LIN120 short-a project
In this field project we will be looking at how different
populations pronounce the low-front vowel /ae/ in words like cat, fan,
last, hammer, etc. The basic distinction you should pay attention to is
whether the /ae/ vowel is pronounced as tense (T) or
lax (L) in any given instance, as discussed in class and described
on pp. 4-5 of the Week 2 handout.
If you want to practice ahead of time, you can try your hand at
coding with this sound file (which we listened to
in class) and email me if you have questions.
INSTRUCTIONS: Use this
questionnaire with at least three native speakers of English. At least
one speaker should be from Lancaster, and one other should be from either
Philadelphia or New York. The people you interview can be college students,
but we'd like to get as many non-students as possible (a wider age range
will make our results more interesting). Do not interview anyone under
the age of 18. You can interview strangers,
passing acquaintances, friends or family members. You can work in pairs
when interviewing people; if you do so, you should conduct at least 6
interviews together.
Bring two copies of the questionnaire and your word cards (see
below) with you when you interview each person. Choose a place that's
relatively quiet. The interview will probably take about 15 minutes.
- The first set of questions is about the speaker's background. Fill
in any information you already know on your copy of the interview sheet, and ask about the rest.
- The second part uses a method known as semantic
differentials, where you ask about word meanings in order to avoid
focusing on pronunciation. Write each of the words in this section down on
a card ahead of time. For each question, hold up the two cards and say
'What would you say is the difference between these two words?' On your
copy of the interview sheet, write 'T' (for tense) or 'L' (for lax) next to
each short-a word. If they say the word more than once, write a T or L for
each instance. You can also make notes about what they say about the word
meanings if you find them interesting.
- For the third part, give the speaker their own (clean) copy of the
interview sheet and have them read it out loud. On your copy, write a T or
L next to each short-a word (it will help if you underline or highlight
them ahead of time).
- For the fourth part, they read the word list out loud and you mark each
word with T or L.
- The last part is a minimal pair test, concerning vowels other
than short-a that are undergoing mergers in various dialects of
English. Write each word on a card and hand the subject the pair of cards
for each question. Ask them to read the words out loud and say whether they
sound the same or not. On your sheet, write 'S' if the speaker says they
sound the same and 'D' if they say they are different. Then write 'I' if
you think they were pronounced identically, and 'N' if you think they
weren't.
If you can't tell if a vowel is tense or lax because it sounds somewhere
in-between, mark it as .5.
Keep your handwritten records in a safe place and then enter your
data into this spreadsheet, using the codes listed here. Fill out one spreadsheet for each
interview, and name the file with your last name and a number 1-4
(e.g. pak1.xls, pak2.xls, pak3.xls). Submit your data via the course
Blackboard page by the beginning of class on
Wednesday, February 20.
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