Effects of gender and topic on speech style

Male and female subjects described nine photographs that had been selected to be of interest to males, females, or both. The resulting speech samples were analyzed for the incidence of five features of word production and five features associated with a women's language (WL) speech style. Results showed that topic (photograph type) determined aspects of speech production. However, there were no gender differences in production or style. Correlations between dependent variables suggested that WL is a consistent set of features. Its use by both female and male speakers may reflect social uncertainty.The authors thank Janis Glenn and Cynthia Johnson for help in collecting and transcribing data.