1. Back in Style: Reworking
Audience Design
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Sociolinguistics – Lane 626
King Abdulaziz University
Department of European
Languages & Literature
1
(Allen Bell,1984)
5. Introduction
Fishman, 1972
The way people talk will differ according to several
contextual factors :where speakers are (the
situation); who are they with (the audience); what
are they speaking about (the topic( .
5
(Bell, 2010)
7. STYLE SHIFTING
Style shifting refers to speech variation within individual speakers.
Variation can occur syntactically, lexically and phonologically.
There are no single- style speakers. While it may vary, everyone
displays a considerable amount of style shifting in their speech.
Example
A. How do you do?
B. What’s up ?
7 (Bell, 2010)
10. AUDIENCE DESIGN MODEL AS AN APPROACH TO THE
STYLE
Audience design is a sociolinguistic model
outlined by Allen Bell in 1984 which processes
that linguistic style-shifting occur primarily in
response to a speaker`s audience.
Two common theories that account for style-
shifting are the accommodation model and the
audience design model.
10
(Bell, 2010)
11. Studying four radio newsreader’s
pronunciation on two different stations.
One station, National Radio, attracted
an audience from high class.
The other, a local Community station,
drew a broader range of listeners
including those from low class.
Allen Bell`s Research
11 (Bell, 2010)
12. He identified relationships in the frequency
of phonological variables, such as
postvocalic [t].
He found out that the newsreader in the
local community, more frequent uses
postvocalic [t], shift a voiceless stop sound
/t / to voiced stop sound /d/. Making
words such as writer sound like rider.
He revealed that they spoke differently
based on the intended radio audience.
Allen Bell`s Research
12 (Bell, 2010)
Cont.,
14. This style mainly known as (intra- speaker) style which is a reflex of inter-
speaker variation.
Intra- Speaker Variation
The difference in the way a single speaker talks in two or more different
situations (variation within a speaker).
Example:
Egyptian employee in Saudi company talks differently with Saudi and Egyptian
employee.
Inter- Speaker Variation
When the same linguistics features distinguishes between speakers
socially (variation between the individual speakers).
Example:
Hejazi dialect versus Najdi dialect
Style is what an individual speaker does with a
language in relation to other people
14 (Bell, 2010)
15. Cont.
Markedness Theory by Myers-Scotton, 1993.
It is a theory relies on the relationship between the speakers
in the language choice.
1.The unmarked choice
Is the expected and normal code that someone will use
language in a specific context.
2.The marked choice (Code switching)
Is the unexpected code that someone will use.
Style derives it’s meaning from the
association with a particular social group
15 (Bell, 2010)
16. Saudi clerk and Egyptian customer at a Bank in
London.
- The unmarked choice is English.
- The marked choice is Arabic, their shared ethnic
language, to index social solidarity with the clerk, as he
needs extra help.
EXAMPLE
Cont.
16
17. Accommodation Theory (Howard Giles, 1970)
It suggests that we adjust our speech to accommodate the
person we are addressing. This may result in convergence
and divergence.
Convergence
This is more common and occurs when we move our speech
closer to the one person.
Reduce social distance.
Example
A Moroccan and Saudi student in London speak Arabic not
English.
Speaker design their style primarily for and
in response to their audience
Cont.
17 (Bell, 2010)
18. Divergence
Making our language different from someone to
show dislike or that you are not going to
cooperate.
Emphasize social distance.
Example
EFL Teacher talks to her students in English at
her office at non educational setting .
Speaker design their style primarily for and
in response to their audience
Cont.
18
(Bell, 2010)
19. As well as the “ responsive” dimension of
style, there is the “initiative” dimension
“Responsive” dimension of style
It is a regular association between language and social situation.
Example
Speak the same dialect of speech community.
Initiative style shifts “ referee design”
This type of style-shifting refers to situations where the speaker does
not accommodate to the speech style of their immediate audience.
Example
Some Moroccan people speak French not Arabic while they speak with
Arabs in France.
19
(Bell, 2010)
Cont.,
23. Demographic information of 4 speakers
Class Origins
Age
All in their
early to
mid
twenties.
Familiarity
All were in
middle
class.
All were
New
Zealanders
.
All informants
and interviewers
are stranger to
each other.
23 (Bell, 2010)
24. Three interviews were designed, one for each of the
interviews conducted with each informant
2/Set topics
e.g. Work and
education
3/ Reading
tasks
e.g. word lists,
Maori place
names.
1/Free
conversation
e.g. holidays
2. Interview design
4/other
tasks
e.g. use of Ms.
versus
Miss/Mrs
Each interview considered of four
components
24 (Bell, 2010)
25. METHODOLOGY
The researcher recorded the informant’s interview
three times with three different interviewers , he
found out that people say different things to
different people, so why there was to be a series
of interviews involving different interviewers.
Free conversation: it was intended to achieve
some level “ casual speech”.
The education topic: concentrated on the
content of the informant’s” formal speech”.
Cont.
25
(Bell, 2010)
26. 4.Findings
4.1 Discourse particle “eh”
The pragmatic particle “eh” is a salient sociolinguistic
marker in NZ English.
It means “you know the kind of thing I mean”.
The discourse practice “ eh” is a marker of the English of
Maori people especially by men.
The marker “ eh” is absent from the speech of pakeha
informants.
“eh” is mainly as a marker of group identity of
ethnicity.
(
Maori
)
and secondarily of gender
(
(Maori men
26
(Bell, 2010)
27. 4.Findings
4.2 Maori Language Usage
It is a language that spoken by Maori people, the indigenous
population of New Zealand.
Maori Place names
Most New Zealand placenames are Maori, and pronunciation
according to a Maori or English model is very obvious indicator
of ethnic orientation.
The research found out that the pronunciation of Maori man
was close to Maori language followed by Maori women.
The pronunciation of the Pekha man and women were both
closet to the English not Maori.
27
(Bell, 2010)
Cont.
