matched guise

A technique used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS to obtain information about unconsciously held LANGUAGE attitudes. The output of one person capable of speaking in two ‘guises’ (authentically sounding alternative ACCENTS, DIALECTS or LANGUAGES) is presented to listeners who rate the speech in terms of such scales as intellectual capability and social solidarity. Because other variables (such as subject-matter) can be kept constant, the technique offers a larger measure of experimental control than is usual in sociolinguistic research.