Language and Gender 侯钰璐 2011.5.27

Two Concepts Sex Vs. Gender Sex is what you’re born with. Gender is what you’re given. Sex: one’s biological property, a matter of physiology Gender: one’s social property, learned behavior

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

Social Parameters Language Class Education Age Gender Religious Belief Ethnic Identity

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

Outline 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 Robin Lakoff, Language and Women’s Place, 1975 Lexical differences Syntactic differences Other differences

Gender Differences in Language Use Lexical Differences 1. Color-words E.g. The wall is mauve. I prefer the lavender wallpaper. beige, ecru, aquamarine… 2. Swear-words E.g. (a) Shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. (b) Oh dear, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. shit, damn, hell, fuck.. oh dear, fudge, goodness, dear me…

Gender Differences in Language Use Lexical Differences 3. Empty adjectives E.g. (a) What a terrific idea! (b) What a divine idea! divine, adorable, gorgeous… 4. Intensifiers E.g. terrible, awful, so, very, quite

Gender Differences in Language Use Syntactic Differences 5. Tag-question E.g. (a) Is John here? (b) John is here, isn’t here? You don’t mind eating this, do you? 6. Hedges phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “I guess”, “it seems like”…

Gender Differences in Language Use Syntactic Differences 7. Intonational patterns E.g. --When will dinner be ready? --Oh…around six o’clock? 8. Compound requests E.g. (a) Close the door. (b) Please close the door. (c) Will you close the door? (d) Will you please close the door? (e) Won’t you close the door? “Would you mind…” “If it’s not too much to as…” “Is it ok if…” “I’m sorry, but I think that…”

Gender Differences in Language Use Other Differences 9. Topic Selection Men: Politics, economy, sports, religion… Women: children, food, health, family, fashion… Serious Vs Trivial? 10. Amount of Speech “Women never stop talking”. “Three women and a goose make a market”. Is this true? Public Vs Private

Gender Differences in Language Use Other Differences 11. Turn-taking 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. 12. Overlap and Interruption 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.

Outline 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)

Outline 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 Language of Women Language about Women Def. of linguistic sexism: A term used to refer to sex-biased phenomena in language use.

Examples of Linguistic Sexism 1. Masculine forms in English Man is mortal. The emergency room is manned (be operated by man) by… (When writing a letter) Dear sir… salesman- sales assistant storeman- sto re assistant postman - letter carrier, mail carrier, postal fireman- fire fighter

Examples of Linguistic Sexism 2. suffix: –ess, -ette, -rix, -enne, actress actor ambassadress ambassador suffragette suffragist usherette usher comedienne comedian 3. Implied derogatory words Master- Mistress Governor- Governess Bachelor-Spinster (a) He is a professional. (b)She is a professional.

Outline 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 Identifying Differences in Language Use Increasing Mutual Cognition Trying to Be Flexible

Thank You!