May 23, 2025
AIɫɫ’s Annie Ucci received the undergraduate Poster Presentation Award during this year’s Celebration of Scholarship conference. Her project, “Exploring the Rural Midland Dialect of American English: A Case Study”, was an extension of a project she completed in her American Language in Society course where she interviewed someone with a non-standard dialect and studied their various grammatical, syntactic, and phonological speech patterns.
“I interviewed an elderly Portsmouth resident, using sociolinguist William Labov's concept of the ‘sociolinguistic interview’,” said Ucci. “A face-to-face interview – as opposed to, say, an anonymous survey – provides an accurate idea of how a person speaks in a real-life context and allows the interviewer to learn from the person being interviewed.”
Ucci’s time spent with her interviewee allowed her not only to gain data for her project, but she also got an insight into historical events and traditions of the Portsmouth region.
“On top of studying her dialect – the Rural Midland Dialect – I got to learn a lot about our local area and the insight that the older generations can give into local dialects,” she said.
An English & Humanities major, Ucci enjoys studying dialects and speech patterns.
“The class I took this semester paired with my research has been fascinating, particularly what I've learned about the value of different dialects,” she said. “Getting to use what I learned in class in an interpersonal context was an amazing experience.”
Presenting her research to the campus community during the Poster Session of Celebration of Scholarship, Ucci was grateful for the experience to share her academic work as well as receive recognition with the Undergraduate Poster Award.
“I really enjoyed sharing my research with everyone during the poster session, and I hope everyone came away having learned something new and thinking a little more about the linguistic factors behind how people speak,” she said. “I very much appreciate those who listened to my presentation, those who acknowledged my work with the Undergrad Poster Award, and of course, the kind lady who made it possible by talking with me.”
Enjoying her experience in Celebration of Scholarship, Ucci encourages other students to share their academic work through the event.
“This is a great opportunity to showcase your studies in the subjects you're interested in,” she said. “Getting to engage with people in an academic setting and discuss something you worked hard on is a wonderful feeling.”
To learn more about the annual Celebration of Scholarship conference, visit shawnee.edu/cos.