More Adventures with Dialects: Convergence and Ambiguity Resolution
by Partners in Conversation
Brennan, Huffman, Hannigan, et al.
Assumptions about dialects
Dialects encode geographic, demographic, educational socioeconomic info
Dialects converge during interaction
Questions about dialects What IS a dialect? Do dialects really converge in conversation? How do listeners cope w/ variability in the
speech signal, including that from dialects? Are all kinds of variability handled by the same
processing mechanisms? Are representations of the sounds of a
language stored as abstract prototypes or as different instances/variants?
Is there parity between comprehension and production when it comes to dialectal variation?
Dialects aren’t all-or-nothing!
Adapting to a partner’s dialect
Do speakers converge with a partner’s dialect? (Brennan & Huffman, in prep.)
Long Island (LI) vs. General American (GA) dialect Design: Session 1 with LI addressee
Session 2 with GA addressee
Sample dialect words to elicit: Consonants
r-drop toaster, saucer, paperclip
Vowels - Monophthongs “bad” plaid, cab, labcoat, bathtub “bat” hat, bat, cat, cap “ale” scale, tail, mailbox “ah” dot, pot, knot, cot
Vowels - Diphthongs aw chocolate, faucet, saw
Task: “Go fish” card game
Subject: “I need a toaster.” Confed: “Here you go, a toaster.”
or “Sorry, no toaster, go fish.” “OK, I need a lab coat.”
<etc.>
Dialect comparisons
LI speech example:
More examples of LI subjects in the context of confederates’ speech
“cab”: LI subj., then GA confed. “saucer”: LI subj., then GA confed. “saucer”: LI conf., then LI subject
(play) (repeat)
Results so far:
Speakers do significantly less r-dropping to GA addressees than to LI addressees
Very small change in monophthongs: F1 goes up slightly, F2 goes down slightly We need to look at differences for individual words
(e.g., PLAID, CAB, LABCOAT, BATHTUB)
Dipthongs: Stay tuned!
Implications
Dialects are clusters of tendencies. Articulatory adaptations associated with dialect
don’t occur as a unit. Some features of a dialect are more flexible
than others. Adaptation may depend on awareness of a
feature!
Adapting to a speaker’s dialect
Do speakers converge with their partners’ dialects? (Brennan & Huffman, in prep.)
Do listeners perceive homophones differently, depending on the dialect of the speaker? And does the listener’s own dialect matter?
(with Stephanie Hannigan & Marie Huffman)
The parity issue, vis-à-vis dialects
The comprehension (input) and production (output) issues are different.
Dialectal variation is particularly hard to deal with on the input side.
When a dialect is unfamiliar, the source of the variation is ambiguous
Tourist: Excuse me, is it pronounced ‘Hawaii’ or
‘Havaii’?
Benny Hill: Havaii
Tourist: Thank you!
Benny Hill: You’re velcome!
(Kraljic, Brennan, & Samuel, under review)
Welcome to Long Island!
(In a deli, ordering a sliced turkey sandwich:)
(example courtesy of Meghan Sumner)
Welcome to Long Island!
(In a deli, ordering a sliced turkey sandwich:)
Would you like white meat or dog meat?
(example courtesy of Meghan Sumner)
Adapting to a speaker’s dialectType A Type B Type C
cod cawed cord
pod pawed poured
tot taught torte
stock stalk stork
sod sawed soared
tock talk torque
cock caulk cork
cot caught court
Adapting to a speaker’s dialect
GA homophones
Type A Type B Type C
cod cawed cord
pod pawed poured
tot taught torte
stock stalk stork
sod sawed soared
tock talk torque
cock caulk cork
cot caught court
Adapting to a speaker’s dialect
LI homophones
Type A Type B Type C
cod cawed cord
pod pawed poured
tot taught torte
stock stalk stork
sod sawed soared
tock talk torque
cock caulk cork
cot caught court
Adapting to a speaker’s dialect
Subjects’ own dialects are testedQuestionnaireRead a story aloud
Exposed to either LI or GA dialect (story) Perform a word selection task Critical trials had either an LI or a GA
homophone competitor
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is?
Type A Type B Type C
cod cawed cord
pod pawed poured
tot taught torte
stock stalk stork
sod sawed soared
tock talk torque
cock caulk cork
cot caught court
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed”
stair
cod + cawed
ice
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed”
stair
cod + cawed
ice
(GA dialect)
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed”
stair
cod + cawed
ice
(LI dialect)
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught”
told
court + caught
ski
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught”
told
court + caught
ski
(LI dialect)
Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught”
told
court + caught
ski
(GA dialect)
An utterance’s ambiguity depends on the perceived dialect…
If it’s all about priming, then who the speaker is shouldn’t matter!
Type A Type B Type C
cod cawed cord
pod pawed poured
tot taught torte
stock stalk stork
sod sawed soared
tock talk torque
cock caulk cork
cot caught court