Showing papers by "Howard Giles published in 1992"

Handbook of language and social psychology

Abstract: This important handbook, with chapters written by leading experts in their fields, is concerned with the integration of verbal and nonverbal features in communication. Not just a collection of readings, it examines "how" verbal and nonverbal systems in communication "work." Contributions combine solid reviews of the current research and findings as well as important theoretical and practical problems, with suggestions for future directions of research in the study of language and its use.

Intergenerational Talk and Communication with Older People

Abstract: A program of research conducted within an anti-agism paradigm demonstrates that young people process and respond to the speech of older people in stereotypical ways. Such conclusions result from studies using a variety of research methods. Experimental studies demonstrate that older-sounding speech triggers age schematic responses and that young people tend to use agist strategies of information seeking and compliance gaining from older people, while interactive studies explore how stereotypes and age identities are co-produced by young and old people in conversation. We use lifespan and intercultural perspectives to argue that the communicative patterns we observe in our studies are in some senses and contexts counterproductive in both the long and short term, in that they can reproduce negative attitudes toward aging as well as inhibit successful aging.

Language Attitudes and Cognitive Mediation

Abstract: Using an independent samples factorial design, this study examined the roles of accent (standard vs. nonstandard), speech rate (fast vs. medium vs. slow), and age of voice (younger vs. older sounding) on British listeners’ social evaluations of audiotaped voices using the matched-guise technique. In addition, listener judges’ level and nature of cognitive responding, their interpretations of the targets’ utterances and the (mediumterm) recognition value of messages were uniquely explored as a function of these three independent variables. In general, standard speakers were upgraded on competencerelated traits but downgraded on solidarity traits irrespective of age, with older speakers being perceived as less hesitant but more benevolent than their younger counterparts. An Age × Accent interaction effect showed that older-sounding standard speakers were judged the most competent and older-sounding nonstandard speakers the least competent. Favorable ratings were afforded speakers with medium rates, and slow-talking, younger-sounding speakers were particularly downgraded. All three independent variables affected ratings of listeners’ interpretations of the (same) text, while speaker age was the only effect on the recognition of message material 2 days later. The cognitive responding data showed that listener judges were most positive about the source when the target was fast talking and older sounding and were most negative to the fast-talking, younger-sounding, and standard-accented speaker. The diverse pattern of findings emerging at different levels of analysis underscores the important roles of cognitive mediation in language attitude studies in ways not explored sufficiently previously.

`Don't Make me Laugh': Age Representations in a Humorous Context

Abstract: The Golden Girls is a highly popular television series which, since its inception in 1985, has received praise for presenting the elderly on television in a positive light. Research, however, has not investigated the messages of the show in any depth and the current study aims to remedy this. A discursive analysis of the show is conducted to identify ways in which the show marks age and achieves humorous effect. The multiple ways in which these effects are achieved are schematized in typology form. Indications that age marking and humor overlap considerably are interpreted in terms of propagating views of aging inconsistent with the show's public agenda'. Specifically, the link, which has theoretical implications, is seen as perpetuating stereotypes of the elderly, by making counter-stereotypical portrayals, quite literally, laughable. The results are discussed in terms of various theoretical positions, as well as more applied production issues.

Compliance-Gaining as a Function of Accent: Public Requests in Varieties of Danish.

Abstract: This paper is concerned with exploring the relationship between cooperative behaviour and public requests voiced in different Danish accents. Following a method devised by Bourhis and Giles (1976), audiences in a Danish provincial town's five-screen cinema were asked, over the loudspeaker system, to assist in the planning of future film programmes by completing a questionnaire. This procedure was conducted on four successive nights, each night using a new guise, all of which represented possible norms in the local speech community (viz., Standard Danish, mild and broad Zealand, and Copenhagen varieties). The five audiences were characterized on a series of background variables, making it possible ultimately to demonstrate how different social groups display different levels of cooperation as a function of the guised requests. Although compliance-gaining was overall most effective when the request was voiced in Standard Danish, intriguing large-scale differences between audiences emerged. Implications of these findings for applied settings are given, as are their relevance for studies in language attitudes in general.

Prejudice-Reduction Simulations: Social Cognition, Intergroup Theory, and Ethics:

Abstract: Taking a social psychological perspective, the capacity for prejudice-reduction simulations to change prejudicial attitudes is examined using theoretical insights from social cognition and intergro...

“One for the road then?” Communicative and sociolinguistic parameters of social and problem drinking

Abstract: This paper provides an initial review of social scientific research on the causes and effects of alcohol use and abuse. We argue that such work is, in general, overly psycho-individualistic in its theoretical and social policy orientations. Yet alcohol issues have, with few exceptions, been ignored in communication and sociolinguistic studies, even though these overlapping disciplines have the analytic resources to give an integrated socially-grounded account of the dynamics of drinking use and abuse. The paper therefore provides a framework and an explicit set of agenda for exploring some of the fundamental and everyday sociolinguistic and communicative dimensions of drinking, with attention to their implications for drinking and driving practice and anti-drink-driving campaigns.