Sex, speech, and stereotypes: Why women use prestige speech forms more than men

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Linguistic Variation and Morphology Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies Gender Studies in Language

Abstract

ABSTRACT It is widely reported that women use more prestige speech forms than men, and style-shift more dramatically than men. This article puts forward the view that this behavior of women is not a matter of self-promotion, but of avoidance. Evidence from a survey of New Zealand middle-class speakers shows that their stereotype of a lower-class female speaker includes potential sexual immorality. Because of society's double standard regarding men's and women's sexual behavior, the stereotype affects women more than men, and could be an explanation for middle-class women's use of prestige forms as a way of avoiding association with the lower-class stereotype. (Women's speech, social class, speech varieties, sex and language, stereotypes, New Zealand)

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References

1973Language and woman's place 1972Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich 1976Language and Woman's Place 1975Speech style and social evaluation 1997The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich 2012London Labour and the London Poor 1976The social differentiation of English in Norwich . By Peter Trudgill. (Cambridge studies in linguistics, 13.) Cambridge: University Press, 1974. Pp. x, 211. $14.50.1993Language : Contexts and consequences. By Howard Giles and Nikolas Coupland. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1991. Pp. xvi, 244. Paper $21.00.

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