Investigating 'Self-Conscious' Speech: The Performance .
Investigating "Self-Conscious" Speech: The Performance Register in Ocracoke EnglishAuthor(s): Natalie Schilling-EstesSource: Language in Society, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 53-83Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4168816 .Accessed: 10/11/2014 17:45Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at ms.jsp.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Languagein Society.http://www.jstor.orgThis content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Language in Society 27, 53-83. Printedin the United States of AmericaInvestigating "self-conscious" speech:The performance register in Ocracoke EnglishNATALIESCHILLING-ESTESDepartmentof LinguisticsStanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-2150estesI @leland.stanford.eduABSTRACTThis article examines PERFORMANCESPEECH in the historically isolated island community of Ocracoke,North Carolina.Over the past several decadesislandershave come into increasinglyfrequentcontact with touristsand newresidents, who often comment on the island's "quaint"relic dialect. In response, some Ocracokershave developed performancephrasesthathighlightisland features, particularlythe pronunciationof /ay/ with a raised/backednucleus,i.e. [A' ]. The analysisof/ay/ in theperformanceandnon-performancespeech of a representativeOcracokespeakeryields severalimportantinsightsfor the study of language in its social context. First,performancespeech maydisplay moreregularpatterningthanhas traditionallybeen assumed. Second,it lends insight into speakerperceptionof language features. Finally, the incorporationof performancespeech into the variationist-basedstudy of styleshifting offers support for the growing belief that style-shifting may beprimarilyproactiveratherthanreactive. (Keywords: Ocracoke,performancespeech, style-shifting, stylistic variation,register,self-conscious speech.)*Here I examine a speech register that has received little attention in mainstreamlanguage variationist literature,namely PERFORMANCESPEECH, defined as thatregister associated with speakers' attemptingto display for others a certain language or language variety, whether their own or that of anotherspeech community. Speakers may employ this register in the sociolinguistic interview, becausesuch a speech event is characterizedby a focus, whether overt or covert, on howpeople speak ratherthan on what they say. The performanceregister also occursin naturalconversations,e.g. in studies of dialect imitation(Butters 1993, Preston1992, 1996). Anthropology-basedstudies of communicative patterns(e.g. Bauman 1975) show thatperformancespeech may even play a centralrole in the dailyspeech patternsof certain communities, particularlywhere languages or dialectsare receding in the face of encroachingvarieties. In such communities, the dyinglanguage is often reduced from a primaryvehicle of daily communication to amere object of curiosity, or "object language" (Tsitsipis 1989), which may thenbe performedfor outsiders.But despite the pervasiveness of performancespeech,(C 1998 CambridgeUniversity Press 0047-4045/98 9.50This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions53
NATALIESCHILLING-ESTESlanguage variationists have tended to dismiss it, because their focus has traditionally been on unselfconscious or "natural"speech (e.g. Labov 1966, 1972b).Certainly, performancespeech is highly self-conscious: Speakers focus sharplyon speech itself when they demonstratea speech variety for others.The currentstudy shows thatvaluable insights aboutlanguagevariationcan begained through investigating performance speech. In particular,I demonstratethat performance speech may display quite regular patterning, rather than theirregularitytraditionallyassociated with a shift towardan exaggeratedly vernacularversion of one's dialect (e.g. Labov 1972b, Baugh 1992). Further,I show thatpatternsfound in performancespeech may help answer questions related to theperception of language features - since in performingtheir own or anotherdialect, speakers may seize upon featuresof the dialect that are "important"or "noticeable" to them at some level, whether conscious or unconscious. Finally, Iarguethatthe incorporationof performancespeech into language variationstudyoffers evidence to supportthe growing belief that style-shifting may be primarilyPROACTIVE ratherthan REACTIVE. This belief stands in sharp contrast to traditional variationist-basedviews on style-shifting. These have been shapedin largepart by two models: Labov's "attentionto speech" model (1972a), which holdsthat speakers shift styles in reaction to the formality of the speech situation;andthe "audience design" model of Bell 1984, which (in its original formulation)indicated that speakers shift styles primarily in response to the different audiences with whom they converse.THESOCIOLINGUISTICSETTINGMy study is centered on performancespeech as it occurs in Ocracoke, an islandcommunity of about 600 year-roundresidents, located on the OuterBanks islandchain off the coast of North Carolina. Ocracoke was first settled in the early1700s by people of English descent. The island community existed in relativeisolation from mainlanddialect areasfor about 250 years, developing in thattimea distinctive dialect which residents and outsiders often call "the brogue."Thisdialect is characterizedby the retentionof relic features from the Early ModernEnglish period, as well as by a unique combination of elements from variousSouthernand Northerndialect areas that is unparalleledin mainlandNorth Carolina (Wolfram& Schilling-Estes 1996). Since WorldWarII, islandershave comeinto increasingly frequentcontact with tourists and new residents, and the traditional dialect is fading as a result (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 1995a). As theOcracokedialect recedes, it is becoming an object language. It is a ratherwidelyrecognized variety,complete with its own name, and it is the subject of frequentcomment by islanders and outsiders. Islandersare becoming increasingly accustomed to requests for samples of their "quaint"object dialect. In response, community members have developed stock phrases that highlight island features,including the highly salient productionof the /ay/ diphthong with a raised and54Lngluatsge in Societ.v 27:1 (1998)This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
SPEECH""SELF-CONSCIOUSIN OCRACOKEENGLISHbacked nucleus (that is, [AF'])which has come to characterizethe Ocracoke, or"hoi toider"(i.e. 'high tider') dialect.THERATIONALEFORA CASE-STUDYFORMATIn the earliestinvestigationsof the variablepatterningof linguistic featuresacrossdifferentspeech styles, mostnotablythoseof Labov(e.g. 1966/1982), style-shiftingwas treatedas a controlleddevice ratherthana naturalisticphenomenon.Researchers investigatedthe aggregatestyle-shiftingbehaviorof numerousspeakersacrossa set of predefinedstylistic contexts within the sociolinguistic interview (e.g. casual style, careful style, or readingstyle) in orderto arriveat the community-widepatternsfor style-shifting which, it was believed, would shed light on the processof languagechange withinthe community.However, subsequentresearchershavebecome increasinglyinterestedin investigatingstyle-shiftingin its own rightratherthan in the service of the study of language change; correspondingly,they haveshown a growing interestin investigating style-shifting as a naturalisticphenomenon, ratherthan utilizing it as a researchheuristic.To arriveat the principles underlyingstyle-shifting in real-life conversationalinteraction,individual and small-groupstudies are more appropriatethan largescale surveys, because small-groupstudies allow for detailed examinationof theconversational contexts and personal identificational considerations that surround the style shifts in question. For example, Coupland's studies of styleshifting in the speech of one speaker,a radio announcerin Cardiff,Wales (1985,1998), have yielded invaluableinsight into the use of stylistic variationas a meansof projectingdifferentpersonalidentities (or facets of a single identity) at different points in a given speech event. Such insight would be obscuredif the speakerunderstudy had been groupedwith a numberof other speakersaccordingto suchcatch-all categories as socio-economic class, gender, or ethnicity - ratherthanbeing viewed as an individual whose identity is dynamic and is constituted farmore subtly than as the intersectionof a numberof demographicclassifications.Similarly, the study by Rickford & McNair-Knox 1994, of style-shifting withinand across interviews in the speech of one speaker, interviewed by several differentfieldworkers,providedthe firstempiricalconfirmationof the notion (whichstems fromBell's "audiencedesign"model for style-shifting) thataudiencemembers have more influence on speech style than do other conversational factorssuch as topic or setting.Again, the insights offered by this case study would havebeen lost in a large-scale survey, in which speech styles that appear to be of asimilar type are grouped together, even if the conversational contexts in whichthey occur are vastly different.'SPEAKERCHARACTERISTICSBecause I too am concernedwith the naturalisticstudy of style-shifting, I employa case-study formatin the currentstudy.I focus on the performancespeech of oneLanguage in Society 27:1 (1998)This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions55
NATALIESCHILLING-ESTESmemberof the Ocracokecommunity,Rex O'Neal, a male born in 1953, who hasexhibited a strong propensity towardperformingthe Ocracoke dialect, for bothoutsiders and community members, since I first met him four years ago. Thisspeaker, who has lived on Ocracoke all his life, is a member of a large, wellknown island family who can tracetheirisland heritagea numberof generations.Rex is a fishermanand carpenter,and he maintainsa high degree of contact withnon-islanders as well as islanders. In addition, he is a key member of a highprofile, tight-knit group of male islanders whose communicationnetworks frequently extend to non-islanders, chiefly through tourist-relatedtrades such ashotel or rentalpropertyownership.Membersof this groupplace a strongvalue onthe traditionalOcracoke brogue and use it to mark their identity as "authenticislanders";a numberof them pride themselves on their ability to "lay the brogueon thick" for tourists and prying sociolinguists.2My investigation of Rex's performancespeech is focused on a particularrotephrase which Rex recites ten times duringthe course of our audiotapedand videotapedconversationswith him (aboutfour hourstotal). This phraseis as follows:(1) It's high tide on the sound side. Last night the water fire. Tonight the moon shine. No fish.What do you suppose the matter,Uncle Woods?This phrase refers to a belief held by some island fishermen that fishing will bepoor on days preceded by a night on which the water is lit by phosphorusfromdecaying marine life ("waterfire") or a night that is moonlit. The "sound side"refers to the side of OcracokeIsland that faces the Pamlico Sound and the NorthCarolinamainlandratherthan the Atlantic Ocean; Uncle Woods appearsto havebeen an ancestor of Rex's. However, like performancephrases in a number ofspeech communities, this phrase derives its relevance in conversational interactions not from its propositionalcontent but from its being interjectedinto conversationsat points where linguistic display seems appropriate- an issue I discussbelow. Further,like other performativeutterances,Rex's performancephrase ischaracterizedby special linguistic features, such as rhyme, exaggerated intonational contours, and special phonetic features. These features include exaggerated /i/-raising, as in [fig] forfish, the pronunciationof the -ire sequence as [ar],as in [far]forfire, and the exaggeratedraisingof the nucleus of the /ay/ diphthongwhich forms the focus of the currentstudy.3In addition,the very fact that Rex'sperformancephraseis a rote or formulaicutteranceserves to align it with performance phrases in a number of speech communities.4The first sentence of theperformanceutterance(It's high tide on the sound side) appearsto be a commonsaying in Ocracoke; the remainderof the utteranceseems to be unique to Rex,although several of Rex's various accounts of the origins of the phrase indicatethatan older islanderor group of islanders(possibly even Uncle Woods himself)invented the phrase.In the following threesections, I focus on how Rex performsthe above phrase,specifically his phoneticproductionof the nucleus of the /ay/ vowel in utterances56Language in Society 27:1 (1998)This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
"SELF-CONSCIOUSSPEECH"IN OCRACOKEENGLISHof this phrase.Then I extend the investigation to encompass the question of whyRex uttersthis performancephraseto begin with - i.e., what promptsRex to shiftinto performanceregister at certain points during an interview.ACOUSTICDATAThe quantitativeportion of this investigation centers on the acoustic phoneticanalysis of the nucleus of the /ay/ vowel in the seven utterances of the performance phrase above that I classified as performativein nature,based on the factthat they were either directly solicited or were of no relevance in terms of propositional content. I did not include tokens that occurredin the three utterancesofthis phrase in which propositional content was relevant, i.e. in utterances thespeakerproducedin orderto explain the referentialmeaning of the phrase ratherthan to display the Ocracokedialect. For example, in the portion of a videotapedinterview transcribedbelow, I measuredas performativetokens of /ay/ occurringin 2a, but not those in 2c-o.(2)a. RO: High tide on the sound side, last night the water fire, tonight the moon shine. Nofish. What do you suppose the matterUncle Woods? (laughter)b. V:Now. now tell me what you [said.c. RO:[Alright.I said, "High tide on [the sound side,d. V:[High tide on the sound side, yeahe. RO: Last night the water fired"f. V:Waterfired?g. FW: Yeah, that's the phosphorusin the water.You ever, you [ever[OK, yeah]h. V:i. RO: go to the ocean you'll see the.Last night [the water firedj. V:k. RO:[Well the old people used to call it, uh, water fire, [when thefar- fired.[Water1. V:fire, yeah? Last night the water fired, OK.m. RO: Yeah, and "tonightthe moon shine."n. V:At night the moon shine.o. RO: "Andtonight the moon shine," so they had - one night they had the water fireagainst 'em, the next night they had the moon shine agin 'em.For comparativepurposes, I also conducted acoustic phonetic analyses of representative tokens of the nucleus of the /ay/ diphthongin two styles that may beroughly classified as "non-performative"(but see below). One of these stylescharacterizesRex's speech when he is engaged in one-on-one conversation witha fieldworker; the other occurs when Rex enters into an extended conversationwith several of his brothersduringthe course of one of our interviews with him.The interviewerremainedpresent duringthis conversation, but he was not a participant. In other words, when Rex's brothers arrived at the interview site, thefieldworker's role changed, in the termsof Bell 1984, from thatof "addressee"tothat of "overhearer",i.e. a known listener who is not ratified to participatein theconversationalexchange.Language in Society 27:1 (1998)This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions57
NATALIESCHILLING-ESTESBecause the distinctive characterof Ocracoke /ay/ lies in the fact that its nucleus is higher and fartherback in vowel space than the /ay/ variantthat is typically considered"standard,"my comparisonof Rex's /ay/ vowel in threestylisticcontexts focuses on height andbackness.The acoustic propertiesof a given vowelthat correspondto the articulatory-basedproperties of height and backness arethe frequencies of the first and second formants (hereafter Fl and F2) of thevowel.5 The frequencyof FI correlatesinversely with the articulatory-basedmeasure of vowel height: High vowels display low Fl values, and low vowels showhigh Fl values. F2 correlates with frontness and backness; front vowels showhigh F2 values, while back vowels show low values. If Fl is plotted againstF2 ona graphin which the origin is situatedin the upperright-handcorner,the resultantformat plot approximatesthe traditionalvowel chart, in which high vowels appear higher on the chart, front vowels appearon the left, and back vowels on theright.In orderto producethe sound spectrogramswhich allowed me to measureFland F2 values, I utilized the Kay ElemetricsComputerSpeech Lab (CSL), Model4300B. Analog conversational speech was digitized via CSL, and select wordscontaining the /ay/ diphthongwere sectioned off from the speech signal. The /ay/vowel and a portionof the surroundingenvironmentwere then sectioned off fromeach word, and a wide-band spectrogramwith a 100-point transformwas produced. I then performeda LinearPredictive Coding (LPC) analysis, with a filterorder of 12, on that portion of the spectrogramwhich I identified, visually andauditorily, as the steady-state nucleus of the /ay/ diphthong. Mean Fl and F2values for each token, as calculated by CSL, were then noted and utilized in mystudy.A portion of my analysis also involves the measurementof the durationofthe diphthongalnucleus in relation to the durationof the diphthongas a whole.The diphthongalnucleus was identified as discussed above; to measurethe lengthof the entire diphthong, I selected the maximal portion of the diphthong thatappearedto be free of the influence of preceding and following consonants.I obtained Fl and F2 values for as many tokens of performance/ay/ as possible, and I then determinedthe mean Fl and F2 values of these tokens in each ofthe four phonological environmentsin which /ay/ occurs in Rex's performancephrase:before word boundary(high), before voiced obstruent(tide, side), beforevoiceless obstruent(night, tonight), and before nasal (shine). I did not measuretokens of /ay/ in pre-liquid position (fire), because /ay/ was categorically realized as [a:] in this item. Similarly, I determined mean values for the first andsecond formantsof the /ay/ nucleus in four phonological contexts in Rex's conversationalspeech with his brothers,andin his conversationwith the fieldworker.Results are given in Table 1 and graphically presented in Figure 1. Standarddeviations for Fl and F2 in each of the three speech styles and four phonologicalenvironmentsare given in Table 2.The number of tokens of /ay/ in performancespeech is necessarily limited,since Rex performshis rote phraseonly seven times; andthereareonly six tokens58Language in Society 27:1 (1998)This content downloaded from 171.67.216.22 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:45:55 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
SPEECH""SELF-CONSCIOUSTABLE 1.IN OCRACOKEENGLISHMean valuesfor Rex's /ay/ nucleiFlF2# (N 6)Nasal (N 5)12)Vd. Obs. (NVI. Obs. (N 7.74Conversation with brothers# (N 5)Nasal (N 2)Vd. Obs. (N 5)Vl. Obs. (N 4Conversationwith fieldwor
speech, style-shifting, stylistic variation, register, self-conscious speech.)* Here I examine a speech register that has received little attention in mainstream language variationist literature, namely PERFORMANCE SPEECH, defined as that register associated with speakers' attempting to display for others a certain lan-
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