Style Shifting

Victoria Ky-Khim

You may have noticed that your accent can change depending on who you are talking to. Apart from the chameleon theory, the speech accommodation theory (SAT) and the audience design theory (ADT) also address this accent change or style shifting.

The SAT was developed by Howard Giles in 1973. The key tenet of the theory is that speakers modify or adapt their speech styles to “create and maintain positive personal and social identities” (Gallois et al., 2005, p. 123). The way speakers modify or adapt their speech styles is accomplished with either convergence or divergence. Convergence refers to when people try to sound more like their interlocutors while divergence refers to when people try to establish social distance from their interlocutors or try to sound less like them (Van Herk, 2018). In a nutshell, convergence emphasizes similarities while divergence emphasizes differences. The SAT later became known as the communication accommodation theory (CAT).

The ADT was developed by Allan Bell in 1984. Building on the SAT, the ADT claims that “people shift styles to accommodate to audience members” (Van Herk, 2018, p. 122). The main distinction is that ADT also considers how the degree of closeness to the audience affects the speaker’s style shifting. From closer to further, the audience can be made up of “interlocutors, auditors (part of the conversational group, but not addressed), overhearers (non-participants within hearing), eavesdroppers (not participants or known), and referees (people who aren’t there, but act as a model for the speaker, or an invisible judge)” (Van Herk, 2018, p. 122). The speaker typically makes more effort to accommodate people who are closer to them, the interlocutors. However, people who are further from them, the auditors and overhearers, can still affect their speaking styles. For more information on the ADT, I invite you to watch this YouTube video.

Why does your accent change depending on who you are talking to? According to the SAT, your accent changes to emphasize similarities or differences with the interlocutors. According to the ADT, your accent changes depending on your degree of closeness to the audience. Since the ADT builds on the SAT, it makes sense that both theories complement each other. As such, it appears that your accent changes depending on your degree of closeness with the audience. And this degree of closeness might in turn impact how much emphasis is put on the similarities or differences you have with the interlocutors.

Questions

1. In which instances would you use convergence? In which instances would you use divergence? And with whom?
2. In what way might audience, apart from the direct interlocutors, affect your speaking style?

References

Aze Linguistics. (2022, March 23). Style: Audience Design Theory [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmWunWI43wk&t=210s&ab_channel=AzeLinguistics

Gallois, C., Ogay, T., & Giles, H. (2005). Communication accommodation theory: A look back and a look ahead. In Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 121-148). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Van Herk, Gerard. (2018). What is sociolinguistics? 2e Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.