the study of language in relation to society, while macro-sociolinguistics or the sociology of language is the study of society in relation to language. Macro-sociolinguistics focuses such as social factors, exactly the interaction between language and dialect, the study of the decline and stabilization of minority languages, bilingualism developmental stability in a particular group. Keywords: Language, Sociolinguistics, Macro Sociolinguistics, Bilingualism. INTRODUCTION Language is a communication tool that people use to interact with each other. By mastering the language of humans can know the content of the world through science and new knowledge and had never imagined before. As a means of communication and interaction that is only possessed by humans, language can be studied internally and externally (Thomason and Kaufman, 1988: 22). Internally means the study made against internal elements such as language course, the structure of phonological, morphological, and syntactical alone. While externally meaningful study was conducted to things or factors outside the language, but in the use of language itself, speech community or the environment. Language may refer to the specific capacity in humans to obtain and use a complex system of communication, or to a specific agency of a complex communication system.
    [Show full text]
  • Arizona Tewa Kwa Speech As a Mantfestation of Linguistic Ideologyi
    Pragmatics2:3.297 -309 InternationalPragmatics Association ARIZONA TEWA KWA SPEECH AS A MANTFESTATIONOF LINGUISTIC IDEOLOGYI Paul V. Kroskriw 1.Introduction "Whathave you learned about the ceremonies?" Back in the Summer of.7973,when I firstbegan research on Arizona Tewa, I was often asked such questionsby a variety of villagers.I found this strange,even disconcerting,since the questionspersisted after I explainedmy researchinterest as residing in the language "itself', or in "just the language,not the culture".My academicadvisors and a scholarlytradition encouraged meto attributethis responseto a combination of secrecyand suspicionregarding such culturallysensitive topics as ceremonial language.Yet despite my careful attempts to disclaimany researchinterest in kiva speech (te'e hi:li) and to carefully distinguish betweenit and the more mundane speech of everyday Arizona Tewa life, I still experiencedthese periodic questionings.Did thesequestions betray a native confusion of thelanguage of the kiva with that of the home and plaza? Was there a connection betweenthese forms of discoursethat was apparent to most Tewa villagersyet hidden fromme? In the past few years, after almost two decadesof undertaking various studiesof fuizonaTewa grammar, sociolinguistic variation, languagecontact, traditional nanatives,code-switching, and chanted announcements,an underlying pattern of languageuse has gradually emerged which, via the documentary method of interpretationhas allowed me to attribute a new meaning to these early intenogations.2The disparatelinguistic and discoursepractices, I contend, display a commonpattern of influencefrom te'e hi:li "kiva speech".The more explicit rules for languageuse in ritual performance provide local models for the generation and anluationof more mundanespeech forms and verbal practices. I Acknowledgements.I would like to thank Kathryn Woolard for her commentson an earlier rcnionof thisarticle which was presentedas part of the 1991American Anthropological Association rymposium,"language ldeologies: Practice and Theory'.
    [Show full text]
  • The Practical Turn' David G
    8 The Practical Turn' David G. Stern What is Practice Theory? What is a Practice? What is "practice theory"? The best short answer is that it is any theory that treats practice as a fundamental category, or takes practices as its point of departure . Naturally, this answer leads to further questions . What is meant by "practices" here? What is involved in taking practices as a point of departure or a fundamental category, and what does that commitment amount to? And what is the point of the contrast between a practice-based theory and one that starts elsewhere? Perhaps the most significant point of agreement among those who have taken the practical turn is that it offers a way out of Procustean yet seemingly inescap- able categories, such as subject and object, representation and represented, con- ceptual scheme and content, belief and desire, structure and action, rules and their application, micro and macro, individual and totality . Instead, practice the- orists propose that we start with practices and rethink our theories from the ground up. Bourdieu, for instance, insists that only a theory of practice can open up a way forward : Objective analysis of practical apprehension of the familiar world . teaches us that we shall escape from the ritual either/or choice between objectivism and subjectiv- ism in which the social sciences have so far allowed themselves to be trapped only if we are prepared to inquire into the mode of production and functioning of the practical mastery which makes possible both an objectively intelligible practice and also an objectively enchanted experience of that practice .
    [Show full text]
  • Conservative and Innovative Behaviour by Female Speakers in a Multilingual Micronesian Society*
    Conservative and innovative behaviour by female speakers in a multilingual Micronesian society* Kazuko Matsumoto and David Britain Department of Language and Linguistics University of Essex Wivenhoe Park Colchester CO4 3SQ U.K. [email protected] [email protected] Abstract The focus of this article is the supposed ‘Gender Paradox’, proposed by Labov (1990, 2001), that women are both sometimes conservative and sometimes innovative in terms of linguistic variation and change. Here we explore the paradox from two perspectives: we both investigate its applicability to multilingual as opposed to multidialectal communities as well as question whether the paradox is methodological or real. Although much sociolinguistic research on the paradox has been on macro studies of men vs. women in monolingual multidialectal communities, this paper presents quantitative analyses supplemented by in-depth ethnographic observation and data collection in communities of practice in a multilingual Japanese-Palauan community of the Western Pacific. What is more, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the ‘conservatism’ and ‘innovation’ of women in the community under scrutiny is represented by the use of the very same language –Japanese. For older Japanese Palauan women, the greater use of Japanese represents adherence to their heritage language. Among younger Japanese-Palauan women (most of whom are bilingual in Palauan and English), however, the use of Japanese represents a change towards a language highly valued in the economy as essential for the promotion
    [Show full text]
  • PERSONALITY, GENDER, and the NORTHERN CITIES SHIFT By
    PERSONALITY, GENDER, AND THE NORTHERN CITIES SHIFT By Steve Leonard Johnson III A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Linguistics 2012 ABSTRACT PERSONALITY, GENDER, AND THE NORTHERN CITIES SHIFT By Steve Leonard Johnson III Studies of sound changes in sociolinguistics have shown a consistent trend that women tend to be linguistically innovative and lead most of the major sound changes. Additionally, women have been shown to use more standard variants than men in stable sociolinguistic variables, giving rise to the “gender paradox” where women are both linguistically conservative and innovative. Studies that examine variation within sex groups unravel this paradox by showing that different women behave differently— some being conservative language users while others are innovative. Traditional methods that aim to examine the role of gender in ongoing sociolinguistic change often use sex as a binary variable instead of socially defined degrees of masculinity and femininity. These methods group all women, innovative and conservative, into one sex-based group, and the distinction between those who lead the change and lag behind is lost. Additionally, qualitative studies of leaders of linguistic change have shown similarities in leaders, but there are no quantitative methods to predict leaders of change. This dissertation goes beyond traditional studies of gender variation to create a quantitative methodology to examine leaders in linguistic changes and explain gender- based patterns of linguistic behavior. A representative set of vowel tokens from speakers from Southeastern Michigan was measured and normalized for each subject, and these data were used in multiple regression analyses to identify how speakers pattern in respect to the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), a female-led sound change in the vowel system of speakers from urban Great Lakes areas, and possible factors affecting changes.
    [Show full text]
  • Parnell-Mooney, James (2019) Tran/S/Gender: Assessing the Effects of the Social Construction of Gender on Speech: a Focus on Transgender /S/ Realisations
    Parnell-Mooney, James (2019) Tran/s/gender: assessing the effects of the social construction of gender on speech: a focus on transgender /s/ realisations. MPhil(R) thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/41151/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Tran/s/gender Assessing the effects of the social construction of gender on speech: A focus on transgender /s/ realisations James Parnell-Mooney Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of MPhil English Language & Linguistics School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow Abstract Assessing the effects of the social construct of gender on speech: A focus on Scottish transgender /s/ realisations The purpose of this study is to gauge how much one’s speech is conditioned by their gender identity rather than by their sex. Many features of speech have been shown to vary depending on speaker sex and gender such as pitch, lexis, syntax and volume. On a more fine-grained level, fricatives have been shown to index speaker sex and this was initially attributed to biological sex differences; ‘larger’ males would have a physically larger vocal tract and thus have lower peak frequencies.
    [Show full text]