As a vatiationist sociolinguist, I capture behavioral patterns to inform and enrich broader social understandings, in the arena of embodied speech interaction. I draw insights from linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, gender/sexuality studies, psycholopgy, sociology, performance studies, and music theory.
My works combine quantitative analysis of linguistic (particularly phonetic) details and qualitative social analysis. My data result from a wide range of methods such as behavioral/psychological experiment, interative game, sociolinguistic interview, fieldwork, and focus group.
Below are some representative work of mine in variations of this theme. Click to expand each section.
Style, persona, and prosody
I have broad interests in prosodic elements in sociolinguistic style. My current work theorizes characterological figure as a vital vehicle to understand social meanings in conventionalized styles that are situated in broader social dynamics and change. Two chapters in my dissertation empirically examine pitch and voice variation in the performances of such figures.
Xu, Robert. 2023. Polyphonous and meaningful: Pitch variation in stylistic performances. Penn Working Paper in Linguistics. NWAV LabPhon Student Paper Award.
Xu, Robert. 2023. He sounds like a bureaucrat: Variation of voice quality in stylistic performances. In Proceedings of the 97th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic society of America, Denver, Colorado.
Xu, Robert. 2019. Placing Social Types Through Prosodic Variation: An Investigation of Spatial Meanings in Mainland China. In Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America (Vol.4). New York, New York, USA. 1st Place Student Abstract Award.
Xu, Robert, and Patrick Callier. 2016. Exploring prosodic variability of character types in Mainland Mandarin. NWAV-AP4. Chiayi, Taiwan.
Timing and rhythm in discourse
Sociolinguists have yet to find effective ways to characterize and understand timing and rhythmic features in speech styles. I explore this by bridging findings in conversation analysis and phonetic timing, an approach I will present in a chapter of my dissertation. I am also interested in phonetic properties of discourse landmarks in interactions.
Xu, Robert. 2023. "The Bureaucrat","The Neighborhood Grandma", and "The Childish Girl": Uncovering the social meaning in stylistic timing variation. NWAV51. Queens College, New York City, NY.
Esposito Lewis, and Robert Xu. 2019. Affect and iconicity: cross-linguistic similarities in the meaning of syllable lengthening. New Way of Analyzing Variation 48, Eugene, Oregon.
Hilton, Katherine, Sunwoo jeong, and Robert Xu. 2017. A phonetic and pragmatic analysis of um and uh in conversation. The 91st Annual Meeting of the Linguistic society of America, Austin, TX.
Phonetic variation and change
I am a member and former manager of the Stanford Voices of California (VOC) project, where we conduct fieldwork in less-studied Californian communicties and investigate how patterns of sound change are inherently connected to the life and history of speakers from different regions and generations.
Xu, Robert. 2019. On-going change of PIN/PEN vowels in California's Central Valley. In Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Melbourne, Australia.
Podesva, Robert J., Daniel Galbraith, Sunwoo Jeong, Sharese King, Bonnie Krejci, Kate Lindsey, Teresa Pratt, Simon Todd, Casey Wong, and Robert Xu. 2016. A Sociophonetic Study of /l/- Darkening Among Latina/o and European Americans in Bakersfield, California. American Dialect Society Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C.
Production and perception of speech, voice, and spoken words
My first love in linguistics led me to focus on the cognitive side of language, in how (especially bilingual) speakers produce and perceive sounds at different levels.
Xu, Robert and Peggy Mok. Accepted. Cross-linguistic perception of intonation in low-pass filtered speech by tone language speakers. Journal of Chinese Linguistics.
Mok, Peggy, Albert Lee, Jingwen Li, and Robert Xu. 2018. Orthographic effects on the perception and production of L2 Mandarin tones. Speech Communication. 101, 1-10.
Mok, Peggy, Robert Xu and Donghui Zuo. 2015. Bilingual speaker identification: Chinese and English. International Journal of Speech, Language and Law, 22, 57-77.
Mok, Peggy, Lan Chen, Jingwen Li, Robert Xu, and Him Cheung. 2014. Cross modal association between colors and vowels in a tone language. British Association of Academic Phoneticians Colloquium (BAAP). Oxford, UK.
Mok, Peggy, Alan Yu, Donghui Zuo, and Robert Xu. 2013. Cross-linguistic priming effects in the Chinese-English bilingual mental lexicon. The 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Singapore.
Xu, Robert, and Peggy Mok. 2012. Cross-linguistic perception of intonation by Mandarin and Cantonese listeners. Proceedings of the 6th International Conferences on Speech Prosody, 99-102. Shanghai, China.
Xu, Robert, and Peggy Mok. 2012. Intonation perception of low-pass filtered speech in Mandarin and Cantonese. Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Language. Nanjing, China. TAL 2012 IPA Student Award.
Xu, Robert, and Peggy Mok. 2011. Final rising and global raising in Cantonese intonation. Proceedings of the 17th international Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2173-2176. Hong Kong.