Somewhat surprisingly, social psychologists have traditionally been rather reluctant to consider speech in their formulations of social behavior (notable exceptions are Brown, 1965; Lambert, 1967; Robinson, 1972). However, this oversight has recently and gradually been corrected with a series of studies on language from a social-psychological perspective (e.g., Fraser & Scherer, 1982; Giles & St. Clair, 1979). It is clear that the way we speak and how listeners interpret our speech has important consequences for our interactions with others. Furthermore, the social-psychological approach to the study of such influences makes unique theoretical and methodological contributions to the wider discipline of language science.