In this week’s readings, we moved further into the world of sociolinguistics.
“The Social Weight of Spoken Words” gives us a foundation for how our
perceptions of speech map to our own social biases. “Voice-Specific Effects in
Semantic Association” demonstrates how speaker characteristics directly affect
semantic interpretation. Lastly, “Effects of Phonetically-Cued Talker Variation
on Semantic Encoding” show that the accent of a speaker can directly influence
encoding strength in the listener. Wrapping all of these articles together, we
arrive at an interesting concept: people seem to better remember utterances
from speakers with more prestigious accents.
I would like to focus, in this blog post, upon this idea of “socially-weighting”
spoken words. The fact that people discriminate based on the phonetic
characteristics of talkers is fascinating and makes me wonder about particular
cultural junctions. Six years ago, the British television series, Downton Abbey, became a cultural
phenomenon with millions of Americans watching each week. We have also seen
actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch rise to national prominence in Hollywood,
bringing with them some sort of foreign ethos embodied within their natural accents.
Is this cultural? Or, as possibly implied in the readings, is there some
underlying factor?
In order to guide my thinking, I would like to conjure up an
image of the incredibly popular Harry
Potter film series. What if all of the actors did not have British accents,
but American ones? Would some of the magic be lost? One of the things that
makes Harry Potter so memorable is
this sense of otherworldliness, emblazoned by the delicately formal accents
held by all of the actors. Could this be related to this week’s readings? If we
so significantly bind our perceptions of speakers’ identities upon the social
cues within their speech, then it seems to be very possible that such effects
drive our love of things like Harry
Potter and Downton Abbey.
Overall, the entertainment industry appears to be an area
ripe for sociolinguistic inquiry. There seems to be a fascination with British proclivities
in America, and it would be very interesting indeed to track how this concept
has arisen and grown over time.
Addison, I find the connection you make to the entertainment industry fascinating, especially because I have a particular affinity towards both of the (amazing) hits you mentioned. It does seem that part of their success and magic is predicated on these sociolinguistic phenomena we have been reading about. I was just watching the trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which involves magicians with American accents, and the experience was completely different. Somehow the British accent makes the nonsensical spells seem much less like gibberish, imbibing them with more authority and credibility, as opposed to the American accent, which seems to diminish the meaning of and my encoding of the impactful collection of phonemes.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely intrigued by the connections you draw between the studies we read this week and how entertained we are by entertainment featuring British accents. I wonder if there is some way to see if Harry Potter is less magical to those with accents like the characters' accents. I was a bit confused by your analysis of “Effects of Phonetically-Cued Talker Variation on Semantic Encoding”. I thought the point of this study was that different accents did not change listeners' encoding of the speech produced with those accents. But maybe I am confused! Anyways, thanks for the insightful blog post; you bring up some points I will definitely continue to think about in my consumption of various media.
ReplyDeleteLove the discussion here, in particular about the relationship between British accents and the magic of Harry Potter. I remember reading that JK Rowling insisted on casting British actors for the British characters in the original films, so it seems she may have had a similar intuition. It will be interesting to see if American actors step into the roles of title characters in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," and what effect that will have on the audience's perception of the show.
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