DS Bigham–
Academic

Fields of Study

My research focuses on the processes of dialect contact and accommodation as mechanisms for language variation. Primarily, I do my fieldwork among university students—a fascinating group negotiating emerging adulthood, radical shifts in social networks, and drastic intermixing of social class all at the same time.

Key Words for my research include:
Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, Queer Linguistics, Perception & Categorization, Language of Emerging Adulthood, Dialect Contact & Accommodation, Language Variation & Change, Literary Representation of Dialect, Public Understanding of Linguistics

Projects in Development

The following are all projects I'm working on:

• Dialect perception and accommodation among emerging adults in Central Texas
• Perceptual categorization of American English vowels by naïve listeners
• Speaker sexuality as a compositional identity category
• Public understanding of linguistics and linguistic outreach
• Language & Life in San Diego

Texas English Project

From January 2009 to August 2010 I was the Project Manager for the Texas English Project, a large-scale linguistic database and educational programming initiative under the direction of Professor Lars Hinrichs at the University of Texas at Austin.

While I was with the TEP, my collaborators and research assistants included Lars Hinrichs, Jessica White-Sustaíta, Kathleen Shaw Points, Patrick Schultz, Natalie Jung, Chris Spradling, and Rohan Ravishankar.

Thus far, the Texas English Project has produced a number of conference presentations, two of which are listed, below.

• Bigham, D.S. & K. Shaw Points.

  Ethnicity & the Meaning of Sound Change in Central Texas

  (2010, November). Panel: Variation and Change in Texas English. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 39, San Antonio, TX.

  *panel abstract   *presentation

  In Austin, Texas, variation in the GOOSE vowel is linked to speaker ethnicity and used surfaces in conversation as an index of local identity.

• Bigham, D.S., J. White-Sustaíta, & L. Hinrichs.

  Apparent-Time Low Vowels among Mexican-Americans and Anglos
  in Austin, Texas.

  (2009, October). New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 38, Ottawa, Canada.

  *abstract   *presentation

  The TRAP, LOT, THOUGHT, and PRICE vowels are investigated among Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans in Central Texas. We find sound changes among these vowels are being led by both ethnic groups, depending on the particular vowel.