Accent, (ing), and the Social Logic of Listener Perceptions

This article reports on the relationship between the English variable (ING) and two divergent accents (Southern and gay) as they are conceptualized and given social meaning in listeners’ perceptions of spontaneous speech. The study used an expanded form of the Matched Guise Technique, using recordings collected through sociolinguistic interviews with 8 speakers from North Carolina and California. Excerpts were digitally manipulated to create 32 matched pairs differing only in tokens of (ING), which were used to collect responses in group interviews (N = 55) and a Web-based experiment (N = 124). The alveolar variant -in increased the perceived strength of Southern accents and dampened an accent heard as gay and urban. The influence of (ING) on these accents is linked to shared social meanings of the alveolar form -in and Southern accents on the one hand (lack of education, the country, and the term “redneck”) and the velar variant -ing and the gay accent on the other (lowered masculinity, the city, and the term “metrosexual”). These two accents are contrasted with a third variety, heard as nonaccented and aregional. These effects demonstrate the status of the three linguistic objects, the two accents and (ING), as social objects as well. The concept of accent is based on the observation that some people and groups speak differently than others. Despite the simplicity of this observation, accent is a loaded construct, connecting linguistic patterns with social and economic divisions between individuals and groups. Cavanaugh (2005, 129) argues that accents must be treated as “acoustical things in the world, indexing both speakers (subjects), as well as qualities detachable from these speakers, and at times even places themselves (objects).” This characterization need not only apply to accents but is also appropriate for some individual variables, namely those which have achieved stereotype status (Labov 1966). This article explores the representation of two accents (Southern accent and the “gay accent”) and their relationship to the English variable (ING) (the alternation between word-final [In] or [@n], here referred to as -in, and [IN], here called -ing), in the sociolinguistic reasoning of U.S. college students. I trace the connections between the two accents and the variable, showing both their ideological baggage and the ways they interact to influence social judgments of spontaneous speech samples. Accent, (ING), and the Social Logic of Listener Perceptions 33 The analysis shows that, in addition to—indeed, because of—its independent social life as a variable available to most speakers of English, (ING) intensifies and so, in some sense, is part of these two socially divergent accents. The -in form enhances perceived Southern accents and shares with them associations with the country, lack of education, and the image of the redneck. In a different performance, the -ing variant strengthens an accent associated with being gay or metrosexual, with the city, and with less masculinity. Regardless of the markedness of the variants overall, either can serve as part of a variety that diverges from an imagined accent-free norm. The data in this article come from a larger study using a form of the Matched Guise Technique based on matched pairs of recordings digitally manipulated to differ only in tokens of (ING). The full study yielded a number of insights regarding how listeners process and use linguistic variation to aid them in forming social impressions. This article will focus on those that relate to perceptions of accent strength, namely the influence of (ING) on the perceived accents of different speakers. Three of the speakers, ranked by survey listeners as highly accented and very likely to be from the South, were considered more accented when they used -in. Another speaker, rated as moderately accented and described as urban and/or gay, was rated higher for accent in his -ing guise. I will show how the social associations of (ING) and the accents explain this pattern and connect it to (ING)’s more general effects. The next section will describe the methods used in the study from which the current data are drawn. After reviewing these methods, I will distinguish the eight speakers based on their perceived regional profiles, that is, where the study’s participants believed them to be from. This provides the necessary background for understanding the subsequent discussion of the Southern accent and (ING), which documents their common connection to the qualities of lower education, lack of articulateness, and the image of the redneck. Finally, I will turn to the second accent and discuss its connections to sexual orientation, the concept “metrosexual,” and the image of the city.