McCarthy, Owen (2012) A sociophonetic study of the realization of word

112 Pages·2012·1.25 MB·English

McCarthy, Owen (2012) A sociophonetic study of the realization of word-
final velar plosives by female pupils in a Glasgow high
school. MPhil(R) thesis
http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3331/

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A SOCIOPHONETIC STUDY OF THE REALIZATION OF WORD-
FINAL VELAR PLOSIVES BY FEMALE PUPILS IN A GLASGOW
HIGH SCHOOL
By
Owen McCarthy
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for
the degree of M.Phil (R)
Department of English Language
Faculty of Arts
University of Glasgow
September 2011
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Abstract
This study analyses the realization of word-final /k/ in read and casual speech by female pupils
in a Glasgow high school, specifically focusing on the realization of word final velar ejectives.
The literature on ejectives in varieties of English is still at a very early stage and much of what
we know of them is mainly anecdotal or comes from accepted, yet often unsubstantiated
statements: they are more prominent word-finally, they usually do not follow voiceless sounds,
they are found in varieties of Northern English. My research aims to identify the phonetic and
linguistic factors that promote ejective use and to also gain a better understanding of who are
using ejectives more and what social factors this depends on. In doing this I found that there is
more going on than just independent factors at work. Instead the social factors of age and
ethnicity seem to play crucial roles in ejective realization. Overall this study found some
intriguing initial results showing that ejective realization of /k/ is now very common in these
Glaswegian girls. It seems as if this represents a real-time change in Glasgow – though more
data/study is needed to establish this.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Introduction_________________________________ 11
1.1Background ___ 11
1.2ResearchQuestions 12
1.3Thesisoutline 12
Chapter 2 14
2.1Fundamentalsofsoundarticulation 14
2.2Whatareejectives? 17
2.3Earlierdescriptionsofejectives 18
2.4Ejectivedistribution 19
2.5Variationinejectives:StiffandSlackejectives 21
2.6EjectivesinvarietiesofEnglish 24
2.7Linguisticconstraintsonejectivedistribution-wheretheyoccur 28
2.8AreejectivesincreasinginEnglishstops? 29
2.9Ejectivesandsociophoneticvariation 29
2.9.1Variationistsociolinguistics 29
2.9.2Observinglanguagevariationandchange 30
2.9.2.1Realtimechange 32
2.9.3Adolescenceandlanguagechange 32
2.9.4Gender 33
2.10Ethnicity 34
Summary 35
Chapter 3 Methodology 36
3.1Overview 36
3.2Backgroundtoschool 36
3.2.1Issuestoconsiderfortheresearch 36
3.3Glasgow:LocationandvarietyofEnglish 37
3.3.1ThestopsysteminGlasgow 37
3.3.2Therealisationofword-final/k/ 38
3.4PhoneticContext 38
3
3.5Preliminariestoparticipantselection 39
3.5.1Selectionofparticipants 39
3.6Samplesize 41
3.6.1Stratificationofsample 41
3.7Socialcategory 42
3.7.1Ethnicity 42
3.7.1Background 42
3.7.2ParticipantsampleandDEPCAT 44
3.7.3OrganisationofDEPCATsforanalysis 44
3.7.4Overviewofparticipantsample 45
3.8DataCollection 46
3.9Tasks 47
3.9.1Readinglists 47
3.9.2Readinglistrecording 47
3.9.3Map-task 48
3.10Auditoryanalysis 51
3.10.1Extractingandcodingdata 51
3.10.2Transcribingdata 52
3.10.3Decisionsonrepresentingejectivevariants 53
3.11Preliminariestodataanalysis 54
3.12Summary 54
Chapter 4 Results 56
4.1Chapteroverview 56
4.1.1Overallrangeofphoneticvariationfor/k/ 56
4.1.2Variantcategoriesfor/k/ 58
4.1.3Summaryofrangeofvariationfor/k/ 59
4.2Style 59
4.3PhoneticContext 60
4.3.1ReadSpeech 61
4.3.2Casualspeech 62
4
4.3.3Realizationof/k/accordingtophoneticcontextandstyle 64
4.4PositioninTurn 65
4.5Age 66
4.5.1Ageandstyle 67
4.6Socialcategory 68
4.6.1Socialcategoryandstyle 68
4.7Ethnicity 69
4.7.1Ethnicityandstyle 70
4.8Summaryofmaineffects 71
4.9Phoneticcontextandsocialfactors 72
4.9.1PhoneticContextandAge 72
4.9.2PhoneticContextandSocialCategory 73
4.9.3PhoneticContextandEthnicity 74
4.9.4SummaryoffindingsforPhoneticContext 74
4.10PositioninTurnandsocialfactors 75
4.10.1PositioninTurnandAge 75
4.10.2PositioninTurnandSocialcategory 76
4.10.3PositioninTurnandEthnicity 77
4.10.4SummaryoffindingsforPositioninTurn 78
4.11SocialfactorsandStyle 79
4.11.1AgeandStyle 79
4.11.2AgeandEthnicity 80
4.11.3AgeandSocialCategory 81
4.11.4Style,Ethnicity,andAge 81
4.11.5SummaryofSocialfactorsandstyle 82
Results–Summary 83
4.12.1Thevariantsusedfor/k/overall 83
4.12.2Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtoclustercontext 83
4.12.3Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtoprecedingvowelcontext 83
4.12.5Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtopositioninturn 84
4.12.5Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtoyeargroupinschool 84
4.12.6Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtoethnicity 85
4.12.7Thedistributionofvariationaccordingtosocialcategory 85
5
Chapter 5 Discussion 86
5.1Discussiononinitialquestionsregardingdistributionof/k/ 86
5.2Ejectiverealizationofword-final/k/inGlaswegian 86
5.3Specificresearchquestions 87
Chapter 6: Conclusions 94
References 97
Appendix1 106
Appendix2 108
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CONTENTS TABLES
TABLE 1 The principle airstream mechanisms_____________________________ 15
TABLE 2 Summary of the general categorization of ejectives________________________ 22
TABLE 3 Target tokens for tasks across phonetic context ___________________________39
TABLE 4 Comparison between study sample and distribution of 2001 Carstairs Scores for
Glasgow city (adapted from 2001 report)_______________________________________ 44
TABLE 5 Demographics of pupils who took part in the study ______________ 45
TABLE 6 Auditory continuum of 12 variant types__________________________53
TABLE 7 Overall variants of /k/ produced by the speakers __________________________57
TABLE8 Overall raw token count for all variants_________________________________57
TABLE 9 Raw total and percentages for variation overall__________________ 59
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Contents Figures
FIGURE 1 Vocal Tract _______________________________________________________16
FIGURE 2 The sequence of events that occur in a glottalic
egressive velar stop [k’] ______________________________________________18
FIGURE 3 Percentage of glottal stop variant for post tonic /t/ in adults, 15-year-olds
10-year-olds in three social classes in Glasgow __________________________ 31
FIGURE 4 Deprivation scores across Scotland _____________________________________43
FIGURE 5 Example of coding for Read speech ____________________________________ 52
FIGURE 5.1 Example of coding for Casual speech __________________________________52
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Contents of Charts
CHART 1 Overall distribution of variants in Read and Casual speech___________________58
CHART 2 Total distribution of /k/ variants across style______________________________60
CHART 3 Overall phonetic context for all variants_________________________________61
CHART 3.1 Distribution of /k/ across consonant cluster _____________________________62
CHART 3.2 Distributions of variants across clusters and vowels______________________64
CHART 3.3 Realization of /k/ according to cluster context and styles___________________65
CHART 3.3 Vowel differences across style ________________________________ 65
CHART 4 Distribution of variants across turn_____________________________________66
CHART 5 Overall comparison between age ______________________________________67
CHART 5.1 Age and style ___________________________________________________67
CHART 6 Comparison between DEPCATs _______________________________________69
CHART6.1Distribution of variants: social categoryandstyle________________________69
CHART7Distributionofvariants acrossalltokens: GvGAspeakers __________________69
CHART 7.1 Distribution of variants: ethnicity and style_____________________________ 70
CHART8Distributionofvariants for consonant cluster_____________________________ 72
CHART 8.1Cluster context and social category____________________________________74
CHART 8.2 Phonetic context and ethnicity ______________________________________74
CHART9Position in turn and age ______________________________________________76
CHART 9.2 Position in turn and social category ___________________________________77
CHART 9.3 Position in turn and ethnicity________________________________________78
CHART 10 Age and style ____________________________________________________80
CHART 10.1 Age and ethnicity _______________________________________________80
CHART 10.2 Age and social category ________________________________________81
CHART 10.3 Style, ethnicity and age ___________________________________________82
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