Sociophonetics and intonation: a proposal for socioprosodics

In this chapter we address sociophonetics and intonation. We note complementary trends among scholars of intonation to delve into social factors as a source of variability and among variationists and sociophoneticians to research intonational components of speech. We propose placing sociophonetics and intonation under the same umbrella, in a new field of “socioprosodics.” This will allow for dialogue between fields which up to now have led separate lives, and foster insights about intonational variation and the social indexicality of intonation. We review the progress that has been made so far in socioprosodics and we outline central questions, key theories, prominent approaches, and major findings. We end the chapter with a presentation of two case studies which showcase synchronic and diachronic approaches to socioprosodic analysis