33.3705, Review: Forensic Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics: Setter (2021)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3705. Sat Dec 03 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3705, Review: Forensic Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sociolinguistics: Setter (2021)

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Editor for this issue: Maria Lucero Guillen Puon <luceroguillen at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2022 00:36:22
From: Tracey Adams [traceygadams at utexas.edu]
Subject: Your Voice Speaks Volumes

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-3603.html

AUTHOR: Jane  Setter
TITLE: Your Voice Speaks Volumes
SUBTITLE: It's Not What You Say, But How You Say It
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Tracey Adams, University of Texas at Austin

SUMMARY

This book is intended for general audiences as an introduction into speech
variation and perception. It takes as its base varieties of English spoken in
the United Kingdom as a means of presenting the basics of phonetics,
phonology, and dialectology. In this monograph, Setter lays out the history of
the English language in the United Kingdom, painting a picture for readers of
how dialects are formed, followed by examples of everyday experiences that
highlight the social meaning afforded by listeners to speakers of different
dialects. In the latter half of the book, her experience in various realms of
applied linguistics allows for captivating storytelling that helps portray the
utility of linguistics in today’s world as well as the import of language in
social justice matters. 

Setter begins her work by recounting how her lived experiences sparked her
interest in the subject matter. Her account of linguistic experiences during
her adolescence is both poignant and widely relatable. Importantly, her
stories showcase everyday instances in which value judgments are made solely
on the basis of someone’s voice. She then explains the basics of language
acquisition, including the capacity to vary our speech to reflect our social
allegiances over time (e.g., through Communication Accommodation Theory,
Code-switching, etc.). Despite taking Standard British English as her
reference point for the monograph, she emphasizes that there is no “correct”
English variety or accent. To explain the core concepts of phonetics and
phonology as well as the systematicity of grammar, she highlights contrasts
between British dialects. Ultimately, this introductory chapter is
comprehensive and made accessible through the use of real-world examples and
exercises for readers.

In Chapter Two, Setter provides examples from today’s popular news coupled
with a concise linguistic history to paint the story of dialectology and
accent prejudice in the British Isles. She begins with the adoption of Old
English from the Anglo-Saxons followed by contact with Viking settlements to
explain how key accent differences first emerged. Then, she details how the
Norman conquest altered class mobility such that Received Pronunciation, or
the King’s English, can be traced back to language contact during this period.
Today’s dialectal differences, Setter explains, must be understood through
this history of events in addition to the fact that, up until the 20th
century, communities were largely immobile and isolated from each other.
Finally, she depicts how dialectal allegiances have resulted in certain
accents being used and preferred in various contexts and how class and gender
prejudices are born out in arguments about language. To better understand
language prejudice, Setter discusses how the study of linguistics helps us
understand what social values, such as beauty, intelligence, and social
status, are associated with certain accents (see: Giles, 1970).

Having laid a foundation for critical perceptions of language and social
values, Setter sets out in Chapter Three, “Men can’t make their voices sexy,
and other gems”, to delve deeper into linguistic prejudice, particularly as
pertains to gender. She begins with Hughes et al.’s 2004 matched-guise voice
manipulation study to elucidate the forces behind events in British history
(e.g., perceptions and consequent judgments of Margaret Thatcher) and in
everyday life where gender and language prejudice intersect. The rest of the
chapter details how accent, intonation, and voice are used to maintain class
differences, especially for women. In particular, she discusses uptalk and
vocal fry and how public discourse uses these to maintain linguistic double
standards, vilify women, and consequently justify discrimination and violence
against women. Her guiding theme throughout this chapter is one of
understanding in order to engender linguistic tolerance.

Chapter Four shifts focus, beginning with a pop-culture reference to a recent
“scandal” concerning a British singer perceived as singing God Save the Queen
with an American accent. The heated debates around this topic set the stage
for Setter’s discussion about British versus American performers and
professionals who use their voice for their work. She engages briefly in
detailing differences between British and American Englishes, since these
dialects have had competing influences across international media (e.g.,
within music genres). Interestingly, Setter mentions variations of
/wh/-realizations in American English (pp. 90-91), which I, as a speaker of
American English, witness very rarely. Again, across singers, radio
presenters, actors, and accent coaches, Setter demonstrates how gendered
linguistic prejudice plays a significant role in the treatment of these
performers and how they subsequently try to alter their voice for their work.
While she also references racial linguistic prejudice, she refrains from
addressing this concept as in-depth. She does address instances in which
performers are famous for their distinctive voices. Importantly, Setter
underscores how these concepts manifest themselves with regard to radio
presenters who are heard but not seen by their listeners. 

Continuing with the thread of “seen but not heard”, Setter shifts focus once
more to begin a larger discussion on the practical applications of
linguistics. In Chapter Five, “Your voice is your witness”, Setter presents
anecdotes and audio examples showcasing the application of phonetics in
pursuing criminal justice, which readers are invited to listen to at the
companion website (www.oup.co.uk/companion/setter). This chapter includes more
methodological specifics, such as types of analyses and tools used in phonetic
analysis, to explain how forensic work is accomplished.  

In Chapter Six, “Making a change: Transgender speech and synthesized voices”,
Setter situates the practical application of phonetics within gender studies
and work on electronic voices. Her interviews with people who have experienced
significant changes in their voice give us a close look at language and
identity and the effects that linguistic prejudice can have. Setter asks us to
consider the question, “Does your voice represent your identity?”. She then
starts a conversation on gender transition, including talks with people who
have undergone this process and who describe their experiences and
satisfaction with their voice. These talks highlight how linguistic prejudice
from others can affect a transitioning, or transitioned, person’s quality of
life and add to cognitive dissonance vis-à-vis their voice versus their
identity. Setter also provides a brief history of the creation and use of
synthesized voices for those who have lost their voice. This discussion
presents another perspective for viewing the cognitive dissonance experienced
when one’s voice does not match their identity. On a lighter note, Setter also
informs us about current technology working toward dynamic, authentic voice
creation for these individuals. Like Chapters Three and Four, the information
in this chapter is presented through the themes of understanding and
compassion.

In her final chapter, Setter ties together gendered linguistic prejudice with
linguistic xenophobia and racial discrimination. Better-versed in the former,
Setter chooses to focus primarily on linguistic xenophobia, concentrating on
skewed discourses of colonialism that allow the colonizers to continually
discriminate against the English spoken by individuals from formerly colonized
communities. Importantly, she advocates for shifting this discourse to shed
light on the negative effects of colonialism on native peoples, their
languages, and their cultures. Setter also details how English gained
prominence due to the success of the United States during World War II. She
uses this opportunity to briefly introduce concepts of racial linguistic
discrimination but admits that her positionality as a White Brit does not
afford her the authority to speak more on the topic. The end of this chapter
takes a positive turn and details how learning English has allowed some
speakers to explore aspects of their identity, an idea currently emphasized
among Intercultural Competence scholars (see: Deardoff, 2006).

EVALUATION

In setting out to write this book, Setter aimed to introduce the concepts of
language and everyday linguistic prejudice to a broader audience. Her use of
technology, personal anecdotes, and interviews with a variety of personalities
was an excellent way to make this material not just tangible but intriguing to
the non-specialist. Even for specialists, the breadth of Setter’s knowledge of
English in the British Isles, sociolinguistic works in the region, and wider
applications of linguistics, are impressive and teach us much. The sheer
breadth of this work is impressive and deserves applause. There is something
in this monograph for everyone, specialists and non-specialists. It is hard to
find fault with such an informative, accessible, and fun read. Setter does
briefly mention, however, a few topics that could be expanded upon in future
work. In particular, she describes the “wine-whine” distinction in the United
States and work concerning raciolinguistics. 

While Setter affirms the maintenance of the “wine-whine” distinction in the
United States, the “wine-whine” merger is fairly widespread in the United
States. Any distinction is now mostly associated with older, rural speakers in
the southeast of the country (Bridwell, 2017). Moreover, it seems concentrated
in a particular region: southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle (Jones &
Renswick, 2021). 

Throughout her monograph, Setter addresses several ways in which gender
studies interact with linguistics: specifically, the perceptions of women’s
speech, the perceptions of transpersons’ speech, and transpersons’ experiences
of language. However, she explains that she is less well-versed in the
interaction of race and ethnicity with language. Nevertheless, she briefly
mentions some related controversies present in the United States, namely the
perception of African American Vernacular English as less “correct” and less
prestigious (pp. 199-201). Setter aptly acknowledges her difficulties as a
White Brit in discussing such a topic and provides several other examples and
points of view to better express the complexity of the topic. I believe that
it is important that she speak to this briefly and reiterate that, while AAVE
may be often perceived as less “correct”, these perceptions are reflective of
language attitudes and not any evaluation of dialect “correctness”. Though
readers of this book review may readily understand this, the non-specialist
audience that Setter’s book is geared toward may not. Finally, Setter
distinguishes between racial linguistic discrimination in the United Kingdom
versus in the United States, which differ according to the history of race
relations and justice movements in each. Yet, this distinction is presented in
a way that links racial linguistic discrimination primarily with the United
States and distances it from the United Kingdom. While, at the time of
publication, not much work appears to have been done on this topic in the
United Kingdom, that does not mean it is not relevant. More recent work on the
region is beginning to shed light on this topic (e.g., Cushing & Carter, 2021;
Khan, 2021).

In sum, Setter presents a wide-ranging survey of linguistic variation and
speech perception in the British Isles to introduce non-specialists to
linguistics. Nevertheless, for linguists who do not specialize on this region,
this work is equally engaging. Setter also demonstrates with facility how
using multiple media enriches the presentation of linguistic work. If I can
offer any critique of this book, it is that I wish that the companion website
to this book were introduced before Chapter 5 and that the URL for this site
were provided within the text. Granted, most of the files in the site pertain
to Chapter 5; however, the site also provides a list of URLs for the QR codes
printed throughout the seven chapters. These URLs add to the examples within
the monograph which are truly an asset and help render the discipline more
accessible. Ultimately, this work informs general audiences of the varying
implications and applications of linguistic work in addition to exemplifying
for fellow linguists how a variety of points of view can and should be
employed to explain intersectional topics. 

REFERENCES

Bridwell, K. (2017). The Distribution of [ʍ]: An Acoustic Analysis of
Sociophonetic Factors Governing the Wine-Whine Merger in Southern American
English [dissertation, University of South Carolina]. ProQuest Dissertations
Publishing.

Cushing, I., & Carter, A. (2021). Using young adult fiction to interrogate
raciolinguistic ideologies in schools. Literacy 56, 106-119. 

Deardoff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural
competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in
International Education 10(3), 241-266.

Giles, H. (1970). Evaluative reactions to accents. Educational Review 22(3),
211-227.

Hughes, S. M., Mogilski, J. K., & Harrison, M. A. (2014). The perception and
parameters of intentional voice manipulation. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour
38(1), 107-127.

Jones, J. A. & Renwick, M. E. L. (2021). Spatial analysis of sub-regional
variation in Southern US English. Journal of Linguistic Geography 9, 86-105.
DOI: 10/1017/jlg.2021.7

Khan, K. (2021). Raciolinguistic border-making and the elasticity of
assessment and believability in the UK citizenship process. Ethnicities:
Naturalization Policies, Citizenship Regimes, and the Regulation of Belonging
in Anxious Societies 21(2) [Special Issue], 333-351. DOI:
10.1177/1468796820971441


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Tracey Adams is a sociolinguist who specializes in perceptual dialectology
and language contact in the French language diaspora. Her research focuses on
speech perception and identity negotiation within the framework of
Communication Accommodation Theory. Dr. Adams recently obtained her doctorate
from the University of Texas at Austin with her dissertation entitled,
''Perceptions of variation in second-generation Montrealers' speech: methods
for remote ethnolinguistic research''. She is currently a Lecturer at The Ohio
State University.





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