A Study Proposal for AAL Imitation in Pop Music Involving Comparisons of Word Realizations in Two Speech Registers

Abstract

This paper adapts an intra-speaker comparison approach to dialect imitation (e.g., Neuhauser, 2008; Segerup, 1999) for pop music. Same or equivalent utterances from one speaker in two speech contexts (spoken speech and sung speech) are compared, allowing phonological disparities to be interpreted as dialect features. In this paper, and in the proposed project, the approach is used to chart tendencies of non–African American Language (AAL) speakers to mimic AAL and/or Southern American English (SAE) in sung speech, with examples from pop singers Adele, Elle King, Elvis Presley, and Barbara Windsor. This paper also presents a critique of imitation explanations such as “melody-induced” dialect leveling and accommodation theory, and details the benefits of intra-speaker approaches like Neuhauser (2008) over those beginning with preselected sociolinguistic variables (e.g., Trudgill, 1997; Eberhardt & Freeman, 2015). Additionally, it stresses the relevance of subjective evaluations to dialect imitation in music as they are elicited through matched-guise tests and Preston’s (1989) perceptual dialectology methods. The aim of the study this paper proposes is to contribute to a move toward the objective measurement of cultural appropriation.