Placing social types through prosodic variation: An investigation of spatial meanings in Mainland China

Runzhang Xu

doi:10.3765/plsa.v4i1.4540

Abstract

This study examines how prosodic features evoke the spacial aspects of interactional meanings of well-known social types in Mainland China. Prosodic features (duration, pitch, voice quality) of the scripted performances of 18 prominent social types in China were measured acoustically and grouped by cluster analysis. Commonalities among types within each group were identified through a detailed analysis of meta-linguistic commentary collected from the internet. This paper focuses on three meaningful clusters: powerful bureaucratic types, disembodied voices, and “in-your-face” types. Members of each cluster share prosodic combinations and social profiles. More importantly, character types within each cluster index a specific interactional locale. Appropriation of their associated features could reproduce the social dynamics that is typical in that locale. The results highlight the situated use of sociolinguistic variables, and show that the prosodic features pattern structurally in the performances while indexing the historical-spatial settings of social interactions. This paper also considers place as an interactional and relational product of meaning making by these prosodic features.

Highlights

Prominent social types such as “Valley Girl” and “Bro” in America evoke social images that are associated with specific linguistic styles
This study investigates the spacial aspect of the interactions evoked by a constellation of character types in Mainland China
If the speakers did not draw on prosodic features to portray meaningful character types, this would not be expected

Summary

Introduction

Prominent social types such as “Valley Girl” and “Bro” in America evoke social images that are associated with specific linguistic styles. These character types, or what Agha (2003, 2005, 2011) calls characterological figures, are widely conventionalized social abstractions enregistered with linguistic features. They function as landmarks in a broad socialsemiotic landscape (Eckert 2016, in press). Their distinctive stylistic features provide the speech community with materials for the construction of personae. The performance of a character type, once abstracted in the social-semiotic landscape, becomes a sign to typify the social types, and the time and place where the interactions occur (Agha 2005)

Methods

Results

Conclusion