Towards a comprehensive model of style-shifting: Evidence from sibilant variation in Mandarin

Research on style-shifting has shifted from more responsive models to one that prioritizes speaker agency. However, recent work suggests that cognitive and sociocultural factors influence intra-speaker variation in tandem. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the interplay between task, audience, and attitudinal effects on the style-shifting of/s/and/ʂ/by Southern Mandarin speakers living in Beijing. Historically merged in Southern Mandarin, the two phonemes are undergoing a lexical split. Speakers exhibit greater/s/-/ʂ/contrast in wordlist than in conversation and their/ʂ/production is predicted by an interaction between task, audience and Beijing orientation. High social salience of the sibilant merger/split also adds to the growing evidence that social meaning can be associated with structural phonological relations.