Television%20and%20language%20change%20

1
Television and language change evidence from
Glasgow
Jane Stuart-Smith Department of English Language,
University of Glasgow
IPS Munich, Hauptseminar, Soziophonetik 28 May
2008
2
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

3
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

4
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)

5
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

6
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)

7
Consonant changes in the UK

• Certain consonant changes, typical of London
  accents
• (e.g. Cockney), are spreading rapidly across
  urban
• accents of British English
• e.g. TH-fronting, f for /?/ in e.g. think,
  tooth
• e.g. Foulkes and Docherty (1999), Kerswill (2003)
• In some accents, e.g. Glaswegian,
• these features are found exclusively
• in working-class adolescents with
• relatively low social and geographical
• mobility
• (e.g. Stuart-Smith et al, 2007)

8

• the media themselves are happy to blame
• television
• especially popular soap dramas set in London,
  such as EastEnders, apparently featuring Cockney
  dialect

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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)

10
Why linguists should consider TV (2)

• 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)

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Why linguists should consider TV (3)

• 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)

12
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?

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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?

14
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

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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

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Linguistic variables

• TH-fronting f for /?/ 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)

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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

18
Change in progress TH-fronting
f
progress of change
19
Change in progress L-vocalization
V
progress of change
20
Change in progress DH-fronting
v
progress of change
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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

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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

23
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
• -gt overall shortlist
• run regressions on list until only significant
  variables remain

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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

25
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

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Results II Attitudes to accents

• Glasgow kids like London accents but less than
  other accents

(less positive ... more positive)
average responses for all informants to speech
samples
27
Results II Attitudes to accents

• Some positive links for liking London accent,
  and/or being able to identify London accent
  correctly, but also scattered relationships with
  other accents.
• variance explained 5-12

28
Results II Social practices

• Our sample captures some existing groups and
  fragments of others
• The majority of the sample identify each other
  as neds, i.e. young urban delinquents
• Im a wee Glasgow person. I wouldnae say Im a
  ned cause I dont like go oot and start fights
  an aw that. (2m3)

http//www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/
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Results II Social practices

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

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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

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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 man
• L No saw it (inaudible)
• R They two nearly got caught aff ay,
• L Aye
• R Sam was it?
• L Sam, an,
• R (laughs)
• L She hid behind the couch.
• R Aye. (laughs)
• L Thats 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 hes
• R Mad Barrys left in his cell man, pure makes,
  things for him an aw that. So he does, s quite
  shockin

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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
• variance explained 4-13

33
TH-fronting (wordlists) all categories
Variables tested linguistic film music sport comp
uters social attitudes dialect contact TV
Reg 1 n 715, r2 35 Reg 2 n 715, r2 35
34
TH-fronting (conversations) all categories
Variables tested linguistic film music sport comp
uters social dialect contact TV
Reg 1 n 1327, r2 23 Reg 2 n 1327, r2 23
35
DH-fronting (wordlists) all categories
Variables tested linguistic film music social att
itudes dialect contact TV
Reg 1 n 644, r2 53 Reg 2 n 662, r2 50
36
L-vocalization (wordlists) all categories
Variables tested linguistic music sport computers
social attitudes dialect contact TV
Reg 1 n 876, r2 20 Reg 2 n 876, r2 19
37
L-vocalization (conversations) all categories
Variables tested Linguistic film sport computers
social attitudes dialect contact TV
Reg 1 n 1015, r2 20 Reg 2 n 1015, r2 19
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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?

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Social factors and language change
Language e.g. (th)f
attitudes
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
40
Attitudes and language change?
Language
attitudes
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
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Dialect contact and language change?
Language
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
42
Dialect contact and language change
Language
Speech accommodation in face-to-face
interaction (e.g. Trudgill 1986)
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
43
Social practices and language change?
Language
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
44
Social practices and language change
Language
Linguistic practices develop with social
practices as part of identity construction (e.g.
Eckert 2000)
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
45
Social practices/TV and language change?
Language
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
46
Social practices/TV and language change?
Language
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
47
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
48
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
49
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
How?
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
50
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
Direct behavioural influence?
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
51
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
Awareness? Copying? (e.g. Trudgill 1986)
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
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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

53
Awareness of media-Cockney

• All children thought the actors accent was
  different from theirs
• hes from a different place just different
• English hes fae England s just pure
  English, no?
• English snobby says it posher
• Its 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 hed use
  v
• he talks different he talks more tough
• Its aw right I wouldnae like to speak like it
  but

54
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 characters speech
• Implication variation in these speakers is not
  resulting from conscious copying

55
TV and language change?
Language
Factors not measured
How?
TV engagement
Dialect contact
Social practices
56
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

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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

58
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

59
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

60
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

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EXTRA SLIDES
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1. TH-fronting
wordlists (n 951) conversations (n 2519)
63
1. DH-fronting
wordlists (only) (n 973)
64
1. L-vocalization
wordlists (n 1165) conversations (n
1429)
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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)

66
3c. TH-fronting and TV
self-reported TV exposure of between 1 to 5 hours
a day (av. 3hrs)
67
3c. They watch and like EastEnders most
like
watch
68
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

69
3c. TH-fronting occurs (variably) in EastEnders
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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 gt f
• also towards the standard e.g. f gt 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

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Imitation
72
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 experiments
• e.g. Bandura et al (1963), direct imitation
  and/or generalized aggression

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Results II TV as softening-up agent?

• Are positive attitudes towards Cockney the result
  of watching popular programmes set in London
  (i.e. Trudgills softening-up, 198844)?
• 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.

74
Results II TV
self-reported TV exposure of between 1 to 5 hours
a day (av. 3hrs)
75
They watch and like EastEnders most
like
watch
76
These features occur (variably) in EastEnders,
e.g. TH-fronting