Attitudes to stylistic variation in Australian English

Abstract

Sociophonetic variation present in Australian English has been well studied. Additionally, distinct ethnocultural varieties have also been shown to exist within Australian English, such as Greek and Lebanese Australian English. However, sociolinguistic research that investigates the production of speakers themselves, and how they judge social variation in Australian English is still understudied. Research into other English varieties reveals that often people do have strong judgements about others according to the way they speak. In the United Kingdom, speakers of non-standard varieties are often seen as less intelligent and their speech deemed less acceptable, consequently they are judged more negatively, regardless of their actual background. So far, few studies have investigated if these same kinds of judgements also occur in Australian English. Previous research has shown that Australians have attitudes about regional variations and when compared to other varieties of English. However, few studies have investigated how Australians judge language in regard to stylistic variation. The present study reports findings from an investigation that aims to understand how native speakers of Australian English judge stylistic variation, by using the two varieties commonly spoken by Anglo-Australians known as General and Broad Australian English. This study aims to answer the two following questions: 1. How do speakers judge stylistic variation in Australian English? 2. How are these judgements impacted by personal biases? Using a matched-guise test paired with a short survey, participants were asked to listen to four sets of General and Broad speech recordings and asked to respond to 15 items on a 1-5 Likert scale for each recording. Results indicate that although speakers are aware of the different social and economic backgrounds of Australians, they generally do not impact on their judgements towards the personal characteristics of speakers. Overall, Likert items pertaining to personal characteristics (e.g., trustworthiness, toughness, confidence) were judged similarly across both General and Broad guises. In contrast, the General guise was judged more positively for items that pertained to one’s socioeconomic status (e.g., educational level, income, social class), while Broad was judged more negatively in these items. Overall, these findings show similar results to previous studies regarding social variation regarding judgements towards socioeconomic status. They may also indicate that certain speech is actually seen as more prestigious in Australia, going against the common egalitarian perception of Australian society.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Robert Mailhammer (Supervisor)