Contrastivity and comparability: pragmatic variation across pluricentric varieties

The recent pragmatic turn in the study of pluricentric varieties marks a shift in analytical focus, with increasingly more research contrasting the conventions of language use and interaction across pluricentric varieties. This turn demands new data types and new methods of analysis which uphold the principles of contrastivity and comparability. Addressing this basic requirement for the case of cross-varietal speech act analyses, the present article examines the contextual factors to be considered in the choice of data types and the potential definition and usability of a pragmatic variable in speech act analyses across data types. These considerations are applied to a cross-varietal analysis of responses to thanks in direction-giving exchanges across English in Canada, England and Ireland. The study highlights the frequent necessity of a multi-faceted definition of the pragmatic variable. In addition, challenges of contextual equivalence which emerge in the course of the analysis highlight a basic need for research to regularly re-examine the linguistic context and the definition of the pragmatic variable and to potentially redefine the variable during the analytical process. The contrastive analysis reveals a more extensive use of routinised responses to thanks in the Canadian English data relative to the Irish English and English English data. A more complex closing, with more continuations and confirmation checks, is shown to characterise the Irish English data, a finding which is suggested to potentially relate to a strong orientation towards hospitality in the Irish context.

Experiences of non-North American teachers of English in American English-dominant Korean ELT

The dominance of North American (U.S. and Canadian) English is widely prevalent in Korean English language teaching (ELT). Students show more positive attitudes towards American English than any other English variety (Jung, 2005; Yook & Lindemann, 2013), and teachers impart and reinforce American English norms (Ahn, 2017; Ahn, 2011). Administrators and employers consider American English as the sole model for Korean ELT (Ahn, 2013; Harrison, 2010; Jenks, 2017; Song, 2013). Koreans’ preference for American English dates back to the 1950s, when the first national ELT curriculum explicitly favored American English over British English (Lee, 2015). Since then the status of American English as the standard among all varieties of English has been strengthened due to Korea's strong political, military, and economic ties with the US (Harrison, 2010; Yim, 2007).

English-Speaking Adults' Labeling of Child- and Adult-Directed Speech Across Languages and Its Relationship to Perception of Affect

Child-directed speech, as a specialized form of speech directed toward young children, has been found across numerous languages around the world and has been suggested as a universal feature of human experience. However, variation in its implementation and the extent to which it is culturally supported has called its universality into question. Child-directed speech has also been posited to be associated with expression of positive affect or “happy talk.” Here, we examined Canadian English-speaking adults' ability to discriminate child-directed from adult-directed speech samples from two dissimilar language/cultural communities; an urban Farsi-speaking population, and a rural, horticulturalist Tseltal Mayan speaking community. We also examined the relationship between participants' addressee classification and ratings of positive affect. Naive raters could successfully classify CDS in Farsi, but only trained raters were successful with the Tseltal Mayan sample. Associations with some affective ratings were found for the Farsi samples, but not reliably for happy speech. These findings point to a complex relationship between perception of affect and CDS, and context-specific effects on the ability to classify CDS across languages.

Truthfulness judgments are negligibly affected by talker traits

This study examines whether social evaluation and intelligibility affect judgments of perceived credulity. Canadian English listeners (i) completed a speech-in-noise task, (ii) judged if sentences were true, and (iii) rated voices on social dimensions. A Bayesian analysis showed that neither social evaluation nor intelligibility substantially influenced perceived truthfulness. While recent work suggests talker accent may impact perceived credulity, the question is far from settled in the literature. We conclude that perceived credulity is negligibly affected by assessments of natively-accented voices.

Telling our stories on the web: Canadian English-language web series and the production of culture online

This dissertation presents the first critical scholarly analysis of the Canadian English-language scripted web series industry, its cultural practices, industrial dynamics and texts. Through in-depth interviews with 48 individuals active in the production of Canadian online scripted content, participant observation, and a benchmark quantitative analysis of gender and race in key creative roles in 175 seasons of Canadian web series, the dissertation investigates the web as an alternative space for Canadian scripted audiovisual content, and the actors and forces that have shaped and are shaping its development, including its emergent patterns of inclusion. By developing a novel theoretical framework that combines the critical political economy of communication with entrepreneurship studies, the dissertation is able to mediate effectively between structure and agency to reveal how Canadian web series creators are interpreting, internalizing and resisting larger institutional dynamics and discourses in their cultural practices and texts. Through their entrepreneuring, Canadian web creators are reacting to a variety of rigidities within the contextual dimensions in which they are embedded, including the absence of meaningful opportunities to practice their crafts, the persistence of networks of exclusion, and inaccurate or missing on-screen representations of themselves or others in mainstream media. Through their work, they desire to achieve freedom from these constraints. The challenge of disrupting the status quo is then revealed through an examination of the domestic and extra-national structural factors that act as impediments to their agency. The dissertation problematizes ideas of participation and access on the web, and introduces new conceptual terminology through the Participatory Culture Paradox, to encapsulate the contradictory set of relations that on the one hand, enables creators’ activities in the online space, and at the same time, constrains their capacity to find audiences and monetize their work. The findings here demonstrate that as much as internet-based distribution has expanded opportunities for participation for regular users, who you are, and where you are based, continue to be salient mediators of both participation and success in the development of professional scripted screen careers in the digital age. The dissertation culminates in actionable priorities for Canadian policy that aim at change.

Telling our stories on the web: Canadian English-language web series and the production of culture online

This dissertation presents the first critical scholarly analysis of the Canadian English-language scripted web series industry, its cultural practices, industrial dynamics and texts. Through in-depth interviews with 48 individuals active in the production of Canadian online scripted content, participant observation, and a benchmark quantitative analysis of gender and race in key creative roles in 175 seasons of Canadian web series, the dissertation investigates the web as an alternative space for Canadian scripted audiovisual content, and the actors and forces that have shaped and are shaping its development, including its emergent patterns of inclusion. By developing a novel theoretical framework that combines the critical political economy of communication with entrepreneurship studies, the dissertation is able to mediate effectively between structure and agency to reveal how Canadian web series creators are interpreting, internalizing and resisting larger institutional dynamics and discourses in their cultural practices and texts. Through their entrepreneuring, Canadian web creators are reacting to a variety of rigidities within the contextual dimensions in which they are embedded, including the absence of meaningful opportunities to practice their crafts, the persistence of networks of exclusion, and inaccurate or missing on-screen representations of themselves or others in mainstream media. Through their work, they desire to achieve freedom from these constraints. The challenge of disrupting the status quo is then revealed through an examination of the domestic and extra-national structural factors that act as impediments to their agency. The dissertation problematizes ideas of participation and access on the web, and introduces new conceptual terminology through the Participatory Culture Paradox, to encapsulate the contradictory set of relations that on the one hand, enables creators’ activities in the online space, and at the same time, constrains their capacity to find audiences and monetize their work. The findings here demonstrate that as much as internet-based distribution has expanded opportunities for participation for regular users, who you are, and where you are based, continue to be salient mediators of both participation and success in the development of professional scripted screen careers in the digital age. The dissertation culminates in actionable priorities for Canadian policy that aim at change.

Domestic supply to global demand: reframing the challenge of Canadian English-language television drama

As online TV delivery disrupts conventional TV broadcasting and unbundles TV cable channels, allowing consumers to choose programs and TV brands more directly, hit content is “king” more than ever before. This dissertation offers a new analysis of Canadian English-language TV drama content’s failure to mature into a popular genre or robust economic sector since its introduction in the 1960s, and suggests ways that the Canadian English-language TV drama value chain might be strategically adjusted in response to global market disruption, by strengthening the development phase. The problem is approached with two methodologies: value chain analysis and qualitative field research. Findings identify weak links in the value chain and propose that the Canadian English-language TV drama content model is structurally flawed and has inhibited maturation of the sector. The study theorizes a TV drama value chain composed of 3 functional segments (develop, produce, distribute) and identifies the root of the Canadian drama problem as the creation phase, known in TV as development, analogous to the R&D phase in other industries. The theorization explains why decades of policy attention and subsidies targeted to the production phase have not substantially improved domestic or global market performance of Canadian English-language TV drama. Moreover, the reframing reveals that development and distribution are functionally linked, while the production phase is the most separate. Theorization and field research concur that a strong imperative for financial returns is essential for successful creative results, from the earliest moments of development. Conversely, a weak link to monetization negatively impacts asset creation, impairing the development phase and, in the case of Canadian English-language TV drama, inhibits its capability to compete effectively in a 21st-century drama attention economy that increasingly rewards creative excellence. Interviews with stakeholders occupying elite development positions in the Canadian and Hollywood TV drama industry confirm an urgency to upgrade development to foster transformation of Canada’s TV drama model, from one purposed for domestic supply to one driven by global demand, and in so doing, future-proof Canadian TV drama for the digital age. Against the backdrop of Canada’s unique geo-cultural position vis a vis the U.S., characterized by brain drain of high-performing Canadian TV drama creators to Hollywood and attempts by Canadian English-language TV drama to compete with Hollywood hits, this research contributes to debates on cluster upgrading, local-global linkages, and economic diasporas that focus on value capture of highly skilled professionals who seek career acceleration in global escalator regions. Findings are applicable to any nation upgrading domestic creative industries which, like TV drama, are characterized by an imperative for innovation excellence in R&D-intensive global value chains.

Domestic supply to global demand: reframing the challenge of Canadian English-language television drama

As online TV delivery disrupts conventional TV broadcasting and unbundles TV cable channels, allowing consumers to choose programs and TV brands more directly, hit content is “king” more than ever before. This dissertation offers a new analysis of Canadian English-language TV drama content’s failure to mature into a popular genre or robust economic sector since its introduction in the 1960s, and suggests ways that the Canadian English-language TV drama value chain might be strategically adjusted in response to global market disruption, by strengthening the development phase. The problem is approached with two methodologies: value chain analysis and qualitative field research. Findings identify weak links in the value chain and propose that the Canadian English-language TV drama content model is structurally flawed and has inhibited maturation of the sector. The study theorizes a TV drama value chain composed of 3 functional segments (develop, produce, distribute) and identifies the root of the Canadian drama problem as the creation phase, known in TV as development, analogous to the R&D phase in other industries. The theorization explains why decades of policy attention and subsidies targeted to the production phase have not substantially improved domestic or global market performance of Canadian English-language TV drama. Moreover, the reframing reveals that development and distribution are functionally linked, while the production phase is the most separate. Theorization and field research concur that a strong imperative for financial returns is essential for successful creative results, from the earliest moments of development. Conversely, a weak link to monetization negatively impacts asset creation, impairing the development phase and, in the case of Canadian English-language TV drama, inhibits its capability to compete effectively in a 21st-century drama attention economy that increasingly rewards creative excellence. Interviews with stakeholders occupying elite development positions in the Canadian and Hollywood TV drama industry confirm an urgency to upgrade development to foster transformation of Canada’s TV drama model, from one purposed for domestic supply to one driven by global demand, and in so doing, future-proof Canadian TV drama for the digital age. Against the backdrop of Canada’s unique geo-cultural position vis a vis the U.S., characterized by brain drain of high-performing Canadian TV drama creators to Hollywood and attempts by Canadian English-language TV drama to compete with Hollywood hits, this research contributes to debates on cluster upgrading, local-global linkages, and economic diasporas that focus on value capture of highly skilled professionals who seek career acceleration in global escalator regions. Findings are applicable to any nation upgrading domestic creative industries which, like TV drama, are characterized by an imperative for innovation excellence in R&D-intensive global value chains.

Comparing Phonetic Convergence in Children and Adults

Observations by sociolinguists suggest that when children relocate to a new community, they rapidly learn to imitate their peers, adopting the new local accent faster and more effectively than adults. However, few well-controlled laboratory experiments have been conducted comparing speech or accent imitation across ages. Here, we investigated Canadian English-speaking children’s and adults’ imitation of three model speakers: a Canadian English talker, an Australian English talker, and a non-native Mandarin English talker who learned English later in life. The speech of all three talkers was manipulated to have elongated voice onset time (VOT) on word initial stop consonants. The dependent measure was how much participants would lengthen their VOTs after exposure to one of the talkers in two paradigms: delayed shadowing (Experiment 1) and immediate shadowing (Experiment 2). We predicted that overall children would show more imitation than adults, particularly when imitating the Canadian English talker, given previous work on children’s social preferences. Although we did not observe age differences in either study, when shadowing was immediate, we found that imitation was influenced by the accent of the speaker, but not in the manner we predicted: both age groups imitated the Mandarin-accented model more strongly than the Canadian model. When shadowing was delayed, we observed no evidence of imitation. We discuss our findings in light of other recent work, and conclude that the development of speech imitation is an area ripe for further investigation.

Degrees of Separation

This study investigates whether the hiring of professors in Canada, a land of public universities and inexpensive tuition, is more equitable in terms of socioeconomic class than the hiring of their counterparts in the United States. Featuring original data on the degrees of all tenure track and tenured faculty members who teach in English doctoral programs in Canada, this article examines the relation between, on the one hand, the nationalities and the rankings of the programs in which these scholars obtained their degrees and, on the other, the tier of the programs in which these scholars teach. Employing previously unprocessed data from Statistics Canada and in dialogue with research on higher education, including the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, this article discusses the mechanisms through which faculty hiring patterns in Canadian English departments are strongly tied to PhD holders’ socioeconomic backgrounds. This study discusses the implications of such tracking patterns for first-generation university students—who comprise 38.8 percent of English doctoral recipients in Canada—when they seek positions in the professoriat.