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"Language is a body technique, and specifically linguistic, especially phonetic, competence is a dimension of bodily hexis in which one’s whole relation to the social world, and one’s wholly social informed relation to the world, are expressed".
(Bourdieu, 1991, p. 86)
Context
The Illustrator Experiment is a linguistic perception experiment proposed in my doctoral thesis (Oliveira, 2022) to investigate the role of body dimension in the social meaning of ingliding in Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Porto Alegre (RS), a process understood as a stylistic practice that creates centring diphthongs from stressed vowels ([ɛ]~[ɛɐ]; [ɔ]~[ɔɐ]). Considering results from previous studies on ingliding (Oliveira, 2018; 2021), the Illustrator Experiment operates with the tense-relaxed opposition to test the hypothesis that the social meanings of the centring diphthong may have intersections with characteristics commonly attributed to relaxed body positions. Through iconic association, the very physical realization of the vowel with ingliding may underlie the social meanings related to relaxed uses of the body, since the process results from a relaxed articulatory setting.
Main results
The results obtained from the Illustrator Experiment, combined with other findings about the process, indicate that: (i) the centring diphthong is consistently related to body relaxation and social meanings associated with relaxed postures; (ii) women are, in general, perceived as those who use more tense body postures. Based on this, I propose, in my thesis, that processes such as ingliding be understood as variables integrated into stylistic uses of the body, since they are part of body uses imbued with social meanings. Such variables have social meanings mediated by the body, precisely because they intersect with the social meanings of the stylistic uses of the body of which they are a part. Ingliding, in this sense, inherits social meanings from the bodily relaxation practices it integrates.
I argue that the body dimension is at the heart of explaining why different linguistic variables associated with bodily tension or relaxation, even across different cultures (see Pratt and D'Onofrio, 2017; Pratt, 2018), have similar social meanings. Furthermore, there are intersections between bodily practices and the dimensions of gender and social class. A relaxed bodily hexis, that is, a lasting bodily disposition marked by relaxation, is characteristic of the confidence typical of the dominant classes (Bourdieu, 2015 [1979/1982]), and of men, who do not suffer from the same symbolic confinement that imposes bodily restraint on women (Bourdieu, 2012 [1998]). Results of linguistic production of ingliding, moreover, indicate that the process is favored by male subjects and those from higher classes (Oliveira, 2018, 2021). It is worth highlighting, however, that the notion of lifestyle (Bourdieu, 2015 [1979/1982]) is central to the interpretation of the results: those who produce inglided vowels are not only associated with the dominant classes, but also with postmodern and laid-back meanings opposed to a formal, uptight and snobbish elites (Oliveira, 2018, 2021). Using ingliding, in this case, is part of the same expressive intention that underlies a relaxed bodily hexis. In this way, the process is part of what Bourdieu (2008 [1982]) calls articulatory style, that is, an embodied lifestyle. Understanding certain variables as integrated into stylistic uses of the body, therefore, makes it possible to explain intersections with social categories, such as class and gender, and to unveil the core of indexical fields.
The Illustrator Experiment
Source: Oliveira (2022, p. 208), drawings by Rafa Conter.
Illustrations used in the Illustrator Experiment to contrast tense (above) and relaxed (below) body postures.
The Illustrator Experiment is so named because it asks respondents to listen to audio excerpts and choose which illustration best represents each person they hear. The drawings, created by Rafa Conter, an illustrator hired by the researcher, are composed of silhouettes of the same person and are distinguished by their body positions: one tense/restrained, the other relaxed/at ease.
The experiment was developed using the matched-guise technique (Lambert et al., 1960) and conducted online with 283 Brazilian listeners. Each respondent listened to two men and two women from Porto Alegre twice, sometimes with, sometimes without ingliding. After listening to each audio recording, the informant was asked Which illustration do you believe best matches the person who recorded audio X?, to which they had to select one of two options: the more tense/restrained posture (with arms and legs close together and head aligned with the rest of the body) or the more relaxed/at ease posture (with arms and legs apart and head misaligned with the rest of the body).
Replicate the experiment
To learn more about the Illustrators Experiment, I recommend reading Chapter 4 of my doctoral thesis (Oliveira, 2022). To replicate the experiment with the same illustrations, access Rafa Conter's high-quality drawings by clicking here. Feel free to contact me if you would like to exchange ideas.
Learn more
Oliveira, S. (in press). O lugar do corpo no estudo da significação social da variação linguística. In R. Freitag & J. Barbosa (Eds.), Tendências da Sociolinguística Brasileira.
Oliveira, S. (2022). Significação social do ingliding do falar porto-alegrense: Percepção e avaliação linguística. Doctoral thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Oliveira, S. (2021). Ingliding as stylistic practice in Porto Alegre (RS). Diadorim, 23(1).
Oliveira, S. (2018). Ingliding de vogais tônicas como prática estilística no falar porto-alegrense: Significados sociais da variação linguística. Master’s dissertation, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Discussions on the Illustrator Experiment have been presented at various academic events:
→ XIII Congresso Internacional da ABRALIN (Associação Brasileira de Linguística) – A dimensão do corpo no estudo da significação social da variação linguística: o caso do ingliding do falar porto-alegrense. UFPR: Curitiba, Brasil. 2023.
→ NWAV52 (New Ways of Analyzing Variation) – Experimento do Ilustrador: investigando o papel do corpo na significação social da variação linguística / Illustrator Experiment: investigating the role of the body in the social meaning of language variation. FIU / UM: Miami Beach, Estados Unidos. 2024.
→ 16° Lusitanistentag (Congresso Alemão de Lusitanistas) – O gênero e as práticas linguísticas e corporais marcadas por relaxamento: o caso do ingliding de Porto Alegre (RS). LMU: Munique, Alemanha. 2025.
→ XVI Encontro do CELSUL (Círculo de Estudos Linguísticos do Sul) – Significados sociais de variáveis linguísticas integradas a práticas corporais: investigando intersecções entre língua, gênero, classe e corpo. UFRGS / UFCSPA: Porto Alegre, Brasil. 2026.
→ 16º ENGTS (Encontro Nacional do GT de Sociolinguística) da ANPOLL – O lugar do corpo no estudo da significação social da variação linguística. UFS: Aracaju, Brasil. 2026.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power (5th ed.). Harvard University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2008). A economia das trocas linguísticas: O que falar quer dizer. EDUSP.
Bourdieu, P. (2012). A dominação masculina. Bertrand Brasil.
Bourdieu, P. (2015). A distinção: Crítica social do julgamento. EDUSP; Zouk.
Foley, W. (1997). Anthropological linguistics: An introduction. Blackwell Publishers.
Lambert, W., Hodson, R., Gardner, R., & Fillenbaum, S. (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60(1), 44–51.
Oliveira, S. (2018). Ingliding de vogais tônicas como prática estilística no falar porto-alegrense: Significados sociais da variação linguística. Master’s dissertation, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Oliveira, S. (2021). Ingliding as stylistic practice in Porto Alegre (RS). Diadorim, 23(1).
Oliveira, S. (2022). Significação social do ingliding do falar porto-alegrense: Percepção e avaliação linguística. Doctoral thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Oliveira, S. (in press). O lugar do corpo no estudo da significação social da variação linguística. In R. Freitag & J. Barbosa (Eds.), Tendências da Sociolinguística Brasileira.
Pratt, T. (2018). Embodying toughness: LOT-raising, /l/-velarization, and retracted articulatory setting. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 24(2), 107–116.
Pratt, T., & D’Onofrio, A. (2017). Jaw setting and the California Vowel Shift in parodic performance. Language in Society, 46(3), 1–30.
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