Accommodation
Duolingo for Talking to Children - SNL
An SNL sketch about how to speak "the language of children".
Angel Haze interview with white DJ
Play videoArtifact 1 of 2 in an analysis of style-shifting as a function of interviewer race. This interview was analyzed as part of a project on Coronal Stop Deletion in the speech of Hip Hop artists. [Published on 02-06-2014]
Scarface interview with Sway's Universe
Play videoScarface appears on Sway's Universe's radio show as a guest and talks about his life and gives stories about his time with Tupac. Used in analysis of his linguistic authenticity.
Interview with rapper Angel Haze
Play videoArtifact 2 of 2 in an analysis of style-shifting as a function of interviewer race. This interview was analyzed as part of a project on Coronal Stop Deletion in the speech of Hip Hop artists.
When You Sound Different on the Phone
Play videoThis is a skit about a mother and daughter who are Cuban-Americans and each have a different voice when talking on the phone. This is an example of a linguistic repertoire- the mother and daughter are pulling on different resources. It also shows the speaker shifting in speech towards the audience, and the mother and daughter each chose (subconsciously) to use a different accent when on the phone to index things different to what their natural accents would index.
Chardjou dialect of Turkmen
Play videoIndexicality of a tribal affiliation through use of code switching from Chardjou dialect to Russian.
Oprah and Elie Wiesel
Play videoA video of Oprah speaking with a Holocaust survivor that I used in my analysis of her style shifts.
Language and Identity
Play videoThis talk delivers that language help people establish a linguistic identity, and a writing system is important for people to become literate. The language reflects who you are. The speaker treats her belonging to the Canada language community not the USA region. The speech communities express the social identities and relations.
Mock Spanish in the movie Friday
Play videoIn this video, Chris Tucker is talking to his Hispanic friends and uses Spanish. This is an example of mock Spanish.
The Importance of Singlish
Play videoSingaporean comedian Hossan Leong shares his favorite Singlish word and his reasons for using Singlish in his shows
This Is How I talk SNL Skit
Play video
The SNL skit "This is How I Talk" plays off of linguistic and societal norms attributed to different groups of people (in this case black and white people) to create a humorous situation. The situation is funny because Louis C.K. who is an extremely white individual and a speaker of Standard English, pretends to be a native speaker of African-American Vernacular English to avoid letting his new boss know that he was making fun of her. This is unusual because AAVE is strongly associated with race, so to see a white man using this speech type is so out of the ordinary as to be humorous. Later on in the clip, Brenda switches to SE in order to find out for sure if Louis C.K.'s character is only pretending to speak AAVE natively. While she is speaking, she says that "this is my real voice. See, I went to a good college..." indicating the common conception that AAVE is not an "academic" form of speech and reinforcing the social hierarchy that is related to American dialects.
Vladimir Putin Speaks English for the International Expositions Bureau
Play videoThis artifact shows Russia´s president Vladimir Putin welcoming the members of the 2013 International Exhibitions Bureau while speaking entirely in English. Putin usually avoids speaking in English even though he is known for knowing enough English to even correct his translators. Speaking English in this welcome video shows his appreciation and respect to the members and guests of the exhibition.
Key and Peele- Job Interview
Play videoIn this video, the scene depicts a situation where Jordan Peele is acting out as a guy waiting to go into an interview for a new job. Peele hears laughing from the room where the interview is going on, and Peele sees the boss and the other potential new employee get along well. Peele at the end of the video changes his behavior and becomes more eccentric and outgoing.
Trying American
Play videoIn this scene Daphne shares her frustration with how people react to her accent. This demonstrates how different accents and dialects index social identity, eliciting feelings and reactions sometimes unwanted by the speaker. These interactions may influence future discourse practices.
John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon Talk Accents
Play videoThere are a few instances in this video that relate to or bring up some sort of sociolinguistic/sociocultural linguistic norm or topic, but the main one that sticks out comes up at about 1:00, a minute into the video. John Oliver, who is an English comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host of the HBO political talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He is asked about his 18-month-old son and whether or not he will have an English accent or not. Oliver goes on for a bit poking fun at American accents after explaining that his son will most likely NOT have an English accent, where he jokingly says, when talking to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon who has an American Accent, "the way you make words sound hurts my ears", and when explaining how he will speak in a different manner, he again jokingly says he will be speaking "worse". The main example he presents though is at the 1:50 minute mark when talking about the difference between American and English accents and whether it makes it harder to communicate in America. Oliver goes on to explain that for people without an American accent, automated machines are a "real problem". He jokingly makes a comparison in which he says when dealing with automated machine people without American accents are "battered down into submission by the machine until you talk like a sedated John Wayne" after which he does an impression of...a sedated John Wayne, in which he speaks with a stereotypical American accent. This last bit is very interesting because even though he talks about it in joking, light-hearted manner, he brings up strong evidence for people without American accents being "battered down into submission" to not use their accents. In these situations, people without American accents are forced to accommodate their speech and change it to sound more American which also relates to Style-Shifting. To me, there is also a slight bit of globalization too in a similar way to what I just mentioned. It is most likely indirectly but it is pushing towards just a plain American accent to be used.
Troy and Abed Being Normal Scene from Community
Play videoIn this scene Troy and Abed, who typically behave far from socially acceptable, try to be "normal" so they do not embarrass their friend Shirley at her wedding. They each change their voice to diminish any distinctive characteristics and accents as well choosing words and using grammar that supports what might be considered a "standard" form of English. They do their best not to be sarcastic and to talk to others in a way that follows social norms.
Hillary Clinton - Southern Accent
Play videoIn this clip from an interview with the South Carolina Democratic Chairman, Jaime Harrison, Hillary Clinton accommodates her speech style by speaking with a Southern accent. The accent is a speech style that only appears in speeches with Southern audiences.
New Girl - Schmidt & Winston Crack Scene
Play videoIn this scene, Schmidt tries to help Winston stay true to himself, and Winston suggests they can do this by getting cocaine. Schmidt tries to accommodate Winston by going to a rougher neighborhood. Schmidt tries to fit into the situation at hand, albeit often unsuccessfully, but his linguistic style-shifting is most apparent as he tries to get the "drug dealer's" attention.
Why I love living in a multilingual town
This article is about a young woman who studied abroad in South Tyrol, a German speaking province in Northern Italy. She speaks about her experiences living in a town that speaks both German and Italian. She says that using both languages every day while she was there gave her confidence.
Five Reasons Why People Code Switch
This article explains what code-switching is and gives five common reasons why people use code-switching. Some of the reasons explained are because the speaker wanted to fit in, use their other language to get something, say something secretively, or because code-switching can help explain certain concepts better than in a single language. In order to emphasize these reasons, the author provides several stories from different people explaining situations where they used code-switching. [Published on 04-13-2013]
The Importance of Code Switching
Play videoEdward Moore explains the importance of Code Switching for success. He emphasizes that people of color need to know how to function in different environments. From "the block" to the board room.
An English Language Cop
This is a clip from Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David corrects Richard Lewis' speech. Richard says, "in their private homes," and Larry corrects him with , "the privacy of their homes?" Larry David's correction displays language ideology because there was no misunderstanding, he was just being, as Richard Lewis points out, "an English language cop." Then, Larry notes that Richard utters the word "collapse" in the same way he does. It makes sense that these two would speak with the same dialect or accent since they are lifelong friends and both from New York City. When this is brought to Richard's attention, he denies sharing this with Larry and pronounces "collapse" according to Standard American English. [Published on 01-05-2015]
Ted Cruz para Presidente
Play videoThis video is of a campaign advertisement for Ted Cruz. who was running for president as a Republican. As someone who has been quoted as saying that Spanish speakers live in a "language ghetto", this can be seen as an example of Hispandering. Since the ad is entirely in Spanish, Cruz was trying to gain acceptance and furthermore the vote from those in the Hispanic, Spanish-speaking communities.
Speech community or community practice/ code switching and the big bang theory
Play videoThis is a great example of a group of people who are speaking English but the are speaking a jargon that they only know and those that are in their field or have the same interests shear known as Community practice. code-switching within their speech community.
Hillary Clinton and her Evolving Accent
Play videoHillary Clinton demonstrates styleshifting during her many years in public life.
The Language of Love: Word Usage Predicts Romantic Attraction
Melinda Wenner Moyer discusses research that suggests people who use similar function words, or more likely to end up in long term relationships. Furthermore, the article discusses whether or not people are more likely to be attracted to those who already talk like them or if people change their language to match the people they really like. [Published on 05-11-2011]
The "White Voice" of Radio
This clip points out the style-shifting of the particular speaker, and attributes it to race, performativity, and accommodation to his audience. [Published on 02-02-2015]
The Linguistics of YouTube Voice
This article focuses on YouTube stars, and how they capture a viewer's attention by changing their speech and accommodating to their audience. [Published on 12-07-2015]
NPR: Our use of hidden words
An NPR story on the work of psychologist James Pennebaker, who uses computers to track the use of function words and pronouns in spoken corpora, illustrating the process of accommodation. [Published on 09-01-2014]