Variable Speech Production

Social Meaning

There are numerous sources of variability in speech production within a single speaker. For illustration, consider the variability that might occur in multiple productions of the sentence I bought my kids new coats and boots. The first potential source of variability in this utterance relates to social meaning. Imagine this sentence being spoken by someone who fluently speaks two dialects, and that the vowels in bought, boat, and boots are produced differently in those two dialects. This is not a far-fetched scenario: Regional differences in the pronunciation of English vowels are pervasive, as shown in dialect surveys. In this hypothetical case, the speaker might be a middle-aged man (like the author of this entry), who grew up in one dialect region (Buffalo, New York) in which the vowels were produced one way, but who lived most of his adult life in a different dialect region where they are pronounced quite differently (Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota). Alternatively, this speaker might have produced the vowels one way when younger, but in later life, he might have adopted a new way of speaking that reflected pronunciation changes that had been adopted by a younger group of speakers. For example, a hypothetical lifelong resident of Minneapolis–St. Paul might adopt a new way of pronouncing the vowels in coats and boots to mimic the more fronted pronunciations of these vowels that the younger generation has adopted. In both of these cases, the hypothetical speakers might adopt different dialect variants depending on perceived characteristics of the speakers they are addressing or based on the dialects being spoken in the particular context. Alternatively, these hypothetical speakers might consciously switch among the dialects to convey different attitudes toward an audience: The first speaker might use the local dialect variant when expressing solidarity with the locals and the other dialect when positioning himself as an outsider. The second speaker might use the more back variants when emphasizing his advancing age and more front variants when expressing a sense of solidarity with a younger audience. These types of changes in response to listener needs are common in spoken communication. The articulatory and acoustic detail in the target sentence might be quite variable across productions, due simply to a speaker conveying different social meanings.

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