ABSTRACT
Deborah Cameron, Fiona McAlinden & Kathy O'Leary 1. Introduction In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the differing linguistic behaviour of women and men. Work in this area has been of two main kinds: either it has concerned itself with phonological and grammatical variation, usually as part of a wider variationist project (e.g. Trudgill 1972; Cheshire 1982) or else it has involved the more 'holistic' exploration of genderlinked speech styles in natural or quasi-natural interaction. The use of politeness phenomena, questions and directives, patterns of floor-apportionment and hearer support are among the speechstyle features that have been scrutinised for sex differences (e.g. Brown 1980; Goodwin 1980; Fishman 1980; Zimmerman and West 1975). Here it is this second 'speech style' strand we concentrate on. Drawing on empirical studies we have undertaken, we argue that it is time to reassess certain historical preoccupations of researchers in this area; and we urge future investigators to be aware of the complexity of relations between linguistic form, communicative function, social context and social structure.
