Workshop on sociolectal and dialectal prosodic variation: Amherst, MA - October 11-13, 2018

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

Prosody describes the musical aspects of language, like pitch, phrasing, and rhythm. Over the past 40 years, we've learned a great deal about how speakers signal language meaning with prosody: Prosodic cues help listeners better understand their speaker and are especially important for children learning language. However, as in many language fields, the majority of studies of prosody have focused on majority languages and dialects and on speakers who hold power in social structures. The goal of the funded workshop is to diversify prosody research in terms of the languages and dialects being investigated, as well as the social structures that influence prosodic variation. The workshop will bring together prosody researchers and researchers exploring the role of sociological variation in prosody, with a specific focus on understudied dialects and endangered languages, and individual differences based on gender and sexuality. Invited speakers will (i) raise what questions and areas they think would especially benefit from prosodic research, (ii) teach prosody researchers what they need to know to do research in these areas, and (iii) share insights from their experience engaging with the broader public around issues of understudied and endangered languages, linguistic bias, and intersectionality in science. In addition to talks from invited speakers, there will be additional talks, and two poster sessions, highlighting work related to the special session topic and to topics in prosody more generally. A satellite workshop centered on African-American English prosody will bring together participants to contribute analyses of common data sets and discuss the development of shared data resources and special methodological considerations such as challenges in prosodic transcription. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.