While the retraction of trap is found throughout the American West, it is primarily associated with California and supposed Californian values in both the popular media and the ears of Californian listeners. This study investigates the local construction of meaning for a supralocal sound change by examining perceptions of trap backing in Kansas, a locale that has also undergone front lax vowel retraction. Thirty-five college students heard matched-guise stimuli differing only by trap F2, guessed speakers’ regional origin, and rated speakers on 14 affective scales. Listeners associated trap backing with California (despite local participation in the sound shift) and general prestige. The authors suggest that this association with general prestige may help to explain the presence of this vowel shift in Kansas despite considerable ideological differences with California. They argue that these results highlight the interaction between local construction of meaning and broader national discourses for a sound change: while stereotypical associations with a sound change can spread rapidly through means like popular media, stance and identity associations are constructed at the local level.

中文翻译：

---

超地方变化的地方意义

虽然在整个美国西部都发现了陷阱的收回，但它主要与加利福尼亚州以及流行媒体和加利福尼亚听众耳中的假定加利福尼亚价值观有关。这项研究通过检查堪萨斯州对陷阱支持的感知来调查超本地声音变化的本地意义构建，该地区也经历了前松元音缩回。35 名大学生听到了仅通过陷阱 F2 不同的匹配伪装刺激，猜测说话者的地区来源，并在 14 个情感量表上对说话者进行评分。听众将陷阱支持与加利福尼亚（尽管当地参与了声音转变）和一般声望联系在一起。作者认为，这种与普遍声望的关联可能有助于解释堪萨斯州存在这种元音转变，尽管与加利福尼亚州存在相当大的意识形态差异。他们认为，这些结果突出了地方意义建构与更广泛的国家话语之间的相互作用，以实现健全的变革：虽然带有健全变革的陈规定型联想可以通过大众媒体等手段迅速传播，但立场和身份联想是在地方层面构建的。