The Effects of Public and Individual Language Attitudes on Intra-Speaker Variation: A Case Study of Style-Shifting

• Published in: Multilingua Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 79 - 101
• Main Authors: Hernandez-Campoy, Juan Manuel, Cutillas-Espinosa, Juan Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter Mouton 01-01-2013
• Subjects: Case Studies; Females; Foreign Countries; Interviews; Language Attitudes; Language Styles; Language Usage; Mixed Methods Research; Nonstandard Dialects; Positive Attitudes; Presidents; Public Opinion; Public Speaking; Questionnaires; Social Bias; Spain; Spanish; Standard Spoken Usage; Spain
• ISSN: 0167-8507
• DOI: 10.1515/multi-2013-0004

The present study focuses on the language attitudes underlying patterns of stylistic variation in the speech of a female former President of the Spanish local Government of Murcia. We build on previous quantitative work demonstrating that this speaker shows unexpectedly high usage levels for nonstandard Murcian Spanish features in public speech, despite this being a stigmatised dialect enjoying covert prestige. However, in a private interview conducted with her, not only does the President expresses positive attitudes toward the dialect, but also her private speech is even more non-standard than her public speech, suggesting that she tempers her dialect usage in public contexts, too. The quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that, through examination of public and individual language attitudes in which features and varieties derive their social connotations, we gain insights into how and why speakers sometimes purposefully use non-standard forms in formal public speech and sometimes less self-consciously orient themselves toward standard norms. (Contains 2 tables and 6 footnotes.)