Sociolinguistics Gender With thank to Portland State University: Applied Linguistics department

Do men and women speak the same? Assumptions behind this question: There is linguistic variation There is an expected (binary) difference between men and women in general as distinct social groups There may be a difference between men and women’s speech

What are some stereotypes about the way men and women behave? aggressive Rational powerful strong confident stubborn Direct/assertive Bad listeners Not emotional - detached Sports freaks Passive / aggressive Feminine Irrationaldelicate MoodyHysterical Nurturing Care-taker / care-giver Intuitive Spiritual Talkative / gossipy Nagging Bread winner Problem solver Math doer Bug killers Good driver Hard worker masculine MENWOMEN

What are some stereotypes about the way men and women talk? loud Brief/blunt/to the point Mumble/no enunciate manipulative (direct) Non-emotional content/Fact-based content 1 st person experiencesswearing Gruntlower classes talk less correct Lower voices/deeperargumentative Literal meaningmen don’t talk Confidence in statementexaggerate Boastfuldominating conversation baby-talk expressive Tangential (going off topic)3 rd person exp Superficial more standard Mumble/speak softlyclass? Chatty Cathybigger vocab Gossipelegant Exaggeratemanipulative (indirect) Laugh/smile self-effacing Cooperative/diplomatic2-faced/catty High rising intonationhedging MENWOMEN

Study: Robin Lakoff 1975 “women’s language” Tag questions Rising intonation for declarative statements “Empty” adjectives (divine, lovely) Specialized women’s vocabulary Frequent use of emphasis (“speaking in italics” - What a beautiful hat) Intensive so (You are so fired) Politeness devices and hypercorrect grammar (women use more standard language; more indirect requests) Hedges (well, like, sort of) Women don’t tell jokes

Discussion

Lakoff (1973, pp. 50–2) says that, in each of the following pairs, it is quite clear which utterance is used only by females: 1a. Oh dear, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. 1b. Shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. 2a. What a terrific idea! 2b. What a divine idea! What is your opinion? How do you explain any difference in usage?

Whereas a young man may sometimes be referred to as a stud, dude, or guy, a young woman may be referred to as a broad, chick, dame, doll, fox, or dog. You might know some other terms too. Are there any fairly clear differences between the two sets? If there are, what would you say they indicate?

How do you address men and women who hold equivalent positions? Do you make any kind of distinction by gender? How do such people address you? Is there a difference according to whether they are male or female? Do they address someone of the same age as yourself but of different gender in the same manner?

Some empirical evidence Discourse Studies  Many studies have looked at the idea that women talk more than men  James & Drakich, 1993  Women talk to serve a function – establishing and maintain relationships  Women talk to keep interaction flowing smoothly  Personal feelings  Men share feelings about activities

Many studies have looked at interruption  James & Clarke, 1992  Men interrupt others more than women  Men interrupt women more than women interrupt men  Very differing opinions of what an interruption is  Both areas or study have some methodological issues involved so not all studies use the same definitions of amount of talk and interruption

Different perspectives (lenses) of data analysis Dominance (1970s and 1980s)  Reflexes of the dominant-subordinate relationship  Zimmerman & West, shows that men interrupt women (even if women are doctors) and directly link this interruption to dominance based on sex of the interrupter and the interrupted  Men learn to be men and women learnt to be women – social roles

Power  West, shows that female doctors were interrupted by their patients more than male doctors  Problems with “power” analysis is that women’s language features intrinsically defined as powerless - could have other meanings When female doctors are interrupted by male patients, is this performing power or is it simply performing gender- based behavior? Different perspectives (lenses) of data analysis

 All approaches have problems  Difference approach does not talk about issues of power or dominance  Dominance approach can devalue women’s language and essentially define women’s language as powerless  The deficit model (stemmed from Lakoff’s list) comes from Dominance or Power model which compares women’s language to men’s in terms of men’s language being the norm Different perspectives (lenses) of data analysis

Synthesis of approaches  Janet Holmes came up with some questions about lingusitic universals of women and men’s talk. Women and men develop different patterns of language use.  Function: the purpose of the talk - Women tend to focus on the affective functions of an interaction more often than men do  Solidarity: how the participants relate to each other - Women tend to use devices that stress solidarity more often than men do  Power: who’s in charge - Women tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase solidarity, while (especially in formal contexts) men tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase their power and status  Status: how speech indicates social status - Women use more standard forms than men from the same social group in the same social context - Women are more stylistically flexible than men  But Kiesling - Frat men studies show that men do solidarity through insults (indirect solidarity)

Language and identity - Sex vs. Gender Zimmerman & West, Doing Gender  Language is part of behavior which we use to construct identity (social construction theory)  Gender different from sex - adopted from Judith Butler - the idea that we perform our gender  Mismatches between expected gender behavior and sex of performer  How does this change things? If we think about why women or men act the way they do linguistically this means it is because they are creating gendered identities - this is always within the culture that includes the EXPECTATIONS of how women and men SHOULD behave.

Language and Sexuality How is sexual orientation identity revealed in our speech?  Sounding gay and sounding lesbian  The sex/gender difference in transsexuals/transgendered persons  Can you tell the sexual orientation of someone without even seeing them?

Activity Look at the two stories you have been give – one is written for a young girl audience and the other for a young boy. Analysis the language and compare the two – what do you notice? Any cultural clues?

Film Analysis You will need the worksheet to guide discussion.