Pragmatics of Accents
Editors
What impact do accents have on our lives as we interact with one another? Are accents more than simple sets of phonetic features that allow us to differentiate from one dialect, variety or style, to the other? What power relationships are at work when we speak with what those around us perceive as an 'accent'? In the 12 chapters of this volume, an international group of sociolinguists, applied linguists, anthropologists, and scholars in media studies, develop an innovative approach that we describe as the ‘pragmatics of accents’. In this volume, we present a variety of languages and go beyond the traditional structural description of accents. From ideologies in national contexts, to L2 education, to accent discrimination in the media and the workplace, this volume embraces a new perspective that focuses on the use of accents as symbolic resources, and emphasizes the importance of context in the human experience of accents.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 327] 2021. vii, 266 pp.
Publishing status:
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments | pp. vii–viii
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The pragmatics of accents: Making meanings in interactionGaëlle Planchenault and Livia Poljak | pp. 1–16
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Part 1. Ideologies of accents in national contexts
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Attitudes to accentsAlexei Prikhodkine | pp. 19–40
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Urban youth accents in France: Can a slight palatalization of /t/ and /d/ challenge French sociophonetics?Cyril Trimaille and Maria Candea | pp. 41–62
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Encountering accented others – and selves – in provincial JapanEdwin K. Everhart | pp. 63–84
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‘Could I have an appointment for a viewing?’: Language-based discrimination and apartment searches with different accents in GermanyInke Du Bois | pp. 85–114
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Part 2. Accents in second language education teaching and learning
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The pragmatic force of second language accent in educationJohn Levis and Shannon McCrocklin | pp. 117–140
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A lack of phonological inherentness: Perceptions of accents in UK educationAlex Baratta | pp. 141–162
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English-language attitudes and identities in Spain: Accent variation and the negotiation of possible selvesErin Carrie | pp. 163–186
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Part 3. Accents in the media and the workplace
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From I’m the One That I Want to Kim’s Convenience : The paradoxes and perils of implicit in-group “yellowvoicing”Hye Seung Chung | pp. 189–204
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Divine intervention: Multimodal pragmatics and unconventional opposition in performed character speech in Dragon Age: InquisitionEmily Villanueva and Astrid Ensslin | pp. 205–228
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In the ear of the beholder: How ethnicity of raters affects the perception of a foreign accentAlexandra Besoi Setzer, Elena Nicoladis and C. Lorelei Baquiran | pp. 229–244
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Concluding remarks
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From sound to social meaning: Investigating the pragmatic dimensions of accentsAnnette Boudreau and Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus | pp. 247–262
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Index | pp. 263–266
“This volume presents a strong collection of studies in pragmatics that should be of interest to scholars not just in linguistics but also across other disciplines, particularly language education, second language acquisition, and anthropology. At its core and through this interdisciplinary lens, this collection successfully interrogates the theoretical status of the notion of accent. [...] “Pragmatics of Accents” effectively pushes us to consider the study of accents in deeper and more complex ways, illustrating how the linguistic and interactional dynamics in the production, perception, and interpretation of accents must be approached through a pragmatic lens, as well as how this approach serves as a link to an array of interrelated fields. Because of the wealth and range of data and perspectives that it draws upon to conceptualize the theoretical notion of accent, articles from the book would serve well as core readings in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course concerned with the close connections between language variation, context, and the nature and impact of language ideologies.”
Juan José Bueno Holle, Independent Researcher
“This volume provides a variety of national and ethnic contexts (e.g. Swiss-French, Turkish-German, Korean-American) and an extensive range of micro-interactions and analyses thereof. From numerical scales (e.g. chapter 10), to discourse and conversation (e.g. chapter 9), the meaning of accent is as varied as the contexts in which it appears and the methodologies which are used to analyse it, emphasising, thus, the “pragmatics of accents”. This book is well-suited for a wide range of audiences from various fields, including pragmatics.”
Maria Chioti, The University of Manchester, in Journal of Pragmatics 198 (2022).
“The chapters herein demonstrate new ways of conceiving of and studying accent, suggesting promising new pathways for future research.”
Alene Moyer, University of Maryland, College Park, in Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 8:2 (2022).
“I found this a very rewarding collection. [...] The reader is rewarded throughout with fascinating insights, whether mentioned in passing, such as evidence that even ‘strong’ L2 accents often have no impact on unintelligibility and comprehensibility (Levis & McCrocklin), or as the main conclusion of a series of studies, such as Trimaille and Candea’s conclusion that accent perception is shaped not just by acoustic features, but by visual cues of identity (clothing, gestures etc.), vocabulary choice and other assumptions. Strongly recommended.”
Jonathon Ryan, Wintec / Te Pūkenga, Hamilton, New Zealand, in TESOLANZ Journal
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Kühne, Katharina, Erika Herbold, Oliver Bendel, Yuefang Zhou & Martin H. Fischer
Fuse, Akiko, Krysteena Alloggio & Seung-Yun Yang
Giles, Howie
Rittaud-Hutinet, Chantal, F. Neveu, S. Prévost, A. Steuckardt, G. Bergounioux & B. Hamma
Yu, Betty, Vishnu KK Nair, Maria Rosa Brea, Xigrid Soto-Boykin, Chelsea Privette, Lei Sun, Reem Khamis, Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou, Leah Fabiano-Smith, Laura Epstein & Yvette D. Hyter
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics