Our speech can shape others' values, attitudes, and beliefs.

Naming

Research shows that appealing names help political candidates.

Voters prefer Sanders over Pekelis; Grady over Schumacher. Forty-eight out of seventy-eight elections supported the value of an appealing name.

Our preconeived notions about names influences our behavior toward people.

Parents linger over choosing a newborn's name. Will it cause schoolmates to beat him up?

Cross-cultural naming in adoption cases can make assimilation easier or help maintain cultural heritage.

Credibility

Enhances the presentation of a linguistic package.

Ex) "doctor" lecturing a group of colleagues with double talk. Questionnaires revealed that the educated listeners found the lecture clear and stimulating.

A group of management professors rated technical manuals more favorably if they were loaded with complex sentences, uncessary, long words rather than easy vernacular.

Status (I call this dialect)

A politically contentious debate - some research has shown that speakers are viewed as more credible if they speak the standard dialect. British actors learn to speak the Queen's English. Broadcast journalists try to conform to a standard dialect. As stated in Understanding Human Communication, "their message is viewed more favorably."

Not all researchers agree. Look at these sites:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/ebonics.lsa.html

http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/aave.htm

But there has been opposition from the black community

Bill Cosby's comments

Maya Angelou's comments

Jesse Jackson's comments ease do not copy or print this page

Sexism and Racism

Is ther a linguistic tyranny for some languages based on gender? The Spaniosh word for the small residence that a person lives in is referred to as feminine, LA casa. The home for all of humankind is masculine, EL mundo.

Changing our language to show sensitivity for gender may be awkward, but can be learned.

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Power

Affiliation

Attraction & Interest

Responsibility

Language and Gender

Nature | Perception  | Languages |Listening | Modalities

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