Phonetic characteristics of the Caucasian accent imitation: Evidence from the speech of characters of Soviet and Russian films and serials

Abstract

Аннотация выпускной квалификационной работы Заболотней Анастасии Николаевны Н. рук. – Тананайко Светлана Олеговна, кандидат филологических наук, доцент Кафедра фонетики и методики преподавания иностранных языков СПбГУ Очная форма обучения

Внутри такой большой темы, как интерференция фонетических систем, в последнее время актуализировался аспект имитации региональных акцентов. Однако полноценное исследование имитации кавказского акцента на данный момент отсутствует, что и обусловило обращение к данной тематике. Специфическое произношение, известное в обиходно-разговорной речи как «кавказский акцент» - это набор типичных акцентных особенностей, возникающих в речи жителей Кавказа и Закавказья, для которых русский язык не является родным. В настоящее время он широко распространен на всей территории России. Целью работы является описание интерферирующих фонетических систем, выявление сегментных характеристик, на основе которых осуществляется имитация кавказского акцента героями фильмов и сериалов, выполнение слухового и акустического анализа имитированной речи, а так же проведение перцептивного эксперимента, в ходе которого осуществляется запись диктора с кавказским акцентом в речи. Научная новизна работы заключается в том, что, несмотря на ранее изученные механизмы имитации акцента, вопрос установления принципов имитации (а именно, сегментных характеристик) остается недостаточно исследованным. В работе применяются следующие методы: слуховой анализ отобранных аудиозаписей, акустический анализ, а так же обращение к экспертному анализу. Структура выпускной квалификационной работы включает введение, три главы, заключение, список использованной литературы и два приложения.

Abstract of final qualifying work Zabolotniaia Anastasia Nikolaevna Supervisor – Tananaiko Svetlava Olegovna, Candidate of philology, associate professor Department of phonetics Full-time education

This thesis concerns imitation of Caucasian accent in Russian and how it is really exemplified in Soviet and modern films and serials. Interference in linguistics, along with bilingualism and multilingualism, is one of the most debated problems in language contacts. Interference can be described as a process of violation rules of two or more languages in contact, and as a result it is developed into a divergence from a standard. And in this thesis interference is regarded within a process of imitation of an accent. The one who imitates an accent probably wants to hide his or her identity or wants a listener to treat him like a person who really has this accent. And very often linguists and experts deal with a so-called «Caucasian» accent, since for a Russian speaking person it is quite hard to distinguish Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian accents. These and other accents mix and form the so-called «Caucasian» accent. From the recent works of a researcher Bairamova F.O. we may learn that the term «Caucasian accent» doesn’t exist, actually, because the languages of Caucasian nations have different backgrounds and each has its’ own distinguishing characteristics. As we talk about the structure of the work, it consists of introduction, three sections: the first one is a literature review of the books concerning this issue, the second describes the auditory and acoustic experiment, and the third is about the perception of the «Caucasian accent», then conclusion and a reference list. The choice of the object is determined by lack of research papers on this topic, and it may be helpful for those who film Russian serials and wants actors to imitate the so-called «Caucasian accent» to suit a role best. The author has studied a plenty of books and works concerning the question of the work, including Baudouin de Courtenay, L. V. Shcherba, U. Weinreich, V. U. Rosenzweig, Vereshchagin, Vinogradov and so on. And these materials were used to write the first section of the thesis. It contains several subsections, including explanation of the term interference, then language contacts are described, the term bilingualism, its’ classification according to different linguists opinions, also phonetic interference is characterized, and after that one subsection is dedicated to imitation itself. The second section of the thesis is devoted to the accomplished experiment, during which the author has watched several films and serials and have cut out the appropriate extracts to work with them later, doing acoustic speech analysis. The author has watched thoroughly 22 hours of different films and serials («Do not grieve!», «Kidnapping, Caucasian Style», «Mimino», «The hall of residence offered for single», «The last from the family of Magikyan») and has got about 200 of extracts, with witch the auditory analysis was performed. After the auditory analysis will be completed, acoustic analysis will be carried out and, perhaps, expert analysis might be also effective. These are the main methods used in the paper. The third section gave very impressing results, from which we could understand that the professional actors were not recognized, and respondents said that those were just ordinary people with an accent in their real life. The recorded audios with the speech of a person who really has this accent in his life, was determined as an actor, who imitated the «Caucasian accent». Language interference influences in learning language target. It has positive and negative effects. The greater the differences between the two languages, the more negative the effects of interference are likely to be. It is important for teacher to know the differences and similarities between learner’s native language and the target language. By knowing them teacher will be easier to decide what strategy, methodology or what material that will be used in teaching second or foreign language.