Uptalk, Personae, and the Structure of Social Meaning in the Indexical Field

ABSTRACT The indexical field is a common framework for understanding the relationship between a linguistic variable and its social meanings, though there is still much to be learned about how meanings relate to each other and are structured inside the field. Using uptalk in US English as the linguistic variable, this matched guise perception experiment explores the links between context and meaning, priming listeners with a range of personae. Using both regression and correlation analysis, we illustrate how some meanings endure across contexts, whereas others are more localized, influenced by the persona prime and demographic characteristics of the listeners. Using our results and building off of prior theories, we propose a model of the indexical field in which elements of linguistic structure sit at the core, which then enter into semiotic processes to build out a variable's indexical field.