Phonetic cues to depression: A sociolinguistic perspective

Abstract

Phonetic data are used in several ways outside of the core field of phonetics. This paper offers the perspective of one such field, sociophonetics, towards another, the study of acoustic cues to clinical depression. While sociophonetics is interested in how, when, and why phonetic variables cue information about the world, the study of acoustic cues to depression is focused on how phonetic variables can be used by medical professionals as tools to diagnosis. The latter is only interested in identifying phonetic cues to depression, while the former is interested in how phonetic variation cues anything at all. While the two fields fundamentally differ with respect to ontology, epistemology, and methodology, I argue that there are, nonetheless, possible avenues for future engagement, collaboration, and investigation. Ultimately, both fields need to engage with Crip Linguistics for any successful intervention on the relationship between speech and depression.