Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

On the Performative Aspect of the Voice: Sociophonetics and Degendering

Résumé

To what extent do perceived gender differences in vocal practices result from anatomy and to what extent do they the result from articulation? The recent “wave” of sociolinguistics (Eckert, 2012) is influenced by Queer Theory which proposes that sex and gender are two distinct concepts: sex referring to a set of characteristics of the human body and gender referring to practices which perform and interpret collective and social ideologies. From this perspective, gender is constituted via a repetition of practices rendering gender legible due to the very fact that they are practiced and repeated. Without denying the materiality of bodies, Butler’s theory of performativity suggests that the performance of gender can transcend corporeal limitations. The literature contains observations that can seem contradictory but which are complementary. On one hand, there are studies that establish a causal relationship between sexed anatomical parameters and bimodal acoustic parameters in descriptions of both the voice and perception. On the other hand, there are more and more studies (e.g. Merritt & Bent, 2022; Pearce, 2019; Zimman, 2017), notably concerning people undergoing gender transitions or who are exploring the fluidity of gender, that show the extent to which socio-articulatory practices can modify bimodality. Such studies question the rigidity of the causal link between anatomy and the gendered voice. These studies, coupled with an increased visibility of trans people, cis and trans non-binary people and agender people enriches the field with new perspectives on sociophonetics. This talk addresses the debate regarding the roles of anatomy and sociocultural meaning in the vocal performance of gender by using a corpus composed of interviews and conversations with non-binary participants in English and French (German et al., 2022) to discover new pathways for discussing gender stereotypes. To what extent can the voice be degendered? Could it be possible to produce a voice without gender? If so, what would such a voice sound like, phonetically? If this is not the case, what would be the limitations: socio-articulatory factors or anatomical factors?

Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-04967894 , version 1 (26-02-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04967894 , version 1

Citer

Justin Jacobs. On the Performative Aspect of the Voice: Sociophonetics and Degendering. Lavender Languages 30, University of Brighton, Sep 2024, Brighton, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-04967894⟩
103 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

  • More