Article published in:
World Englishes: New theoretical and methodological considerationsEdited by Elena Seoane and Cristina Suárez-Gómez
[Varieties of English Around the World G57] 2016
► pp. 205–228
English in San Francisco Chinatown
Indexing identity with speech rhythm?
Lena Zipp | University of Zurich
Adina Staicov | University of Zurich
This study reports on the methodological challenges of determining and quantifying ethnic identity in questionnaire and interview data from second-generation members of the San Francisco Chinatown community, and linking these identity scores to the use of durational characteristics that we argue are part of the ethnolinguistic repertoires of our participants. We analyse durational features from free speech in interactions with an in-group and an out-group interlocutor for an exemplary sample of four speakers. By thus combining qualitative data on ethnic identity orientation with quantitative sociophonetic results, we show that rhythmic variability in free speech is both possible and traceable, and suggest that speech rhythm can be used as a flexible feature to index ethnic identity.
Keywords: Asian English, ethnicity, identity, mixed methods, sociophonetics, speech rhythm, stylistic variation
Published online: 25 May 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g57.09zip
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g57.09zip
References
Becker, Kara
Benor, Sarah Bunin
Bucholtz, Mary & Hall, Kira
Carter, Phillip
2007 Phonetic variation and speaker agency: Mexicana identity in a North Carolina middle school.
Selected Papers from NWAV 35
13(2): 1–14.
Coggshall, Elizabeth L.
2008 The prosodic rhythm of two varieties of Native American English. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 14(2). http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=pwpl
Dauer, Rebecca M.
Deterding, David
Dellwo, Volker
2006 Rhythm and speech rate: A variation coefficient for deltaC. In
Language and Language-processing. Proceedings of the 38th Linguistic Colloquium, Piliscsaba 2003
, Pawel Karnowski & Imre Szigeti (eds), 231–241. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Fishman, Joshua A. & Garcia, Ofelia
Grabe, Esther & Low, Ee Ling
Hall-Lew, Lauren
2009 Ethnicity and Phonetic Variation in a San Francisco Neighborhood. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Hall-Lew, Lauren & Starr, Rebecca L.
Hoffman, Michol F. & Walker, James A.
Howell, Peter & Kadi-Hanifi, Karima
Hundt, Marianne & Staicov, Adina
In preparation. Expressing and negotiating identity in the London Indian Diaspora: Towards the quantification of qualitative data.
Joseph, John E.
Loukina, Anastassia & Kochanski, Greg
2010 Patterns of durational variation in British dialect. Paper presented at
the PAC workshop
. Montpellier, France.
Low, Ee Ling, Grabe, Esther & Nolan, Francis
Mok, Peggy P.K. & Dellwo, Volker
2008 Comparing native and non-native speech rhythm using acoustic rhythmic measures: Cantonese, Beijing Mandarin and English. In
Proceedings of the 4th Speech Prosody Conference (2008)
, 423–426. Campinas, Brazil.
Nagy, Naomi, Chociej, Joanna & Hoffman, Michol F.
Newman, Michael & Wu, Angela
Noels, Kimberly A.
Phinney, Jean S. & Ong, Anthony D.
Pike, Kenneth L.
Ramus, Franck, Nespor, Marina & Mehler, Jacques
Reyes, Angela & Lo, Adrienne
Rickford, John & McNair-Knox, Faye
Roach, Peter
Sarmah, Priyankoo, Verma Gogoi, Divya & Wiltshire, Caroline
Setter, Jane
Sharma, Devyani
Sharma, Devyani & Rampton, Ben
Sharma, Devyani & Sankaran, Lavanya
Silverman, Kim E.A., Blaauw, Eleonora, Spitz, Judith & Pitrelli, John F.
1992 A prosodic comparison of spontaneous speech and read speech. In
Proceedings of ICSLP: 1299–1302.
Staicov, Adina
In preparation. Narrative Identity Construction of First and Second Generation Chinese Americans Living in San Francisco Chinatown. PhD dissertation, University of Zurich.
Thomas, Erik R. & Carter, Phillip M.
Torgersen, Eivind Nessa & Szakay, Anita
Tuan, Mia
U.S Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates
U.S Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, ACS Selected Social Characteristics in the United States
Vaughn, Charlotte
2008 Effects of discourse factors on prosodic rhythm: Evidence from inter- and intra-speaker variation in Hispanic English. Paper presented at
the 37th NWAV Conference
. Rice University, Houston, TX.
White, Laurence & Mattys, Sven L.
Wiget, Lukas, White, Laurence, Schuppler, Barbara, Grenon, Izabelle, Rauch, Olesya & Mattys, Sven L.
Williams, Ashley M.
Wong, Amy
Wong, Amy Wing-mei & Hall-Lew, Lauren
Yoon, Tae-Jin
2010 Capturing inter-speaker invariance using statistical measures of rhythm. In
Proceedings of the 5th Speech Prosody Conference (2010)
. Chicago IL. http://www.speechprosody2010.illinois.edu/papers/100201.pdf
Zipp, Lena & Dellwo, Volker
2011 ‘Read speech normalization’ (RSN): A method to study prosodic variability in spontaneous speech. In
Proceedings of the 17 International Congress of Phonetic Sciences
(2010), Wai-Sum Lee & Eric Zee (eds), 2328–2331. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.