Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English
Race-relevant cues, whether vocal or visual, shape how listeners process the incoming speech signal. In order to better understand how these cues inform sentence-level processing, we asked listeners to rate the plausibility of three different sentence types: (a) plausible in both Mainstream American...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2024-01-01
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| Series: | Psychology of Language and Communication |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2024-0015 |
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| author | Beyer Tim Renirie Tess Andresen David |
| author_facet | Beyer Tim Renirie Tess Andresen David |
| author_sort | Beyer Tim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Race-relevant cues, whether vocal or visual, shape how listeners process the incoming speech signal. In order to better understand how these cues inform sentence-level processing, we asked listeners to rate the plausibility of three different sentence types: (a) plausible in both Mainstream American English (MAE) and African American English (AAE), (b) implausible in both, or (c) plausible in AAE, but not MAE. Across three experiments, we manipulated the type of race-relevant cues provided to listeners, who all identified as MAE-speakers. Experiment 1 (n = 72) used written sentences and therefore did not provide vocal or visual cues, Experiment 2 (n = 72) provided vocal cues to speaker background, and Experiment 3 (n = 72) provided vocal and visual cues to speaker background. Results show that MAE-speaking listeners readily incorporated race-relevant cues when processing these sentences. In particular, findings indicate that expectations associating African Americans with utterances implausible from an MAE-perspective inform sentence-level processing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-478342143ef2440db90757f7916b337a |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2083-8506 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Psychology of Language and Communication |
| spelling | doaj-art-478342143ef2440db90757f7916b337a2025-02-02T15:49:16ZengSciendoPsychology of Language and Communication2083-85062024-01-0128141544510.58734/plc-2024-0015Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American EnglishBeyer Tim0Renirie Tess1Andresen David21Psychology, University of Puget Sound, United States1Psychology, University of Puget Sound, United States1Psychology, University of Puget Sound, United StatesRace-relevant cues, whether vocal or visual, shape how listeners process the incoming speech signal. In order to better understand how these cues inform sentence-level processing, we asked listeners to rate the plausibility of three different sentence types: (a) plausible in both Mainstream American English (MAE) and African American English (AAE), (b) implausible in both, or (c) plausible in AAE, but not MAE. Across three experiments, we manipulated the type of race-relevant cues provided to listeners, who all identified as MAE-speakers. Experiment 1 (n = 72) used written sentences and therefore did not provide vocal or visual cues, Experiment 2 (n = 72) provided vocal cues to speaker background, and Experiment 3 (n = 72) provided vocal and visual cues to speaker background. Results show that MAE-speaking listeners readily incorporated race-relevant cues when processing these sentences. In particular, findings indicate that expectations associating African Americans with utterances implausible from an MAE-perspective inform sentence-level processing.https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2024-0015dual-route approach to speech perceptionsocially meaningful linguistic variationrace-relevant cuesspeech processingafrican american english |
| spellingShingle | Beyer Tim Renirie Tess Andresen David Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English Psychology of Language and Communication dual-route approach to speech perception socially meaningful linguistic variation race-relevant cues speech processing african american english |
| title | Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English |
| title_full | Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English |
| title_fullStr | Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English |
| title_full_unstemmed | Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English |
| title_short | Race-relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation: Evidence from African American English and Mainstream American English |
| title_sort | race relevant cues influence the processing of linguistic variation evidence from african american english and mainstream american english |
| topic | dual-route approach to speech perception socially meaningful linguistic variation race-relevant cues speech processing african american english |
| url | https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2024-0015 |
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