Masculine and Feminine Speech in Dyads and Groups: A Study of Speech Style and Gender Salience

Abstract

An examination of the impact of the situational salience of gender on males' and females' speech styles is identified as a lacuna in the sex and language literature. An experiment was conducted in which subjects' ratings of speakers for whom sex was more or less salient were employed to monitor real speech differences. Tape-recorded extracts of the spontaneous discourse of males and females, from interpersonal debates in single sex dyads (gender less salient) and intersex debates in mixed sex four-person groups (gender more salient), were rated on sex-stereotypical speech dimensions. It was predicted, from speech accommodation theory and the general social identity analysis of group behaviour, that females in groups would be rated as speaking in a more masculine and less feminine manner than in dyads, and that this effect would be less pronounced for male speakers. The results, which entirely confirm the experimental hypotheses, are discussed in the context of a possible alternative explanation in terms of conformity to situational speech norms. Some suggestions for further research are made.