Sociolinguistic Resources, Individual Identities, and Public Speech Styles of Texas Women

Four Texas public speakers claim that region and ethnicity affect their speech but are uncomfortable talking about the influences of gender. They see their styles as expressive of self rather than social identity and as the result of very particular facts about their own predispositions, families, and circumstances. These shapers of public discourse are at least as motivated by the need to express unique, differentiated selves as by the need to replicate social ideologies.