An experimental study of English accent perception

Authors

  • Elena Shamina Saint Petersburg State University, Russia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2016/07/0036/000295

Keywords:

sociolinguistics, perception, English accents, social and personal qualities

Abstract

The study aims at proving the observation that in English oral speech perception, sociolinguistic evaluation prevails over personal one. The total of 10 speech samples by 2 native English speakers with no special phonetic or acting training imitating various English accents were evaluated by 26 native English speakers on a number of scales related to sociolinguistic and personal factors. When listening to the same persons speaking in different English language varieties the respondents ascribed to them very different social qualities, such as social class, education and occupation. The personality properties ascribed, such as character traits and age, are shown to depend on the social factors, associated with the accent.

 

References

Abramova, I.E. 2009. Phonetic variation outside the natural language environment. Petrozavodsk, Petrozavodsk University Press. (In Russian)

Coupland, N. and Bishop, H. 2007. Ideologised values for British accents. Journal of Linguistics, vol. 11, issue 1, 74-93.

Labov, W. 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, D.C., Center of Applied Linguistics.

Shamina, E.A. 2011. Subjective evaluation of the phonetic representation of some national and regional varieties of the English language. In S. Androsova (ed.), Proceedings of the 1st International Conference “Phonetics without Borders”, 96-98. Blagoveshchensk, Russian Federation.

Shamina, E.A. 2012. On objectivity of subjective evaluation of some national and regional English accents. In L.A. Verbitskaya, N.K. Ivanova (ed.), Homo speaking: XXI century research, 150–155. Ivanovo, Ivanovo State University of Chemical Technology Press. (In Russian).

Wells, J.C. 1982. Accents of English, vol. 1. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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Published

01-01-2016

How to Cite

An experimental study of English accent perception. (2016). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 7(1), 159-162. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2016/07/0036/000295

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