Approaches to studying language attitudes beyond labov
FirstImpressionsPPT
1. Christopher Mendoza
Home Institution: Macalester College, Department of Linguistics
Research Institution: New York University, Department of Linguistics
2. What is Prosody?
Big scale sound, not just the minute aspects of individual
consonants and vowels
Intonation, stress, rhythm
Indicates form, emotional state, irony, etc.
3. Getting acquainted for the first time
Tell initial perception of a person’s personality
Stems from research on speed-dates at Stanford
First Impressions?
4. Included 4 students participating at summer programs at NYU
from: Manhattan, Miami, Virginia, and Jordan.
In a designated quiet area at the Sociolinguistics Lab at NYU
5 minute conversations
Prompted by the statement: Get to know each other!
Experiment
5. The initial survey collected social variables: gender,
race/ethnicity, job, etc.
These variables often affect linguistic production, however, not
studied in detail.
The exit interview asked them for their emotional perception of
the experience.
Survey & Exit Interview
7. Intensity is a combination of loudness, pressure, velocity, etc.
Measured Maximums and Minimums and their variability
Reflects emotional level of investment
Intensity
10. Laughter acts as a paralinguistic prosodic feature that
indicates multiple emotional elements
Laughter
11. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computational Linguistics, Phonetics
Spending less time on people that won’t provide fruitful
relationships.
Better understand language’s role in relationship formation.
Relevance/Future Research
12. Renée Blake, Department of Linguistics
David Rainbow, Academic Coordinator, New York University
Gwynneth Malin, Director, New York University – Center for the
Humanities
Shari Wolk, Graduate Assistant, LAMI at New York University
Department of Linguistics, Macalester College
My cohort: Cassandra, Oscar, Ouma, and Cynthia
Acknowledgements
While specifically, a measurement of sound power per unit area
Prosodically indicates fluctuation that can indicate emotional level of investment at the moment being analyzed
- Make clear that it’s based on the sound recording itself and they also verified that the people were friendly, consistent with previous research on interpersonal stance
