Language and Gender侯钰璐 2011.5.27

Two Concepts

v Sex is what you’re born with. Gender is what you’re given.

Sex Vs. Gender

v Sex: one’s biological property, a matter of physiology

v Gender: one’s social property, learned behavior

The Importance of the Issue

Gender Differences in Language Use

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Linguistic Sexism

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

You are what you say. By Robin Lakoff

The Importance of the Issue

v Why is it important?

v Why is it critical not to overlook the social aspect of language?

Language is a mirror of society, through which we can understand social activities of a certain society better.

Society provides language with a suitable context of use, in which we can enjoy aspects of language vividly and truthfully

Sociolinguistics

Social Parameters

EducationClass

Gender

Ethnic Identity

Age

Religious Belief

Language

Background

Two millenniums ago: ancient Greek drama

1922: Otto Jespersen, Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin

1960s: feminist movement, the rise of gender studies. 1970s: Lakoff, Labove, Trudgill. Since then, gender and

language has become a focus in the linguistic field.

1999: the 44th International Linguistic Association took “Gender and Language” as the central subject under discussion

The Importance of the Issue

Gender Differences in Language Use

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Linguistic Sexism

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

Gender Differences in Language Use

v Robin Lakoff, Language and Women’s Place, 1975

v Lexical differencesv Syntactic differencesv Other differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 1. Color-wordsv E.g. The wall is mauve.v I prefer the lavender wallpaper.v beige, ecru, aquamarine…

v 2. Swear-wordsv E.g. (a) Shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. v (b) Oh dear, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator

again. shit, damn, hell, fuck.. oh dear, fudge, goodness, dear me…

v

Lexical Differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 3. Empty adjectivesv E.g. (a) What a terrific idea!v (b) What a divine idea!v divine, adorable, gorgeous…

v 4. Intensifiersv E.g. terrible, awful, so, very, quite

Lexical Differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 5. Tag-questionv E.g. (a) Is John here?v (b) John is here, isn’t here? v v You don’t mind eating this, do you?

v 6. Hedgesv phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “I guess”, “it seems like”…

v

Syntactic Differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 7. Intonational patternsv E.g. --When will dinner be ready?v --Oh…around six o’clock?

v 8. Compound requestsv E.g. (a) Close the door.v (b) Please close the door.v (c) Will you close the door?v (d) Will you please close the door?v (e) Won’t you close the door?v “Would you mind…” v “If it’s not too much to as…”v “Is it ok if…”v “I’m sorry, but I think that…”

v

Syntactic Differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 9. Topic Selection v Men: Politics, economy, sports, religion…v Women: children, food, health, family, fashion…v Serious Vs Trivial?

v 10. Amount of Speechv “Women never stop talking”.v “Three women and a goose make a market”.v Is this true?v Public Vs Private

v

Other Differences

Gender Differences in Language Use

v 11. Turn-takingv Women are more likely to obey the rules of turn-taking,

while men often take other speakers’ turn to gain control of the whole conversation.

v 12. Overlap and Interruptionv Zimmerman and West (1975) recorded 31 conversations in

public (20 single-gender, 11 mixed-gender), all of the overlaps and 46 of 48 interruptions were caused by male speakers.

v

Other Differences

The Importance of the Issue

Gender Differences in Language Use

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Linguistic Sexism

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Deficit (Robin Lakoff)

Dominance (D. Zimmerman, C. West,

P. Fishman)

Difference Deborah Tanne, M.H. Goodwin)

Politeness (Janet Holmes)

Constructionism(Deborah Cameron)

The Importance of the Issue

Gender Differences in Language Use

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Linguistic Sexism

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

Linguistic Sexism

v Language of Womenv Language about Women

v Def. of linguistic sexism:v A term used to refer to sex-

biased phenomena in language use.

Examples of Linguistic Sexism

v 1. Masculine forms in Englishv Man is mortal.v The emergency room is manned (be operated by man)

by…v (When writing a letter) Dear sir…

v salesman- sales assistantv storeman- sto re assistantv postman - letter carrier, mail carrier, postalv fireman- fire fighter

Examples of Linguistic Sexism

v 2. suffix: –ess, -ette, -rix, -enne, v actress actorv ambassadress ambassadorv suffragette suffragistv usherette usherv comedienne comedian

v 3. Implied derogatory wordsv Master- Mistressv Governor- Governessv Bachelor-Spinsterv (a) He is a professional.v (b)She is a professional.

The Importance of the Issue

Gender Differences in Language Use

Major Models to Explain the Differences

Linguistic Sexism

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

Suggestions for Cross-Gender Communication

v Identifying Differences in Language Use

v Increasing Mutual Cognition

v Trying to Be Flexible