Television and language change – evidence from Glasgow Jane Stuart-Smith Department of English...

Television and language change –evidence from Glasgow

Jane Stuart-Smith

Department of English Language, University of Glasgow

IPS Munich, Hauptseminar, Soziophonetik 28 May 2008

Television and language change – evidence from Glasgow

• Quantitative sociolinguistics and language change• TV and language change• Why consider TV?• The Glasgow media project• Results: the correlational study• Interpreting the results• Linguistic appropriation from TV – a working model• The next steps …

Recap: quantitative sociolinguisticsobserving sound change in progress

• classic sociolinguistic investigation of language variation and change was formulated by William Labov (e.g. Labov 1972), and pioneered in large cities, like New York City and Glasgow

• Linguistic variables (any aspect of language which shows a number of variants) are correlated with extra-linguistic variables (any aspect of society, e.g. social class, gender, age, ethnicity)

• Language change in progress observed through the comparison of patterns of variation across age groups/times, and explained with reference to social factors/processes

A (set of) social factor(s) –TV and language change?

traditional view of ‘variationist’/’quantitative’ sociolinguistics

• watching TV may affect vocabulary• but not core features of language, e.g. pronunciation,

grammar (e.g. Chambers, e.g. 1998, Trudgill, 1986)

‘at the deeper reaches of language change – sound changes and grammatical changes – the media have no significant effect at all’ (Chambers 1998: 124)

A (set of) social factor(s) –TV and language change?

traditional view of ‘variationist’/’quantitative’ sociolinguistics

• watching TV may affect vocabulary• but not core features of language, e.g. pronunciation,

grammar (e.g. Chambers, e.g. 1998, Trudgill, 1986)

• language change primarily takes place through accommodation during face-to-face interaction (dialect contact)

• assumption of strong media effects with ‘direct’ influence on behaviour

TV and language change?

• TV may – increase awareness of linguistic varieties– and/or affect attitudes towards other varieties

(e.g. Milroy and Milroy 1985)

• If core features of grammar are affected, this results from– voluntary orientation towards media– conscious copying from media models

(e.g. Trudgill 1986; Carvalho 2004)

Consonant changes in the UK

Certain consonant changes, typical of London accents (e.g. Cockney), are spreading rapidly across urbanaccents of British English

e.g. TH-fronting, [f] for // in e.g. think, toothe.g. Foulkes and Docherty (1999), Kerswill (2003)

In some accents, e.g. Glaswegian,these features are found exclusivelyin working-class adolescents withrelatively low social and geographical mobility (e.g. Stuart-Smith et al, 2007)

the media themselves are happy to blame

television

especially popular soap dramas set in London, such as EastEnders, apparently featuring Cockney dialect

Why linguists should consider TV (1)

• TV is exceptionally prevalent

• Some TV programmes constitute social phenomena, e.g. the London-based soap EastEnders (1985-)– screened 4 times/week plus weekend omnibus– regularly attracted 18 million viewers/episode (i.e. almost one-

third UK population)– viewing of key episodes have caused exceptional surges in

electricity demand (e.g. National Grid 2001)– viewers can be highly engaged (e.g. Buckingham 1987)

• Media are assumed to affect social behaviours (e.g. McQuail 2005)

BUT– TV is assumed to be a contributory factor, along with

other factors (Klapper 1960: 8)

– audience assumed to be active interpreters of media texts (e.g. Philo 1999)

– TV and para-social interaction (e.g. Abercrombie 1996)

• linguists are starting to include TV:– as possible cause of language change, in, e.g. German

(e.g. Lameli 2004; Muhr 2003)

– in accounts of language change

e.g. Br. Portuguese (Naro 1981, Naro and Scherre 1996)

Ur. Portuguese (Carvalho 2004)

• and to wonder about TV in these changes (e.g. Foulkes and Docherty 2000)

The Glasgow media project

Is TV a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents?

(2002-5)

Economic and Social Research Council (R000239757)

Are the media a contributory factor in systemic language change under certain circumstances for certain individuals?

The Glasgow media project

Is TV a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents?

(2002-5)

Economic and Social Research Council (R000239757)

Are the media a contributory factor in systemic language change under certain circumstances for certain individuals?

Does TV play a role in the appearance of Cockney accent features in the speech of Glaswegian adolescents?

The research team

• The Research Fellow Claire Timmins

• The Statistician (Prof) Gwilym Pryce

• The Media expert (Prof) Barrie Gunter

• a group of kids (and adults) from Maryhill in Glasgow

Method

• sample– 36 adolescents; 12 adults (working-class)

• data– speech: wordlist and spontaneous– Questionnaire; informal interviews

• design– Experiment; correlational study

• analysis– auditory transcription– all tokens of wordlist– first 30 tokens of spontaneous speech

Linguistic variables

• TH-fronting: [f] for /θ/ in e.g. think, both• DH-fronting: [v] for // in e.g. brother• L-vocalization: /l/ vocalized to high back (un)rounded

vowel e.g. people, milk, well

• typical of Cockney (working-class London) accent• unexpected in Glasgow English• reported informally since 1980s (Macafee 1983)

• confirmed as changes in 1997 (Stuart-Smith et al 2007)

Results I: Glaswegian is changing

• For all three variables, in wordlists and conversational speech

– apparent-time change: adolescents use more ‘new’ variants than adults

– real-time change: we find more ‘new’ variants in 2003 than in 1997

Change in progress: TH-fronting%

fraction variant

1997 conversation

1997 wordlist

conversations

wordlists

progress of change

fraction variant

1997 conversation

1997 wordlist

conversations

wordlists

progress of change

Change in progress: L-vocalization

Change in progress: DH-fronting

fraction variant

1997 wordlist

wordlist

conversation

progress of change

Why are these changes happening?

Correlational study– (th):[f], (dh):[v], (l):[V]

with– dialect contact (beyond and within Glasgow)– attitudes to accents – social practices/identity– music (incl. radio)– computers (incl. internet)– film (incl. video/DVD)– sport – TV

Why are these changes happening?

Correlational study– (th):[f], (dh);[v], (l):[V]

with– dialect contact (beyond and within Glasgow)– attitudes to accents – social practices/identity– music (incl. radio)– computers (incl. internet)– film (incl. video/DVD)– sport – TV

Statistical analysis

• logistic regression • ‘general-to-specific’ model

• create list for each category of social factors (e.g. dialect contact, attitudes, TV, etc.)

• run regressions on each category list • significant variables from each list + theoretically

interesting variables-> overall shortlist

• run regressions on list until only significant variables remain

Results II: Dialect contact

Initial baseline criteria: informants born and raised in area (2.8% born in England, 2001 Census)

Most have few relatives beyond Glasgow, whom they talk to more than they see. Main contact with friends and family within Glasgow.

• Some positive links with relatives and friends living in the South of England for four linguistic variables

• variance explained: 5-8%

Results II: Attitudes to accents

• speech samples of 7 accents– female speakers same age– reading same passage– beginning of questionnaire– also checked identification of accents

• ‘mental image’ of 8 urban accents (cf Preston 1999)– e.g. ‘what do you think of the accents in London?’– end of questionnaire

• Glasgow kids like London accents but less than other accents

(less positive ……………... more positive)

average responses for all informants to speech samples

-1 0 1 2

Glasgow

MC Glasgow

Edinburgh

Newcastle

Manchester

London

• Some positive links for liking London accent, and/or being able to identify London accent correctly, but also scattered relationships with other accents.

Results II: Social practices

Our sample captures some existing groups and fragments of othersThe majority of the sample identify each other as ‘neds’, i.e. young urban delinquents“I’m a wee Glasgow person. I wouldnae say I’m a ned ’cause I don’t like go oot and start fights an’ aw that.” (2m3) http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/

Results II: Social practices

• some positive links with more anti-school practices • variance explained: 2-18%

Results II: TV

Our informants report access to 3+ TV sets at home, and say that they watch TV every day, with average exposure of around 3 hours/day.

London-based programmes are rated highest for soap (EastEnders), comedy (Only Fools and Horses), and police drama (The Bill).

TH-/DH-fronting and L-vocalization occur (variably) in ‘media-Cockney’

Two Glaswegian adolescent boys talking …

R have you been watchin’ EastEnders?L Phhhh, uuh.R Do you watch it?L Aye ah watch it but.R Brilliant manL No’ saw it (inaudible)R They two nearly got caught aff ay,L AyeR Sam was it?L Sam, an,R (laughs)L She hid behind the couch.R Aye. (laughs)L That’s the last one ah saw ah think.R Ah know she wants tae break it up now an’ he doesnae.L (laughs)R Pure shockin’ innit?L Aye, ‘cause he’sR Mad Barry’s left in his cell man, pure makes, things for him an’ aw that. So he does, ‘s

quite shockin’

Results II: TV

• Several factors are significant – positive correlations, mainly with engagement with

EastEnders– negative with simply watching TV, or engaging with

Scottish/Northern/US programmes – Fairly consistent pattern across the five variables

TH-fronting (wordlists) all categories

Reg 1: n = 715, r2 = 35; Reg 2: n = 715, r2 = 35

Variables tested:

linguistic

computers

social

attitudes

dialect contact

wdfina

Real R

mula 1

dislik

talk r

el SNEng

V conv

EE fav p

TH-fronting (conversations) all categories

Reg 1: n = 1327, r2 = 23; Reg 2: n = 1327, r2 = 23

Variables tested:

linguistic

computers

social

dialect contact

wordfin

ic wee

watch F

net ot

dislik

visit L

V conv

watch C

watch E

DH-fronting (wordlists) all categories

Reg 1: n = 644, r2 = 53; Reg 2: n = 662, r2 = 50

Variables tested:

linguistic

social

attitudes

dialect contact

wordfin

y w/en

dislik

identify

englan

TV films

identify

watch T

TV inf

watch/lik

L-vocalization (wordlists) all categories

Variables tested:

linguistic

computers

social

attitudes

dialect contact

Real R

N/c sa

visit L

EE/critic

ise ch

Reg 1: n = 876, r2 = 20; Reg 2: n = 876, r2 = 19

L-vocalization (conversations) all categories

Reg 1: n = 1015, r2 = 20; Reg 2: n = 1015, r2 = 19

y film

play s

vities

SEnglan

visit L

TV fil

V conv

EE fav p

Variables tested:

Linguistic

computers

social

attitudes

dialect contact

Correlational study – results

for all linguistic variables• satisfactory model only achieved when a range of social

factors entered together• A number of social factors are significant together

including– dialect contact– social practices– engagement with TV (EastEnders)

• How should these results be interpreted?

TVengagement

Languagee.g. (th):[f]

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Social factors and language change

attitudes

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Attitudes and language change?

attitudes

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Dialect contact and language change?

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Dialect contact and language change

Speech accommodation in face-to-face interaction

(e.g. Trudgill 1986)

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Social practices and language change?

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Social practices and language change

Linguistic practices develop with social practices as part of identity construction

(e.g. Eckert 2000)

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Social practices/TV and language change?

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Social practices/TV and language change?

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Factors not measured

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Direct behavioural influence?

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Awareness? Copying? (e.g. Trudgill 1986)

Awareness of ‘media-Cockney’?

• Explored using informal imitation task (boys only) given during informal interview (cf Preston 1992)

– informants shown a set of picture cards– asked to pronounce words first in their own accent– shown a picture of a leading actor from EastEnders

– asked to talk about his accent and theirs– asked to say words again, but with the same accent as the actor

– Fine phonetic analysis of the pairs of words

Awareness of media-Cockney

All children thought the actor’s accent was different from theirs

• ‘he’s from a different place … just different’• ‘English’ ‘he’s fae England’ ‘s just … pure English, no?’• ‘English snobby’ ‘says it posher’

• ‘It’s like a sore throat accent … or … they took his tonsils oot or something’

• ‘Ah ‘hink they pronounce more’• ‘He changes the letters, if it was ‘f’ he’d use ‘v’’

• ‘he talks different’ ‘he talks more tough’• ‘It’s aw right … I wouldnae like to speak like it but’

Imitation of ‘media-Cockney’

• First impression: ‘Ah cannae talk like him’

• idiosyncratic, subtle, alteration of segments• more alteration to suprasegmentals• no apparent systematic alteration of (th dh l)• no evidence of awareness of these features as particular

features of this character’s speech

• Implication: variation in these speakers is not resulting from conscious copying

TVengagement

Language

Socialpractices

Dialect contact

Rethinking the notion of TV ‘influence’

• ‘causality’ ≠ blanket transmission of linguistic features to passive speaker/viewer

– appropriation, i.e. what each speaker/viewer takes for themselves whilst engaging with the media, given their own particular experience of the world (Holly et al 2001)

– observations from interactional sociolinguistics that individuals appropriate media material for specific stylistic purposes (e.g. Androutsopoulos 2001)

– current ‘episodic’ models of speech perception/production assume at least short-term storage of incoming material – from all sources – as part of process of perceiving speech

Linguistic appropriation from TV – a working model

• the ‘bones’– perception appropriating– appropriation at media– sociolinguistic system

‘systematic resonance’

– production exploiting– style/identity in context

– time

The next steps …

• Investigate ethnographically the kinds of phonetic variation that speakers exhibit whilst watching TV

• Investigate experimentally how people respond to speech experienced in different ways, e.g. through watching it pre-recorded on screen (like TV) or from talking to another speaker

The next steps …

• Investigate ethnographically the kinds of phonetic variation that speakers exhibit whilst watching TV

• Investigate experimentally how people respond to speech experienced in different ways, e.g. through watching it pre-recorded on screen (like TV) or from talking to another speaker

The next steps …

• Initial results from our first experiment (Stuart-Smith, Smith and Holmes 2008) suggest that– speakers do learn about accents other than their own from

interactive and ‘mediated’ speech

but that– the processes of learning are different for each source– linguistic structure is important – attention may play an important role for mediated speech

EXTRA SLIDES

1. TH-fronting

1F 1M 2F 2M 3F 3M 4F 4M

wordlists (n = 951) conversations (n = 2519)

1. DH-fronting

1F 1M 2F 2M 3F 3M 4F 4M

wordlists (only) (n = 973)

1. L-vocalization

1F 1M 2F 2M 3F 3M 4F 4M

wordlists (n = 1165) conversations (n = 1429)

2. Results

• Linguistic– significant factor of specific position in word emerged

for each variable:– variance explained: around 12%

• regressions for age and gender consistently either failed to be significant, or to show sufficiently high explanation of variance

(cf Labov 2001: 272, n 16)

3c. TH-fronting and TV

two three more than three

How many television sets do you have in your house?

many have 3 or more TV sets

1-2 days a week 5-6 days a week every day

How often do you watch the television?

most watch TV every day

self-reported TV exposure of between 1 to 5 hours a day (av. 3hrs)How much TV do you watch on weekdays?

More than 5 hrs

Btw n 3 and up to 5 h

Less than 1 hr

weekday

How much TV do you watch on weekend days?

More than 5 hrs

Less than 1 hr

weekend

3c. They watch and like EastEnders most

Coronation Street?

Crossroads?

Eastenders?

erdale?

Family Affairs?

Hollyoaks?

likewatch

Extra-linguistic variables – TV

• correct identification of TV programmes (auditory accent stimulus)

• general TV exposure • exposure to soaps/dramas • favourite programme/character/accent• engagement with soaps/dramas • TV and socialising (watching TV; talking about TV;

engaging with TV)• additional mention of TV from project recordings

3c. TH-fronting occurs (variably) in EastEnders

All positions TH _ EastEnders

Characters

4. Imitation of media-Cockney(phonetic alteration)

• our first impressions were that little had been changed• but narrow auditory transcription revealed that most children altered

at least something in response to the task• segments were altered

– in the ‘expected’ direction: e.g. [th] > [f]– also towards the standard: e.g. [f] > [th]

• changes in suprasegmental features were striking:– voice quality; length; pitch

e.g. face: 1M2: own imitated town: 1M1: own imitated brother: 3M4: own imitated

thinking: 2M5: own imitated

Imitation

mouth teeth thinking

different

milk w heel bottle

different

Investigating media effects

• media effects research typically investigates the potential short-term effects of TV using two main approaches

(e.g. Gunter 2000)

• (longitudinal) correlational studies

e.g. Lefkowitz et al (1972), agression/predict aggressive behaviour

• behavioural experimentse.g. Bandura et al (1963), direct imitation and/or generalized aggression

Results II: TV as ‘softening-up’ agent?

• Are positive attitudes towards Cockney the result of watching popular programmes set in London (i.e. Trudgill’s ‘softening-up’, 1988:44)?

• We tested this claim statistically using multiple regression analysis to find out which variables might be linked with holding positive attitudes to Cockney.

• The only significant result was in fact a negative link between liking the Cockney speech sample and watching EastEnders.

Results II: TV

two three more than three

How many television sets do you have in your house?

many have 3 or more TV sets

1-2 days a week 5-6 days a week every day

How often do you watch the television?

most watch TV every day

self-reported TV exposure of between 1 to 5 hours a day (av. 3hrs)How much TV do you watch on weekdays?

More than 5 hrs

Less than 1 hr

weekday

How much TV do you watch on weekend days?

More than 5 hrs

Less than 1 hr

weekend

They watch and like EastEnders most

Coronation Street?

Crossroads?

Eastenders?

erdale?

Family Affairs?

Hollyoaks?

likewatch

These features occur (variably) in EastEnders, e.g. TH-fronting

All positions TH _ EastEnders

Characters

Television and language change – evidence from Glasgow Jane Stuart-Smith Department of English...

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