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Style-shifting in a Cardiff work-setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Nikolas Coupland
Nikolas Coupland
Affiliation:
University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
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Abstract

Despite ample evidence which proves the existence of stylistic stratification in the speech of monoliguals, little is know about the nature of stylistic variation in everyday settings. Data from a Cardiff travel agency suggest that a speaker's stylistic repertoire can be statistically characterised using a method that combines Labov's frequency-counts of linguistic variants and Hymes' and others' taxonomies of situational components. A second study using subjects' responses to stylistic variation in the original data overcomes certain limitations inherent in the correlational method. It shows how style-shifting can be a dynamic resource for a speaker, not necessarily the automatic correlate of contextual features. (Stylistic variation; sociolinguistic variables in Cardiff English; linguistic repertoire; reactions to style.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , April 1980 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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