Hedge Fund Manager Skill and Style-Shifting

Using a novel style identification procedure, we show that style-shifting is a dynamic strategy commonly used by hedge fund managers. Three quarters of hedge funds shifted their investment styles at least once over the period from January 1994 to December 2013. We perform empirical tests of two hypotheses for the motivations of hedge fund style-shifting, namely backward-looking and forward-looking hypotheses. We find no evidence that style-shifting funds are backward-looking. Instead, we show evidence that managers of style-shifting funds exhibit both style-timing ability and the skill of generating abnormal returns in new styles. The new styles that hedge funds shift to on average outperform their old styles by 0.76% and style-shifting funds on average outperform their new style benchmark by 1.10% over the subsequent 12-month horizon. Finally, we show that small funds, winner funds, and funds with net inflows are more likely to shift styles. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance.

Style-shifting in Usage Instructions of Food, Beverage, and Pharmaceutical Products in Japanese Language

The present article attempts to describe the shifting use of formal and informal styles in usage instruction discourse of food, beverage, and pharmaceutical products in Japanese. The aim is to explain the background of style-shifting from a formal style, indicated by -desu in adjectives and nouns and -masu in verbs, into an informal style without any -desu or –masu forms in place. The background is reviewed through the perspectives of both sociolinguistics and pragmatics. The data were collected from various food, beverage, and pharmaceutical product packages containing usage instructions in Japanese. Study results indicate that style-shifting does not only occur through spoken language (orally) but via written discourse, which maintains unchanging external factors or definite contexts. Style-shifting is not only affected by the status of the speech partner but also more likely affected by the content of the information delivered to the consumers. Aside from occurring within a single discourse, style-shifting is also observed at a narrower level, namely within one element of discourse conveying a relatively homogenous information.

Variation and third age: A sociolinguistic perspective

The correlation between external factors such as age, gender, ethnic group membership and language variation is one of the stalwarts of sociolinguistic theory. The repertoire of individual members of speaker groups, vis-à-vis community-wide variation, represents a somewhat slippery ground for developing and testing models of variation and change and has been researched with reference to accommodation (Bell 1984), style shifting (Rickford, John R. & MacKenzie Price. 2013. Girlz II women: Age-grading, language change and stylistic variation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17. 143–179) and language change generally (Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell). This paper presents and assesses some first quantitative evidence that non-mobile older speakers from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, who grew up in an utterly isolated speech community, vary and shift according to external interview parameters (interviewer, topic, place of interview). However, while they respond to the formality of the context, they display variation (both regarding speakers and variables) that is not in line with the constraints attested elsewhere. These findings are assessed with focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in third-age speakers (particularly style-shifting, Labov, William. 1964. Stages in the acquisition of Standard English. In Roger Shuy, Alva Davis & Robert Hogan (eds.), Social Dialects and Language Learning, 77–104. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English) and across the life-span generally.

Podcaster Prosody

This paper addresses the style-shifting of podcast host Sarah Koenig, specifically in her use of utterance final creaky voice in different contexts. I find that Koenig uses more creaky voice on her podcast Serial than in an interview context. Additionally, her creaky voice in the interview occurs in specific contexts related to her work as a journalist. Based on analyses of how phonetic features can construct certain personae, I argue that Koenig may be designing her speech to construct a journalistic persona with her use of creaky voice.

Individual differences in intra-speaker variation: t-glottalling in England and Scotland

This paper explores stylistic variation in the use of word-medial and word-final released and glottalled /t/ in London and Edinburgh. Specifically, it investigates the extent to which the social salience of a linguistic feature constrains individual differences in the degree and direction of intra-individual variation. Variation in the social salience of t-glottalling is explored in two linguistic contexts: word-medially, where it is high in London and somewhat lower in Edinburgh, and word-finally, where it is lower than in medial position in both places. Data is based on paired sociolinguistic interviews of 24 London-born adolescents and 21 Edinburgh-born adolescents. Results suggest that while style-shifting norms from speech to reading differ between London and Edinburgh adolescents, they are similar within the communities. However, there are many individual differences in the degree and direction of style-shifting and the latter are more pronounced in final position, where the social salience is weaker. There is also a somewhat large number of Edinburgh adolescents who diverge from the majority norm in medial position and who do not style-shift at all.

Style-shifting in Multicultural London English in an all-girls homework club

This study investigated whether and how pre-adolescent girls style-shift in Multicultural London English (MLE), a variety of English that is relatively new and potentially still changing. We looked at the extent to which five 11-year-old girls in a homework club in East London, where MLE is spoken, changed their pronunciations in different speech contexts. The results showed that the girls did indeed change their pronunciations in the different contexts (i.e. they style-shifted), and that the patterns of style-shifting varied between both the individual participants and the three vowels which were examined.

The role of style in the ethnolect: Style-shifting in the use of ethnolectal features in first- and second-generation speakers

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The paper aimed to investigate style-shifting in the use of ethnolectal features in first- and second- generation bilingual migrants. Design/Methodology/Approach: Three groups of speakers (first- and second-generation Russian–English bilinguals as well as monolingual Anglo Australians) were audio-recorded in three different styles (conversation, interview, and reading). Data and Analysis: Their production of the goose and trap vowels across the styles was analyzed quantitatively. Findings/Conclusions: Overall differences were found between the groups such that first- and second-generation speakers produced more Russian-like vowels compared to the monolinguals; with the biggest differences between the first-generation speakers and the other two groups. In terms of style-shifting, no significant differences were found in the monolingual speakers, and both first- and second-generation speakers were found to produce most Australian English-like vowels in the conversation style. At the same time, certain differences between the two bilingual groups surfaced, such as no significant differences in the first-generation speakers’ production of the goose vowel and in the vowels’ linguistic conditioning. Originality: Previous studies have compared ethnolects in the first- and second-generations of migrants and mainstream varieties in order to theorize ethnolect formation. Several studies have also investigated intraspeaker style-shifting between more ‘mainstream’ and more ‘ethnic’ in ethnolect speakers, but such style-shifting is rarely compared across generations. Significance/Implications: The similarities and differences between the two bilingual groups suggest that ethnolectal features may be originally derived from the community language but may be reallocated to other sociolinguistic meanings in the second generation.

KOMUNIKASI TERAPEUTIK DALAM PEMULIHAN KOMPETENSI LINGUISTIK PASIEN PENYANDANG AFASIA BROCA

Penelitian ini berjudul “Komunikasi Terapeutik dalam Pemulihan Kompetensi Linguistik Pasien Penyandang Afasia Broca”; bertujuan menjelaskan pola-pola komunikasi terapeutik antara terapis dengan pasien penyandang afasia broca di Rumah Sakit Pusat Otak Nasional Jakarta. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif-deskriptif dengan pendekatan studi kasus. Data penelitian ini berupa ekspresi verbal para penyandang afasia broca berbahasa Indonesia dan dari proses berlangsungnya terapi wicara antara terapis wicara dengan penyandang afasia. Secara keseluruhan penelitian ini mengambil lokasi di Rumah Sakit Pusat Otak Nasional. Sebanyak 3 (tiga) orang responden dijadikan sampel penelitian yang memenuhi kriteria inklusi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) penyandang afasia broca memiliki problematika lingual yang begitu memperihatikan, yakni mereka memiliki masalah dalam mengungkapkan pikirannya melalui bahasa; (2) dari proses komunikasi terapeutik yang ada di Rumah Sakit Pusat Otak Nasional antara terapis wicara dengan klien penyandang afasia broca, terdapat beberapa gejala lingual yakni adanya alih gaya (style shifting)) dan adanya pemberian feedback positif dari terapis wicara kepada klien penyandang afasia broca.

Emergent sociolinguistic variation in severe language endangerment

ABSTRACTContrary to Labov's principle of style shifting, studies in language obsolescence portray speakers of dying languages as ‘monostylistic’, a characterization questioned here. Variationist methodology is adopted in a context of gradual language death. By combining quantitative and interactional analyses of data from older, younger, and new speakers of Francoprovençal in France and Switzerland, the article considers (a) to what extent variability in language obsolescence differs from that found in ‘healthy’ languages, and (b) how innovations might spread through communities speaking threatened languages characterized as ‘monostylistic’ and lacking overt normative infrastructure. It is argued that style variation (not monostylism) emerges from linguistic decay: among more fluent speakers, a categorical rule of /l/-palatalization before obstruents becomes underspecified, rendering palatalization available for strategic use. Among new speakers, novel palatal variants form part of an emergent sociolinguistic norm. The study offers fresh insights on the origins of sociolinguistic variation with implications for variationist theory. (Language obsolescence, language death, language variation and change, style variation, new speakers)*