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Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich

1972; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0047404500000488

1469-8013

Peter Trudgill,

Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity

ABSTRACT Women use linguistic forms associated with the prestige standard more frequently than men. One reason for this is that working-class speech has favourable connotations for male speakers. Favourable attitudes to non-standard speech are not normally expressed, however, and emerge only in inaccurate self-evaluation test responses. Patterns of sex differentiation deviating from the norm indicate that a linguistic change is taking place: standard forms are introduced by middle-class women, non-standard forms by working-class men. (Sociolinguistic variation; linguistic change; women's and men's speech; contextual styles; social class; British English.)