Anders Bratteli
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World of Speechcraft: Accent Use and Stereotyping in Computer Games Anders Bratteli Department of Foreign Languages University of Bergen November 2011 1 2 Summary in Norwegian Denne studien omhandler dialektbruk ('accent') i dataspill. Nærmere bestemt, etterforsker den om det er en sammenheng mellom egenskapene til spillkarakterer og den dialekten de snakker. Studien er inspirert av Rosina Lippi-Green sin 1997 studie om dialektbruk i Disneyfilmer og resultatene blir dermed også sammenlignet med hennes resultater, samt resultater fra andre lignende studier. Årsaken til at nettopp dataspill ble valgt som materiale er at til tross for dataspillenes stadig voksende popularitet, er det blitt utført veldig lite forskning på dette mediet, og med denne studien ønsker jeg dermed både å belyse et mørklagt felt, men også å inspirere til videre forskning innenfor området. Datamaterialet var 1230 karakterer fra ti forskjellige spill utgitt i perioden 1997 til 2009. Disse ble kodet for en rekke sosiale variabler, og dialekten deres analysert manuelt. En rekke hypoteser var knyttet til disse variablene, men den overliggende tanken var å se om det kunne påvises en form for korrelasjon mellom karaktertrekk og uttale. Alle karakterer som snakket en eller annen form for engelsk, enten det var med utenlandske uttaletrekk, en eller annen form for amerikansk, eller britisk, var inkludert så fremt de snakket lenge nok til at dialekten lot seg klassifisere. Resultatene viste at det var hevet over enhver tvil at karaktertrekkene hadde noe å si for dialekten til en gitt karakter, og for alle de sosiale variablene var det tendenser til at noen typer dialekter ble funnet oftere blant karakter med en viss type karaktertrekk og sjeldnere blant karakterer med andre typer karaktertrekk. Sammenligningen med Lippi-Green (1997) viste at selv om det fantes visse tendenser til likheter, var det også flere områder hvor våre respektive funn var forskjellige. Et slikt område gjaldt karakterer med utenlandsk uttale. Hvor Lippi- Green fant at slike karakterer var overrepresentert blant negative karaktertyper, viste mine resultater et mer nyansert bilde, og det var mer sannsynlig at en karakter med utenlandsk uttale i de analyserte dataspillene hadde en positiv enn en negativ holdning. Et annet hovedfunn var at mens General American ('standard' Amerikansk) i filmene analysert av Lippi-Green hovedsaklig ble brukt av hovedkarakterer og positive karakterer, ble den i dataspillene brukt av alle typer roller. 3 Acknowledgements I would first and foremost like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Bente Rebecca Hannisdal, whose inexaustible well of patience and understanding made the present study possible. My deepest thanks go to Sandra Halverson for introducing me to SPSS. I shudder to think on the possibility of having to manage without it. Vidar Edland, I am ever grateful for the time you took to read and comment upon parts of my thesis (and for keeping me relatively sane during the final few weeks of the writing process. The wine must flow!) Claudia Förster Hegrenæs for sharing with me the long lonely summer days at 'lesesalen' when it seemed like the entire world was on vacation. Remember when our biggest concern was whether the yoghurt or the milk was causing the funky smell from the refrigerator? Ingrid Ianke Mørkeseth for reading and commenting upon parts of my thesis and offering words of encouragement during the final hectic days of the writing process. Janne Sønnesyn for showing me the basic workings of Excel, and for always being willing to offer a bit of help when needed (sorry about the long facebook rants!) Harald Ottesen Nødtvedt for reading parts of the thesis and offering insight into the wonderful world of Cockney. Procrastination United, my quiz team, for allowing my brain some excercise on something completely unrelated to the everyday routine of the thesis. Any friends who were kind enough to respond to my pleadings for help on facebook when a certain turn of phrase suddenly seemed impossible to remember. Mari Skjerdal Lysne for introducing me to the wonderful choir Kor e' Tonen, giving me an extra hobby to take my mind of the pressing demands of the paper. And my piano for giving me short sorely needed breaks from the writing process whenever needed (in fact, I think I'll just go an play a tiny tune just now). Finally, my heartfelt thanks go out to mother and father for moral (and financial) support. When Lånekassen lost faith in me, you did not. I would never have come so far without your unwavering support and sincere faith in my abilities to drive me on. Anders Bratteli, Bergen November 2011 4 Dedicated to my dearest grandmother Alette Olsen (1914-2011). You are sorely missed. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary in Norwegian..............................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................iv List of abbreviations...................................................................................................................vii 1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................1 1.1 Aim and scope...........................................................................................................1 1.2 Computer games and films........................................................................................2 1.3 Hypotheses.................................................................................................................3 1.4 The structure of the thesis..........................................................................................6 2 BACKGROUND AND THEORY..........................................................................................7 2.1 Language variation....................................................................................................7 2.2 Language variation and attitude................................................................................8 2.3 Standard language ideology.......................................................................................8 2.3.1. Language ideology and political correctness..........................................10 2.4 Studies on language attitudes...................................................................................12 2.4.1. Traditional studies...................................................................................13 2.4.2. Folklinguistics.........................................................................................18 2.5 Stereotypes and media..............................................................................................21 2.5.1. Rosina Lippi-Green's Disney Study........................................................22 2.5.2. Other previous study...............................................................................24 2.6 Classical roles..........................................................................................................26 2.6.1. The Villain..............................................................................................26 2.6.2. The Hero.................................................................................................27 2.6.3. The 'Other'..............................................................................................27 2.6.4. Gender....................................................................................................28 2.7 Computer Games.....................................................................................................29 2.7.1. Computer game terminology..................................................................29 2.7.2. A brief history of computer games.........................................................30 2.7.3. The cultural impact of computer games..................................................31 2.8 Voice acting..............................................................................................................32 3 DATA AND METHODOLOGY......................................................................................37 6 4 VARIABLES......................................................................................................................52 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION..........................................................................................65 6 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................97 7 List of abbreviations AIAS: Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences BA: British coloured American ESRB: Entertainment Software Rating Board FA: Foreign accented GA: General American ISFE: Interactive Software Federation of Europe KotOR: Knights of the Old Republic MaPC: Main player character NPC: Non-player character NwN: Neverwinter Nights PC: Personal computer, may also mean player character PEGI: Pan European Game Information RP: Received Pronunciation RPG: Roleplaying game SA/RA: Socially and regionally marked American SB/RB: Socially and regionally marked British SuPC: Supporting player character 8 CHAPTER 1 | INTRODUCTION 1.1 Aim & scope This thesis aims to investigate how different accents of English are used in the portrayal of characters in computer games. The sample consists of 10 games released between 1997 and 2009. All characters have been coded for the following variables, which were