URGENT REQUEST Linguistics Dissertation: British English Speakers Required

[Bryan]

Hi guys,

Old-timers will probably remember me. Shame we've all lost our post count. Yes, that stuff matters to me... Anyway...

I'm doing my dissertation for an MA in English Linguistics right now and I need participants for my study.

Literally, all I need is around five minutes of your time.

I need people who are willing to record themselves reading out 19 sentences that I have written. I will then analyse them for certain aspects of pronunciation (to be revealed after I finish the study).

And that's it. It takes about 2-3 minutes to read the sentences, plus another couple of minutes or so to fill in the associated "name, DOB, gender, etc, and consent" form.

I would really appreciate any help at all. I can name check you in my acknowledgements if you would like, but of course it is anonymous by default.

I can post the sentences and stuff in the next post.

Thank you for your time, fellow conlangers!

Bryan

[Bryan]

Informed Consent Form
I'll email you this if you decide to take part.

Participant Script
Below are nineteen short passages. Please read them through a couple of times to yourself so that you are familiar with them. Then, please record yourself reading them out aloud. Please take a few moments between saying each passage. Try to read the passages as naturally as possible; do not try to “perform” the passages. Use your own natural talking speed; do not read the passages quickly or slowly. You can send your recording to Bryan.Parry.16@ucl.ac.uk.

1. The garage is one kilometre away.

2. You’re very rude. Don’t patronise me!

3. I’ve been singing that tune all week.

4. The Caribbean is incomparable! Have you been?

5. Hong Kong and Pakistan are both in Asia.

6. The tennis player hit the spectator with a racket.

7. It’s ordinary to harass politicians, but it’s not right.

8. We will research the increase in the native falcon population.

9. The refund policy is only applicable if you still have the receipt.

10. Cate Blanchett was President of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2018.

11. I have great recall, but I can’t recall when I began to patronise this restaurant.

12. I hope I rebound from my sickness in time to see them baptize my grandson.

13. Her boyfriend left her and straight away she got with someone else on the rebound.

14. I will dictate the words in English. You must translate them into either Spanish or French.

15. New research shows that smoking one cigarette a day can increase the risk of birth defects.

16. The translator cannot schedule me in for this week, but her schedule is more open next week.

17. Digital currencies, like Bitcoin, are still a niche market and the regulatory framework is not fully developed.

18. There was controversy in 1982 when the Soviet hockey player, Alexander Mogilny, wanted to defect to the United States.

19. Hundreds of people are gathering to protest the visit of the President. One protester called the President a “dictator”. This protest is the biggest since 1972.

Participant Personal Information Form

Name:

Date of Birth: (day/month/year)

Gender: MALE/FEMALE/OTHER (please specify)

Nationality:

Region of origin within UK:

Did you spend your childhood (ages 4 – 15) living in the United Kingdom? YES/NO

Occupation:

What is your ethnic group?
White
ENGLISH, WELSH, SCOTTISH, NORTHERN IRISH, OR BRITISH
IRISH
GYPSY OR IRISH TRAVELLER
ANY OTHER WHITE BACKGROUND, WRITE IN:
Mixed/multiple ethnic groups
WHITE AND CARIBBEAN
WHITE AND AFRICAN
WHITE AND ASIAN
ANY OTHER MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC BACKGROUND, WRITE IN:
Asian/Asian British
INDIAN
PAKISTANI
BANGLADESHI
CHINESE
ANY OTHER ASIAN BACKGROUND, WRITE IN:
African/Caribbean/Black/Black British
CARIBBEAN
AFRICAN
BLACK BRITISH
ANY OTHER AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN OR BLACK BRITISH BACKGROUND, WRITE IN:
Other ethnic group
ARAB
ANY OTHER ATHNIC GROUP, WRITE IN:

[Salmoneus]

Hey Bryan. Good to see old members popping in. [you haven't lost your postcount! It's just... been misplaced... on another board...]

I'm afraid though I prefer the sort of anonymity that doesn't involve registering my name and date of birth on file - and I'm not sure I could find my microphone in any case. But good luck with the project.


EDIT: but thanks, btw, for pointing something out to me:

More: show

sometimes it's dependent on prosodic context. I was surprised for instance to find my using the 'noun' pronounciation for the verb form of 'increase' - before I realised that if it were just "days increase" I'd 100% be using the verbal stress pattern - it's the unstressed 'can' before it that tempts (mayb 50% of the time?) the stress onto the initial syllable. I wonder whether this is part of how verbal vs nominal stress patterns developed?

Anyway, one small suggestion I'd make would be to mix up the order to make the contrasts less obvious - the order you have signposts what to pay attention to and what you're looking for (assuming you're not double-bluffing!), and even if it didn't, people can pronounce things erratically when they're conscious of close repetitions. It probably won't make a huge difference in something like this, but it's the principle of the thing!

[sorry, it's just that failure to consider ordering effects is a pet peeve when I look at experimental setups...]

[Bryan]

Hi Sal, no worries, although rest assured that your name/alias and DOB are solely kept for my reference and are never revealed to anyone. But no worries if it doesn't float your boat.

I do hope I can get my postcount back. I crave every slice of spam I posted.

[Bryan]

I've had one respondent which, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, is more than I expected! Haha. But if anyone else wants to take part, please get in touch. It's only five minutes. And it's super duper trooper fun...

[finlay]

Hi Bryan, long time~ Do you have a deadline for this? I might do it but I'm self-conscious about doing it in front of family members

[Bryan]

Hey mate, long time indeed! I've kept up conlanging, which is unsurprising given I've been doing since aged seven or eight (I've got the bug, and it's not curable, as you know), I just haven't been foruming much.

Anyway, as for the recording, the sooner the better. Theoretically, I have a few weeks. In reality, I need to finish 98% of the recordings within the next seven days so as to give me time to do analysis, write up, and so on.

I understand about embarrassment; some of the sentences are a little quirky, to boot. You could always lock yourself in the bog for five minutes, phone in hand.

Let me know, as I would love to have you as a participant. And to be perfectly blunt, I am a LONG way short of my requirement of 100 people. Like very really much way a long far from 100...

[anteallach]

Done.

However, I suspect people who are actually interested in linguistics aren't the best people to get genuinely natural recordings off...

[Bryan]

Done.

However, I suspect people who are actually interested in linguistics aren't the best people to get genuinely natural recordings off...

True, but then previous similar studies used very high percentages of such people whereas I have very few. Furthermore, beggars can't be choosers! Haha.

FINLAY, you gonna lay a sick track for me, brother?

[Bryan]

Just bumping this again.

Anyone got any ideas? As I am STRUGGLING.

[evmdbm]

I don't have a microphone, but wouldn't it be easiest to round up your MA colleagues? Or advertise around the English School and elsewhere in the Uni. That seems to be how students get volunteers in my experience

[Bryan]

I don't have a microphone, but wouldn't it be easiest to round up your MA colleagues? Or advertise around the English School and elsewhere in the Uni. That seems to be how students get volunteers in my experience

All of my MA colleagues did not grow up in the UK, bar one -- and he's done it already! This study is of Brits only.

My school has a very high percentage of non-Brits.

I am trying to get the Brits around uni to take part, but since I am not on campus for the most part as I work fulltime, this has been far from easy.

I thank you for your comments! But it's so tricky to get people to take part. :'(

Do you have a smartphone... Could text / message me... ;-D

[Salmoneus]

You could try the CBB.

[Bryan]

You could try the CBB.

Good call.

[Jonlang]

I'll do it if you're still looking for participants.

[Gulliver]

You could try the CBB.

Good call.

I tried to do something similar a few years ago and had to abandon it and go for a questionnaire-type thing. I think I had one or two people from here (maybe Sal and Pthag? I don't remember) but not nearly enough for what I intended.

Have you tried going round where you work/your campus/your friends' houses with a carrier bag full of chocolate bars and the script on a laminated piece of paper and a clipboard full of consent forms? Camp outside the freshers fair or the student union?

That's basically what I had to do for the research project for my PGCE.

[Bryan]

I'll do it if you're still looking for participants.

Hi Jon! I'd love for you to take part. Please, fire away!

[Bryan]

You could try the CBB.

Good call.

I tried to do something similar a few years ago and had to abandon it and go for a questionnaire-type thing. I think I had one or two people from here (maybe Sal and Pthag? I don't remember) but not nearly enough for what I intended.

Have you tried going round where you work/your campus/your friends' houses with a carrier bag full of chocolate bars and the script on a laminated piece of paper and a clipboard full of consent forms? Camp outside the freshers fair or the student union?

That's basically what I had to do for the research project for my PGCE.

Hi Gulliver,

Well, that is Phase 2 of the operation come week's end. Just trying to get the people who promised to actually do the recording! Unfortunately, I work in a security environment where recording equipment is a no-no. But I'm going to still try and get people in the streets.

[Bryan]

Guess I'm running out of juice, eh? I need more people. After that, I promise I will get back to posting about conlangs!

[kodé]

Good luck! I'm unfortunately a speaker of American English (US West, some Californian vowel shift), so I can't help you. Dissertating/thesisizing is terrible, so just try to get it finished and then you can breathe easy!