Young Speakers Research Articles

Aging of lexical access in Chinese spoken word production: A picture-word interference study.

It remains unknown how language-production processes decline with age. Using a picture-word interference task, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of aging on lexical access and the contributions of language-specific and domain-general factors to semantic, phonological, and orthographic effects in Chinese spoken word production. After controlling for years of education, language comprehension, and domain-general cognitive abilities, we found a larger semantic interference effect for older speakers than for younger speakers, while the phonological effect and orthographic effect were comparable for the two age groups, supporting the transmission deficit hypothesis. Furthermore, discourse comprehension and general cognitive abilities were found to contribute to the phonological effect in older adults, but not in younger adults. Our findings indicate that both language-specific factors and domain-general factors contribute to the aging of spoken word production together.

Gritty Philadelphia: Orientation to local ideology as a predictor of sound change

Abstract Local orientation has been shown to influence speakers’ participation in local dialect norms and ongoing sound changes since the beginning of modern sociolinguistics (e.g., Labov, 1963). I argue here that local orientation is best understood as an orientation to the ideological imagined place, rather than to the actual physical hometown itself. Analysis of the effect of orientation to the imagined Philadelphia shows that speakers’ personal orientation impacts their adoption of an ongoing change. This change is best understood when orientation is considered alongside a major structural influence on young speakers—secondary school attendance—using a bipartite network analysis. The sound change under investigation, a change in the conditioning of a split in /æ/, is highly abstract and complex, making it an unlikely candidate for overt or intentional identity work. Nevertheless, a regression analysis finds strong effects of both structural influences and personal orientation on speakers’ advancement in this abstract change.

Longitudinal change in the adjective intensifier system of Hexagonal French

Abstract Intensifiers are known for their dynamic nature, due in part to the expressive function they serve. However, while the quantitative patterning of English intensifiers has been studied extensively, the intensifier system of French has yet to be well documented. This study therefore examines intensifier use from a variationist sociolinguistic perspective in the ESLO corpus of spoken Hexagonal French. The quantitative distributions of adjective intensifiers are compared across two corpora collected in 1970 and 2010. Results show a significant decrease in intensification rate over time. Analysis of individual intensifiers show some to have decreased in use over time (e.g. très, tellement), others to have increased (e.g. vraiment, tout), and others to appear only in the later sample (e.g. super, hyper). Longitudinal change is also found in the adjectival function (predicative vs. attributive) and collocational width of intensifiers. Relating to social factors, no significant gender difference is found between female and male speakers’ intensification rate over time. Furthermore, très dominates as the preferred intensifier among older generations, while younger speakers favour more varied intensifiers. Analyzing such changes in the use of intensifiers over the past half century contributes to a better understanding of the structure and development of the French intensifier system.

RP, Pronunciation preference polls, dynamic synchrony and SSB Pronunciation

We first look at various aspects of RP (Received Pronunciation). One particular aspect of RP that is emphasized is its intelligibility (comprehensibility). Reproduced in this connection are results of a survey conducted by a polling organization on ‘intelligibility’ of British English pronunciation varieties. The concept of ‘dynamic synchrony’, as distinct from ‘static synchrony’, is brought in and explained at fair length. With this concept in mind, we look into the fact that many individual British English speakers show preference for different alternative pronunciations of words (e.g. absurd with [‑s‑] or [‑z‑]; 'contribute or con'tribute). We investigate if such different pronunciation choices correlate with ages, i.e. young speakers, old speakers; born before or after such-and-such year? We closely consult all three editions of Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) compiled by John Christopher Wells which contains detailed results of his 1988 and 1998 pronunciation preference surveys. LPD records pronunciation details found in ‘a modernized version of the type known as Received Pronunciation, or RP [Wells’s block letters]’ (LPD3: xix). Finally there will be a discussion concentrating on Geoffrey Lindsey’s recent book English after RP (2019) which shows the relationship between regressive RP and progressive SSB (Standard Southern British) pronunciation at the present time.

“It’s a Bit Tricky, Isn’t It?”—An Acoustic Study of Contextual Variation in /ɪ/ in the Conversational Speech of Young People from Perth

This study presents an acoustic analysis of vowel realisations in contexts where, in Australian English, a historical contrast between unstressed /ɪ/ and /ə/ has largely diminished in favour of a central schwa-like variant. The study is motivated by indications that there is greater complexity in this area of vowel variation than has been conventionally set out in the existing literature, and our goal is to shed new light by studying a dataset of conversational speech produced by 40 young speakers from Perth, WA. In doing so, we also offer some critical thoughts on the use of Wells’ lexical sets as a framework for analysis in work of this kind, in particular with reference to the treatment of items in unstressed position, and of grammatical (or function) words. The acoustic analysis focused on the realisation in F1/F2 space of a range of /ɪ/ and /ə/ variants in both accented and unaccented syllables (thus a broader approach than a focus on stressed kit vowels). For the purposes of comparison, we also analysed tokens of the fleece and happy-tensing lexical sets. Grammatical and non-grammatical words were analysed independently in order to understand the extent to which a high-frequency grammatical word such as it might contribute to the overall pattern of vowel alternation. Our findings are largely consistent with the small amount of previous work that has been carried out in this area, pointing to a continuum of realisations across a range of accented and unaccented contexts. The data suggest that the reduced historical /ɪ/ vowel encountered in unaccented syllables cannot be straightforwardly analysed as a merger with /ə/. We also highlight the way in which the grammatical word it participates in this alternation.

Clause-Final Adverbs in Colloquial Singapore English Revisited

Many scholars consider clause-final adverbs (CFAs) like already, also, and only to be a prominent feature of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), but little is known about their use in present-day CSE. Using data from the Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM), we investigate patterns of variation involving CFAs and examine whether they are sensitive to factors such as speaker age and gender. We find that clause-final already and only has increased over time, while clause-final also has remained stable. Overall, the results suggest that CFAs are a stable feature of CSE. Variation in the use of CFAs is conditioned by semantic function, age, and gender. Specifically, clause-final already is associated with the inceptive function. Clause-final already and also are more likely to be used by younger speakers, while clause-final also and only are more likely to be used by males and in all-male conversational settings respectively. We suggest that these patterns are due to present-day English-Mandarin bilingualism, increasingly positive attitudes toward CSE, and National Service for males.

Sociophonetic Study of Dysfluent Behaviour in Native English Speakers

The present project focuses on the study of the influence of two social factors, age and gender, on the frequency and variation of seven different types of dysfluencies (filled pauses, silent pauses, repairs, repetitions, false starts, vowel and consonant lengthening) in the spontaneous speech of native English speakers from England. The first part of the present article provides a general characterization of the relevant types of dysfluencies, together with the main issues concerning the production of speech dysfluencies. The empirical part presents the analyses of the recordings of 32 native English speakers from England. The overall results considering general influence of age and gender show that the only significant difference is between age groups, with older speakers producing more dysfluencies than younger speakers. Gender, on the other hand, does not make the difference significant, except for vowel lengthenings, that were produced significantly more by female speakers than male speakers, and repetitions, which is the only type of dysfluency where the difference is significant and influenced by both age and gender, with older male speakers producing significantly more dysfluencies than any other group.

Structural and sociolectal limits of variability of que in Mexican Spanish noun clefts

This paper investigates the structural and sociolectal limits of the use of non-standard “plain” que instead of the standard relativizer DET+que in Mexican Spanish noun clefts. Although plain que in Spanish noun clefts is considered ungrammatical by reference grammars, we find it in data from Felipe Carrillo Puerto (Quintana Roo, Yucatan) and Mexico City (CDMX). Among the speakers from CDMX, only younger speakers use plain que in our data, suggesting that it might be a more recent innovation in this variety. Among Yucatecan speakers, we find that bilingual speakers (Spanish-Maya) tend to use more plain que than monolingual Spanish speakers, and only bilingual speakers show similar age effects to those found in CDMX, whereas older monolingual Yucatecan speakers use more plain que than younger YS monolinguals. Structurally, plain que is limited to canonical clefts, which we interpret as an indication that clefts with plain que constitute functionally reanalyzed headed relatives. Moreover, we find that those speakers that use plain que do so mostly when the antecedent is specific and carries a determiner. If the antecedent is either non-specific or does not carry a determiner, DET+que is generally preferred.

The origin of the adjectival and adverbial "mulaolao" in Wu Chinese

ABSTRACT: The word mulaolao (木佬佬) in Wu Chinese first appeared in written documents published during the period of the former Republic of China. It originated in Hangzhou dialect and spread to other regions such as Ningbo, Taizhou, Jinhua, and Shanghai. In Hangzhou dialect, mulaolao serves both adjectival and adverbial purposes, and it is believed to have derived from the expressive adjective manlaolao (蛮老老). In manlaolao , the suffix - laolao (老老) intensifies the degree of a state or property and is written as "佬佬" due to its uncertain etymology. The man (蛮) part originally meant "rude and unreasonable" or "doughty" but has evolved to also mean "many". In its weakened form, it underwent a checkedization process and was consequently pronounced as mu and written with a homophonous character "木". The adjectival form of mulaolao is widely used, but in adverbial positions, it underwent semantic bleaching to become an adverb and fused into mao (冒). The adverbial usage of mulaolao is less prevalent among younger speakers. 摘要: 吴语的"木佬佬"一词，民国以降始见于书面，源头在杭州方言，扩 散到了宁波、台州、金华、上海等地。杭州方言的"木佬佬"是形容 词/副词，当来自形容词生动形式"蛮老老"：词缀"老老"表示程度 极深，因词源不明被记作"佬佬"；"蛮"由"蛮横/强悍"义引申为 "多"义，轻读促化而被记作同音的"木"。形容词"木佬佬"使用 普遍，在状语位置上虚化为副词而后合音为"冒"。新派使用副词 "木佬佬"较少。

Investigating vowel differences in North and South Korea: Phonetic analysis of younger speakers in read and conversational speech

Investigating vowel differences in North and South Korea: Phonetic analysis of younger speakers in read and conversational speech

ФРАЗЕОЛОШКИТЕ ИЗРАЗИ КАЈ МЛАДИТЕ НА ИНТЕРНЕТ

This paper aims to present the most common phraseological expressions of young speakers of the Macedonian language on the Internet. We will pay special attention to the phrases from the Tetovo speech, which abound with dialectal material that is a source of information about the folk culture, customs and traditions of our ancestors. For the purposes of the work, 30 young people of different ages were surveyed, where the most interesting and most common phraseological expressions were extracted. One of the most common phraseological expressions is Pumpkin green, ‘Тиква зелена’ (unripe human), and He threw the measure at him, ‘Му го фрли меракот’ (he likes it).

The realization of /t/ and /ən/ in words like ‘button’: A change in progress on Long Island

In American English, the pronunciation of words like ‘button,’ with the underlying post-tonic string /tən/, is variable. Previous research has found that although the traditional pronunciation of these words is with [ʔn̩ ], as in [bʌʔn̩ ], this is not the only possible pronunciation. Recent studies have shown that /ən/ is realized as [ən] in certain speech communities, resulting in pronunciations like [bʌʔən]. Furthermore, there have been anecdotal reports that /t/ can be realized as [ɾ], resulting in pronunciations like [bʌɾən]. This article examines whether there is indeed a change underway in /ən/ and /t/ realizations, how these phonemes are interrelated, and what factors and populations are conditioning this change. To address these issues, a production experiment was carried out with participants from Long Island, NY. Results suggest that there is an early-stage change underway, such that younger speakers are more likely to realize /tən/ words with [ən] than [n̩ ]. Realization of /ən/ as [ən] is also significantly correlated with /t/ being realized as [ɾ] and a faster speech rate. There is not yet evidence for a change in progress for /t/ realizations, but [ɾ] productions are significantly correlated with the realization of /ən/ as [ən].

The Impact of Three Social Factors on the Variation of “Qaf” in Ammani Arabic

This study aims to explore the effects of three social factors on the variation of (Qaf) in Ammani Arabic. In specific, the social factors investigated were gender, age, and level of education. In order to elicit a corpus of vernacular speech, thirty sociolinguistic interviews with 30 speakers who were all born and raised in Amman were conducted. Using computer software GOLDVARB X (Sankoff et al., 2005), it was found that all social factors were statistically significant. Furthermore, gender was considered the most significant factor while education appeared to be the least significant factor. The results of the study support previous research that females frequently use [?], presenting their feminine identity. In regard of age, old participants favored the use of [g] rather than [?] while [?] was most frequently used by young speakers. Moreover, education was also found as a significant social factor. In this respect, low-educated preferred [g] and highly-educated speakers preferred [q]. In regard to education, the researcher followed Abdel-Jawad’s (1987) proposal that education in Arabic is a genuine variable which directly affects language variation in Arabic.

We /r/ Tongan, not American: Variation and the social meaning of rhoticity in Tongan English

AbstractThe current paper argues that speakers of Tongan English, an emergent variety spoken in the Kingdom of Tonga, may use rhoticity to construct a cosmopolitan and globally oriented local social identity. A variationist analysis of non‐prevocalic /r/ in a corpus of 56 speakers reveals a change in progress towards rhoticity led by young females, whereas an affiliation with Liahona High School, a Mormon secondary school, predicts advanced adoption of the feature. I argue that rhoticity carries a positive ideological load for younger speakers as an index of globalness, modernity and Western cultural values, whereas for Liahona‐affiliated speakers, an additional indexicality of rhoticity is Mormonism. Linguistic constraints on variation mirror patterns found in previous studies on L1/L2 varieties and are thus more universal, whereas social constraints on variation are best examined through a local lens.

Linguistic Variability across Four Generations of Basque Spanish Speakers

Abstract The present study uses the apparent-time construct to analyze cross-generational variability of the preverbal double negation construction (i.e., yo tampoco no voy a la fiesta ‘I’m not going to the party either’), traditionally cited as a regional characteristic of the Spanish spoken in the Basque Country. An acceptability judgment task and a semi-structured interview were carried out among four different age groups. The results show that speakers of the two older generations tend to accept and produce the regional construction significantly more than speakers of the two younger generations, who favor the Standard Spanish variant (yo tampoco voy a la fiesta ‘I’m not going to the party either’). It is suggested that this trend is mainly due to the participants’ different language contact situations (Thomason and Kaufman, 1988) and levels of formal education. Since older speakers grew up in a situation of shift via interference and with lower levels of formal education, they prefer the preverbal double negation construction, which was already a norm in the regional Spanish. However, younger speakers grew up in a language maintenance situation and have relatively high formal education levels, factors that have conditioned dialectal leveling in this case.

Language Ideologies and Dialect Shift in Helvécian Portuguese

Abstract Speakers from the Helvécian community in Bahia, Brazil, have been accommodating their language variety towards standard Brazilian Portuguese for the past 60 years. This article demonstrates that a complex web of socioeconomic events is tied to this phenomenon. It provides an overview of the most recent socioeconomic and political changes in the community, combined with a discourse analysis of the metalinguistic commentaries identified in narratives collected during my 2019 fieldwork in the community. The research demonstrates that speakers’ metalinguistic patterns are mediated by iconization, which sees younger speakers linguistically differentiate themselves from the traditional dialect. The findings support the theory that socioeconomic events cause direct linguistic change, especially among speakers of minority languages.

Variable use of intensifiers in Ottawa English

This research paper investigates the variable use of intensifiers in Ottawa English. Following the key tenets of the variationist approach, we analysed data from Ottawa English Corpus in order to check the correlation between a number of social (age & gender) and linguistic (syntactic position, semantic class, positive/negative and emotional/non-emotional values of the intensified adjectives) factors and the choice of intensifiers. The findings reveal that “really,” “so,” “very,” and “pretty” are the most commonly used intensifiers in this English variety, demonstrating specific associations with certain types of adjectives. These patterns show that such intensifiers are delexicalized. and the frequency of intensifier usage, with women and younger speakers utilizing intensifiers more frequently than men and older speakers, respectively. the research highlights a connection between the diachronic recycling and renewal of intensifiers and their frequency over time.

Exploring the presence of Cymraeg on TikTok

Many of the world’s languages are endangered or vulnerable. For some of these languages, a presence in technological domains can illustrate vitality and demonstrate relevance to the lives of younger speakers. A presence on social media is often seen as particularly significant for younger speakers due to their high levels of social media use. This article explores the presence of Cymraeg (the Welsh language) on TikTok. Through the analysis of a corpus of 200 videos, the article reveals a complex and richly bilingual content space with considerable intermingling of Cymraeg and English. Commenting on videos and engaging in a text-based conversation with the content creator and other audience members is shown to be a significant activity. The corpus demonstrates that Cymraeg is being used, taught, discussed and promoted on TikTok. This article contributes to an ongoing assessment of the digital vitality of Cymraeg and extends our understanding of the role that social media can play in supporting the sustainability and vitality of minority languages.

Bilingualism and ageing independently impact on language processing: evidence from comprehension and production

Abstract To examine the combined effects of ageing and bilingualism in language processing, we tested young and older mono- and bilingual speakers in L1 comprehension and production. In Experiment 1, bilinguals were slower to detect words than monolinguals in sentences with a low-constraint context, but not when a high-constraint context was provided. Older adults tended to outperform younger adults in high-constraint sentences. In Experiment 2, older speakers were slower than younger speakers to produce small-scope prepositional phrases (e.g., ‘the cone above the grape), suggesting more extensive planning. Bilingual disadvantages were observed in larger-scope complex phrases (e.g., ‘the cone and the pink grape’). Individual differences in language proficiency did not modulate the effects. The results support bilingual disadvantages in syntactic processing and age-preserved syntax, alongside semantic processing unaffected by either bilingualism or age. We found no interactions between age and bilingualism, suggesting that these two factors independently impact language processing.

On Pseudo-Coordination in the province of Catania

This paper discusses the preliminary results of an exploratory study based on acceptability judgments about Pseudo-Coordination (PseCo) as found in the province of Catania (Sicily). PseCo is a monoclausal verbal periphrasis where an inflected verb (V1), usually of motion, is followed by another inflected verb (V2) with an optional connecting element between them (cf. Giusti, Di Caro and Ross 2022). In western Sicilian varieties, the V1 GO can occur as an invariable form (i.e., va-, vo-, uo-, o- as in Oppigghju u pani ‘I go and fetch the bread’) prefixed to the V2. An online anonymous questionnaire was administered to 295 participants (180 female, 115 male; Age M: 20,95 years, Age SD: 2,73 years) to assess whether (i) PseCo with V1 GO in the present indicative is productive among younger speakers; (ii) different forms of invariable V1 GO can cooccur in one and the same variety. The results show that PseCo in the province of Catania is still vital among younger generation of speakers and that invariable V1 GO generally occurs in at least two different forms but with no particular semantic specialization.