Uptalk in Spanish dating shows?Daniel Vergara-González

University of Illinois at ChicagoInToSpan 2014

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Road map

• 1. Introduction• 2. Background• 3. Research Questions• 4. Methodology• 5. Findings• 6. Conclusions/Future work

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1. Introduction Uptalk: The use of rising intonation at the end of declarative

statements so that they sound like questions

Uptalk often assumed to be restricted by age and gender (Gorman 1993, Davis 2002)

Other studies (Shokeir 2008, Linneman 2013, Richardt & Arvaniti 2013) challenge gender restrictions both males and females use uptalk.

While much research in the fields of linguistics and gender has focused on the study of uptalk for English, little to no research has studied this phenomenon in Spanish

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2. Background Lakoff (1975): Interpreted the use of uptalk as the result of

female submission or a way of signaling the uncertainty about the truthfulness of an utterance

Brazil (1985): Uptalk as a way of holding the floor in a conversation or during a narrative

McLemore (1992): Uptalk as a strategy used by women to achieve consensus among the group and show camaraderie

Britain (1998): speakers use uptalk for establishing solidarity with the listener

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2. Background Recent findings uptalk is used by both males and females

(Linneman 2013, Richardt & Arvaniti 2013)

Linneman (2013): Variation in the use of uptalk among the contestants’ responses in Jeopardy. Findings: Female and male contestants used uptalk 37% of the time.

Much variation in the use of uptalk Young females more prone to use this practice Men used uptalk less in the company of women

Uptalk related to success More succesful men = less uptalk More succesful women = more uptalk

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2. Background Richardt & Arvaniti (2013): Examined use of uptalk in the

discourse of Southern Californian (SoCal) English speakers as they performed a variety of tasks: Ranged from giving directions to retelling a transcript from a sitcom

scene. Findings:

Main melodies for uptalk in SoCal: L* HH%, L* LH% and (H* HH%)*

Female speakers used uptalk more often than males Social parameters such as social class or ethnicity did not affect use

of uptalk.

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3. Research Questions

Goal: To fill the aforementioned gap in the research by examining the phenomenon of uptalk in Spanish

RQ1: Is uptalk a phenomenon present in the Spanish language?

RQ2: Is Spanish uptalk more prevalent in the speech of males, females or both? Null-hypothesis (μ1 –μ2 = 0)

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3. Research Questions

RQ3: What are the acoustic characteristics of Spanish uptalk?

b. Will the intonational patterns of Spanish uptalk resemble those found for English?

RQ4: What functions does uptalk have in the discourse?

b. Is there a gender difference in the use of uptalk by discourse function? Null-hypothesis (μ1 –μ2 = 0)

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4. Methodology Contestants of the Spanish dating show Mujeres y Hombres y

Vicerversa Broadcasted in Spain Reality/Dating show focused on one contestant, the “tronista”, who

searches for ideal romantic partner among several candidates Contestants go out on dates and later they participate in a debate

on stage Main objective of the show: Win the tronista over The “tronistas” can be males and females

Why dating shows? Informal language and spontaneous speech

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4. Methodology

4.1. Recordings

Examined and recorded the utterances produced by contestants in 4 episodes of the show (average lenght = 1 hour) Total: 4 hours of recorded conversations and interactions between

contestants of the show.

4.2. Participants

Total of 12 speakers of Peninsular Spanish 6 heterosexual males (av. age= 24.8) 6 heterosexual females (av. age= 26.2)

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4. Methodology 4.3. Procedure cont’d

Coded a total of 1101 declarative sentences following these criteria: Declarative statement Completion Comprehensibility and clarity

All instances of uptalk were perceptually identified and categorized according to discourse function

Pitch contour identified and analyzed with Praat (Boersma, 2002) Identified the beginning (min F0) and end of raise (max F0) at the

end of phrase boundary

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4. Methodology 4.3. Procedure cont’d

Annotated the nuclear configurations from the last stressed vowel (LSV) (Richardt & Arvaniti 2013) using Sp_ToBI system of prosodic annotation (Beckman et al. 2002, Estebas Vilaplana and Prieto ‐2010)

Uptalk pitch contours for each contestant were checked against those of declarative statements and questions produced by same contestant

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4. Methodology

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Uptalk Question Declarative

Figure 1. Combined F0 contours of instances uptalk, declarative and question as produced by a female contestant.

4. Methodology

4.4. Analysis

Independent t-test by: Uptalk use by gender (male, female) Uptalk use by discourse function by gender (male, female) p ≤ .05

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5. Findings RQ1: Is uptalk a phenomenon present in the Spanish

language?

YES. Uptalk is present in Spanish much like in English

RQ2: Is Spanish uptalk more prevalent in the speech of males, females or both?

Uptalk is used by both males and females…

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5. Findings

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*

Significant difference in the averages of uptalk use for females (M= 18.57, SD= 8.29) and males (M= 6.12, SD= 1.87); t(10)= 3.58, p=.005

Reject the Null Hypothesis (μ1 –μ2 ≠ 0)

RQ3: What are the acoustic characteristics of Spanish uptalk? Falling contour at prosodic boundary (L%) (Hualde 2002, Estebas‐

Vilaplana and Prieto 2010)

Figure 2. F0 contour of a statement produced by one of the male contestants.

5. Findings

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LSV = Last Stressed Vowel

5. Findings Questions: Raising contour at prosodic boundary* H%

Except imperative yes/no questions (H+L* L%) (Estebas Vilaplana and ‐Prieto 2008)

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Figure 3. F0 contour of a question produced by one of the male contestants.

LSV = Last Stressed Vowel; Qs= Start of question raise; Qe= End of question raise

5. Findings RQ3: What are the acoustic characteristics of Spanish uptalk?

Uptalk in Spanish sudden increase in F0 that reaches its highest peak at the prosodic boundary of a declarative statement H%

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Figure 4. F0 contour of an uptalk utterance produced by one of the male contestants.

LSV = Last Stressed Vowel; Us= Start of uptalk raise; Ue= End of uptalk raise

5. Findings The two main melodies uptalk in the recordings:

L* L-H% L+H* HH%

Both melodies used by males and females

RQ3b. Will the intonational patterns of Spanish uptalk resemble those found for English?

The L* L-H% uptalk pitch contour was also found in SoCal by Richardt & Arvaniti (2013)

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5. Findings

RQ4: What functions does uptalk have in the discourse?

4 main functions identified: Holding the floor Showing camaraderie Softening commands “Coqueteo” or flirting

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5. FindingsContext: The female contestant is sitting on the tronista’s lap.

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Figure 4. F0 contour of an uptalk utterance produced by one of the female contestants.

LSV = Last Stressed Vowel; Us= Start of uptalk raise; Ue= End of uptalk raise

5. Findings

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*

*

Males significantly use uptalk more for holding the floor; t(10)= 2.738, p=.025

Females use uptalk more for “coqueteo” t(10)= 3.065, p= .012

Reject the Null Hypothesis (μ1 –μ2 ≠ 0)

6. Conclusions Uptalk is a phenomenon also present in Peninsular Spanish

Used by both genders. BUT…”uptalkers” mostly female

The two main melodies identified for Peninsular Spanish uptalk are: L* L-H% L+H* HH%

Males show higher usage of uptalk for holding the floor

Females show higher usage of uptalk for flirting or “coqueteo”

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6. Future work

Collect additional data for both genders

Examine if gender plays a role in the melodies associated with uptalk found in the study

Examine if discourse function plays a role in the melodies used in uptalked utterances

Test if these findings hold true for other dialects of Spanish as well

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Thank you! ¡Gracias!

I would like to acknowledge and thank: Dr. Jennifer Cabrelli-Amaro, Dr. Richard Cameron, Ariane Sande and

the Organizing Committee of InToSpan 2014.

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ReferencesBeckman, M., Díaz-Campos, M., McGory, J. T., & Morgan, T. A. (2002). Intonation across Spanish, in the Tones and Break Indices framework. Probus,14(1), 9-36.Boersma, P. (2002). Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot international, 5(9/10), 341-345.Brazil, D. (Ed.). (1985). The communicative value of intonation in English. Cambridge University Press.Britain, David. 1998. Linguistic change in intonation: The use of high-rising terminals in New Zealand English. In The sociolinguistics reader, vol. 1: Variation and

multilingualism, edited by Peter Trudgill and Jenny Cheshire. London: Hodder Arnold. Cameron, Deborah. 2007. The myth of Mars and Venus: Do men and women really speak different languages? New York: Oxford University Press. Davis, H. (2002). The Canuck uptalk epidemic. Globe and Mail.Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013). Language and gender. Cambridge University Press.Estebas-Vilaplana, E., & Prieto, P. (2010). Castilian Spanish intonation.Transcription of intonation of the Spanish language, 17-48.Gorman, J. (1993). Like, Uptalk?. New York Times, 15.Guy, Gregory, Barbara Horvath, Julia Vonwiller, Elaine Daisley, and Inge Rogers. 1986. An intonational change in progress in Australian English. Language in

Society 15:23-51.Hualde, J. I. (2002). Intonation in Spanish and the other Ibero-Romance languages: overview and status quaestionis. AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND

HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE SERIES 4, 101-116.Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman's place. Language in society, 2(01), 45-79.Linneman, T. J. (2013). Gender in Jeopardy! Intonation Variation on a Television Game Show. Gender & Society, 27(1), 82-105.McConnell-Ginet, S. (1975). Our father tongue: Essays in linguistic politics.McConnell-Ginet, S. (1983). Intonation in a man's world. Language, gender, and society, 69-88.McLemore, Cynthia A. 1991. The pragmatic interpretation of English intonation: Sorority speech. Ph.D. diss., University of Texas-Austin, Austin, TX. Navarro-Tomás, T. (1991). Manual de pronunciación española (No. 3). Editorial CSIC-CSIC Press.Ritchart, A., & Arvaniti, A. (2013). The use of high rise terminals in Southern Californian English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(5), 4198-

4198.Shokeir, V. (2008). Evidence for the stable use of uptalk in South Ontario English. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 14(2), 4.Thomas, Erik R. 2007. Sociophonetics. In Sociolinguistic variation: Theories, methods, and applications, edited by Robert Bayley and Ceil Lucas. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

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Additional data

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Up Age Sex Holding the floor Show camaraderie Soften a command Coqueteo

Brenda 22 F 23.81% 9.52% 9.52% 57.14%

Nuria 28 F 70.00% 10.00% 20.00% 0.00%

Natalia 24 F 0.00% 44.44% 11.11% 44.44%

Bea 22 F 47.06% 5.88% 35.29% 11.76%

Perla 23 F 31.25% 18.75% 25.00% 25.00%

Niki 30 F 40.00% 20.00% 20.00% 20.00%

Toño 25 M 71.43% 0.00% 28.57% 0.00%

Álvaro 27 M 50.00% 50.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Oliver 28 M 75.00% 0.00% 25.00% 0.00%

Rubén 23 M 100.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Ángel 25 M 50.00% 16.67% 33.33% 0.00%

Vicente 29 M 66.67% 33.33% 0.00% 0.00%

Figure 5. Pfrecuencies of uptalk use for individual contestants by discourse function