Agency
Attention to speech style switching in "Bones" (TV show)
Play videoClips are taken from S05E04. The full episode is available for streaming on Hulu. The character Arastoo, who is Muslim, typically speaks with an Arab accent. During an emotional outburst, he shifts into his L1 standard American English. This shocks everyone in the lab, who assumed that his Arab accent was his L1. In reality, he was born and raised in the U.S., and shifted into the Arab accent so as not be constantly questioned about his religious beliefs.
CW: the clip features Islamophobic behavior from a number of the characters
Protactile Linguistics: Discussing recent research findings
Play videoDiscussion of recent linguistic research on Protactile, a touch-based language used by deafblind people, by researchers Jelica Nuccio and John Lee Clark. The most sociolinguistically relevant section begins at 31:28.
Do languages affect how we view disability? video by Heather Hutchison
Heather Hutchison, a mental health and disability advocate as well as a singer/songwriter, explains her view on how Spanish nicknames put physical attributes on the table that the English language shies away from.
The Speaker-Designed style of Ben Shapiro
Play videoAn explanation of the speaking style of conservative influencer Ben Shapiro, highlighting the extent to which his speech is designed to be inflammatory and manipulative
Non-black person vs culturally black ASL sign
Play videoNicole LaMont discusses her opinion on how the Black American Sign for Black people, as opposed to the "general" American Sign Language sign for "black" should be used by what groups.
we're ✨english majors✨
we're ✨english majors✨ #fyp #foryou #trending [Published on 02-13-2024]
sign-language interpreter is accused of signing total gibberish
Play video"Another sign-language interpreter is accused of signing total gibberish. This time it was at the police news conference announcing an arrest in the Tampa serial killings. A woman standing off to the side was supposedly translating every word, but it turns out much of what she was signing was nonsense. The woman, identified as Derlyn Roberts, has a string of arrests for fraud. So how did she come to be "translating" at last week's high-profile police news conference? #InsideEdition"
In the yard, not too far from the car
A favorite scene from Jaws. I feel like this is a really interesting example of indexicality. Brody and Ellen are clearly aware of (r)-0 in coda position, though they probably wouldn't call it that, and they seem to have some idea of what it indexes and joke about that with each other.
Interview with rapper Angel Haze
Play videoArtifact 2 of 2 in an analysis of style-shifting as a function of interviewer race. This interview was analyzed as part of a project on Coronal Stop Deletion in the speech of Hip Hop artists.
Naked mole-rat colonies have their own dialects—selected by their monarch
Play videoRodents exhibiting use of dialect in verbal communication. Would be cool to index dialects in naked mole rats..
Casual speech in Tamil
Play videoHere is a podcast in Tamil (A Dravidian language spoken mainly in South India) where four people share stories from their childhood. We can see how topic (childhood stories), audience (internet listeners), and the speakers themselves (through their own agency) affect style.
Word Choice - Friends
Play videoIn this episode Joey thinks that the way he speaks or writes is what matters. He starts to think this way when someone told him he should change. He wants to change because of important matters, like writing a letter for an adoption agency. Joey changes his word choices to seem smarter and more distinguished. He deviates from his regular language or vocabulary and it doesn't exactly work out for. What I take from this is that people should embrace their language and personalities with it and not change just because you want to be viewed a different way in society.
Ad Meter 2016: Jeep Super Bowl Portraits
The commercial exemplifies prosody, indexicality and performativity. The speaker's poetic fluctuations are amplified by literary devices such as alliteration making prosody evident. By pointing to the individual (and eventually concluding "we don't make jeep. You do"), indexicality is evident. Performativity is also relevant because Jeep constructs identity in its audience by giving the audience something to identify with (via speech and photographs).
Performativity in Home Alone
Play videoThis is a clip from the movie Home Alone. Kevin goes grocery shopping and while at the register he talks to the cashier as if he is an adult. Kevin also pulls out coupons just as an adult might do, and tells the cashier the toys are “for the kids.” Kevin is using performativity in order to make himself appear as an adult shopping alone at the store before the cashier starts asking him about his real age and why he is alone.
Word association with a person
Play videoWatch as Fox News anchors talk about Bernie Sanders and spend almost forty percent of the conversation about him, trying to fit in the word Socialist as many times as possible to connect the word with this presidential candidate.
Speech Community Project
Play videoStudents of UNCC discuss their experiences within different speech communities, and how different ways of speaking separate each of us into different groups.
Judith Butler on Performativity
Philosopher and feminist theorist Judith Butler describes performativity as “that reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains.” She has largely used this concept in her analysis of gender development. Working in the fields of feminist, queer, and literary studies.
Baltimore Barbie
An SNL skit profiling "Sturdy Barbie," a contender for the new line of Barbies with a working-class, Baltimore accent and persona. [Published on 02-08-2016]
Hey, I'm running for President Here!
A New Republic article highlighting the New York accents of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, with quotes from many linguists suggesting that their accents allow them to construct a positive local authenticity. [Published on 11-14-2015]
The politics of twisted tongues and loopy lingo
A segment on NPR's The Takeaway looking at the use of regional features by politicians, particularly the positive associations from these accents that may serve a politician's goal of connecting with constituents. [Published on 10-26-2015]
MISS KO 葛仲珊 - CALL ME
Play videoMiss Ko is an American-Taiwanese rapper who code-switches in her lyrics, sometimes mid-sentence. It seems like the purpose of her code-switching is to create a "cool" identity. Most of the words or phrases in English are what I would associate with such an identity: references to American celebrities or slang like "main squeeze", "homie", or "holla at me". The bulk of the song is in Chinese, but she supplements English in order to (from my reading) present herself a certain way.
Jamaican Creole - Jesse Royal
Play videoNoisey Jamaica interviews Jesse Royal, living in Kingston. It's interesting to listen to his Jamaican Creole productions as well as the host (Walshy), as he codeswitches rarely, very aware of his video audience who are assumed to speak "standard" English.
The Wire: female police officer Kima Greggs
Play videoThe character Kima Greggs from the HBO series The Wire, in a scene where she aligns with masculine linguistic practices and other attributes. The character is female and homosexual.