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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Elizabeth Gordon
Elizabeth Gordon
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, e.gordon@ling.canterbury.ac.nz
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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)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 47 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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