Kerrison presented at the Embodied Syntax Network Conference, Sept 7-8 2023.
A grammar of collective chanting at sporting events
Chanting as a practice in collective cheering is recognizable by the use of specific sets of rhythmic Chanting Cadences (Kerrison, 2018). The use of a known and conventional cadence provides mutually recognizable instructions for prosody, pacing, and gesture, providing a known performance “shape” that various spoken content can be adapted to. This makes a wide variety of spoken content available for collective performance through chanting, without needing a separate negotiation of how new words or phrases should be said. This paper explores these chanting cadences as an embodied grammar that members use to provide mutually understandable structure to new and unpredictable in-game events.
This projectable structure is vital in all forms of synchronized cheering, where the use of all participant voices in concert makes for louder and farther reaching talk than any participant could accomplish alone. Variations in pacing of a collective performance will cause the participants to fall out of sync, turning their resonant speech and combined gestures into problematic overlap that obscures rather than reinforces the performance. With the particulars of the co-production of each “round” of a chant established, participants can focus on their repetition as standalone chants or the placement of chanted expressions in meaningful slots within the often-unpredictable sequence of a game.
This analysis comes from video and audio recordings of student supporters at inter-collegiate ice hockey contests in the United States. These fans use a variety of traditional practices to produce instances of collective talk for the purpose of encouraging the home team, disparaging and distracting the visiting team, or simply acknowledging and commenting on in-game events. This study focuses on their use of chanting cadences, examining how the cadences themselves are oriented to as “proper” structures of pacing and prosody, and how their placement/progression depends on the actions of both participants and recipients.
Non-lexical vocalizations 