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More Adventures with Dialects: Convergence and Ambiguity Resolution by Partners in Conversation

More Adventures with Dialects: Convergence and Ambiguity Resolution by Partners in Conversation. Brennan, Huffman, Hannigan, et al. Assumptions about dialects. Dialects encode geographic, demographic, educational socioeconomic info Dialects converge during interaction.

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More Adventures with Dialects: Convergence and Ambiguity Resolution by Partners in Conversation

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  1. More Adventures with Dialects:Convergence and Ambiguity Resolution by Partners in Conversation Brennan, Huffman, Hannigan, et al.

  2. Assumptions about dialects • Dialects encode geographic, demographic, educational socioeconomic info • Dialects converge during interaction

  3. Questions about dialects • What IS a dialect? • Do dialects really converge in conversation? • How do listeners cope w/ variability in the speech signal, including that from dialects? • Are all kinds of variability handled by the same processing mechanisms? • Are representations of the sounds of a language stored as abstract prototypes or as different instances/variants? • Is there parity between comprehension and production when it comes to dialectal variation?

  4. Dialects aren’t all-or-nothing!

  5. Adapting to a partner’s dialect Do speakers converge with a partner’s dialect? (Brennan & Huffman, in prep.) • Long Island (LI) vs. General American (GA) dialect • Design: Session 1 with LI addressee Session 2 with GA addressee

  6. Sample dialect words to elicit: • Consonants • r-drop toaster, saucer, paperclip • Vowels - Monophthongs • “bad” plaid, cab, labcoat, bathtub • “bat” hat, bat, cat, cap • “ale” scale, tail, mailbox • “ah” dot, pot, knot, cot • Vowels - Diphthongs • aw chocolate, faucet, saw

  7. Task: “Go fish” card game Subject: “I need a toaster.” Confed: “Here you go, a toaster.” or “Sorry, no toaster, go fish.” “OK, I need a lab coat.” <etc.>

  8. Dialect comparisons (play) (repeat) LI speech example: More examples of LI subjects in the context of confederates’ speech • “cab”: LI subj., then GA confed. • “saucer”: LI subj., then GA confed. • “saucer”: LI conf., then LI subject

  9. Results so far: • Speakers do significantly less r-dropping to GA addressees than to LI addressees • Very small change in monophthongs: • F1 goes up slightly, F2 goes down slightly • We need to look at differences for individual words (e.g., PLAID, CAB, LABCOAT, BATHTUB) • Dipthongs: Stay tuned!

  10. Implications • Dialects are clusters of tendencies. • Articulatory adaptations associated with dialect don’t occur as a unit. • Some features of a dialect are more flexible than others. • Adaptation may depend on awareness of a feature!

  11. Adapting to a speaker’s dialect Do speakers converge with their partners’ dialects? (Brennan & Huffman, in prep.) Do listeners perceive homophones differently, depending on the dialect of the speaker? And does the listener’s own dialect matter? (with Stephanie Hannigan & Marie Huffman)

  12. The parity issue, vis-à-vis dialects • The comprehension (input) and production (output) issues are different. • Dialectal variation is particularly hard to deal with on the input side.

  13. When a dialect is unfamiliar, the source of the variation is ambiguous Tourist: Excuse me, is it pronounced ‘Hawaii’ or ‘Havaii’? Benny Hill: Havaii Tourist: Thank you! Benny Hill: You’re velcome! (Kraljic, Brennan, & Samuel, under review)

  14. Welcome to Long Island! (In a deli, ordering a sliced turkey sandwich:) (example courtesy of Meghan Sumner)

  15. Welcome to Long Island! (In a deli, ordering a sliced turkey sandwich:) Would you like white meat or dog meat? (example courtesy of Meghan Sumner)

  16. Adapting to a speaker’s dialect

  17. Adapting to a speaker’s dialect GA homophones

  18. Adapting to a speaker’s dialect LI homophones

  19. Adapting to a speaker’s dialect • Subjects’ own dialects are tested • Questionnaire • Read a story aloud • Exposed to either LI or GA dialect (story) • Perform a word selection task • Critical trials had either an LI or a GA homophone competitor

  20. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is?

  21. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed” stair cod + cawed ice

  22. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed” stair cod + cawed ice (GA dialect)

  23. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click cawed” stair cod + cawed ice (LI dialect)

  24. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught” told court + caught ski

  25. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught” told court + caught ski (LI dialect)

  26. Does perceived ambiguity depend on who the speaker is? “Click caught” told court + caught ski (GA dialect)

  27. An utterance’s ambiguity depends on the perceived dialect… If it’s all about priming, then who the speaker is shouldn’t matter!

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