Abstract
Affectivity has been a focus of linguistic research for a long time. While the major concern of previous research has been theoretical, in Affectivity in Interaction: Sound Objects in English Reber provides an empirically grounded and data-driven analysis of affectivity from the perspective of interactional linguistics, which reveals how affectivity is displayed within affect-laden interjections and paralinguistic signals.
This volume consists of four parts. Part I is a short introduction to the study. The rationale of the study is presented and both its theoretical framework and outline are explained. Part II, comprising four chapters, is literature-oriented, providing an overview of previous linguistic research on affectivity and sound objects. Part III, Chapters 5 to 9, is the empirical part, which probes how sound objects are deployed. Part IV discusses the main findings of this study.
In Chapter 1, Reber presents notions of affectivity and sound objects and outlines the methodological framework guided by interactional linguistics. The framework emphasizes a cross-linguistic perspective on language and it allows an empirical analysis of affectivity across interactional activities.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of previous research on sound objects. Traditionally, the interpretation of interjections has been kept in the sphere of semantics. Reber, on the contrary, analyses them in terms of sound patterns and contextual factors in that ‘interjections represent a spoken language phenomenon’ (p. 32). Vocalizations are described in the same vein and a minor subdivision is carved out for paralinguistic sounds.
Chapters 3 and 4 focus on affectivity. Previous research on prosody and conversational activities is presented. Chapter 3 shows that two approaches have been adopted: the Prosody-in-Conversation approach and that of Phonology-for-Conversation. The former is context-bound and the latter is context-free. Additionally, Reber points out that ‘affective involvement’ and ‘valence’ should also be taken into consideration.
Chapter 4 offers a detailed account of prior literature on affect-laden activities which reveals that affectivity is a product of sequential structure and participants’ affiliation in activities. Reber contends that existing studies serve to shed light on further empirical analysis of affect-laden sound objects.
Part III is devoted to a fine-grained empirical exploration of affectivity and sound objects. Chapter 5 briefly describes the data, transcription techniques and methodological procedures. Sound objects selected in the present study are variants of oh, ooh and ah, clicks and whistling.
Chapter 6 probes the sound object ‘extra high and pointed’ oh. Its prosodic packaging is described and functions are examined in repair and news delivery. Additionally, ample instances and visualized acoustic figures are exploited to elucidate the analysis. Comparably, surprise expressed by oh is a matter of degree. Reber also inquires whether ‘surprise’ is a full-fledged emotion.
Chapter 7 elaborates on variants of the sound object ooh. Specifically, ‘high and pointed’ ooh, high ooh and midrange ooh are described and analyzed. Ample empirical data oriented in radio phone-ins, complaints and troubles telling are provided to illustrate the point that speakers can display different affective stances via variants of ooh in conversations. Furthermore, it is argued that variants of ooh perform their respective functions in a context-sensitive way.
An in-depth analytic account of ah is presented in Chapter 8. By analyzing the use of ‘low-falling and tailed’ ah and ‘flat-falling and low’ ah, Reber contends that they can signal different negative affective dimensions such as ‘sympathy’, ‘empathy’ and ‘disappointment’ that may become ‘blurred’ (p. 216). Discussion reveals that the post-production space of the sound object is ‘a position sensitive to affective work’ (p. 222).
In Chapter 9, a tentative analysis of clicks and whistling is presented. The finding that non-lexical paralinguistic sound objects can be used to function in a similar fashion to fully lexicalized interjectional sound objects in conversational activities further expands our view of vocal communication. However, Reber points out the need for further research on more samples.
In Part IV, Reber recapitulates the interactional linguistic approach and the idea that sound objects can signal various affective dimensions in a systematic and context-bound way in conversational activities.
This volume gives a thorough and systematic exploration of how affective stances are achieved with sound objects. It is a superb contribution to the understanding of affectivity in general and affective dimensions of sound objects in English in particular. It is worthwhile reading for both researchers and learners who are interested in affectivity in social interactions, for the following two reasons.
First, this volume is a great addition to existing research on affectivity and fills a research gap pointed out by Sorjonen (2002). It enriches prior research by investigating sound objects in terms of their prosodic-phonetic properties, sequential placement and functions, and by drawing the conclusion that meaning is varied in relation to variants of sound objects.
Second, this volume offers a methodological insight into linguistic study. Specifically, the interactional linguistic approach employed through the research allows an authentic data-driven account of affectivity. Besides, with its corpus traversing a range of interactional activities, this volume draws its conclusions on a strong quantitative and discursive basis.
In short, this is an accessible and compelling volume, valuable for scholars doing research on the combination of social interactions and emotions, even though, on a less positive note, some of its findings are ‘tentative’ (p. 235), as the author herself admits.