MODULE 2

Language and gender

Week 7

Lecture overview

Women’s language vs. men’s language: Stereotypes? Gender distinctive use of language: example of study of

differences in pronunciation; speculations why there are difference in pronunciation and vocabulary; vocabulary differences; is it possible to itemize men’s and women’

Story-telling; Encoding of gender differences in language

Complexity and variety of talks. Mixed talk.

Women’s language vs. men’s language ?

Stereotypes?

Men normally do not talk much (they are strong and silent). Men talk compulsively and competitively about sports, cars and eating/drinking.

Stereotypes?

Women are talkative;

Women talk more about about clothes, children, other relatives

Women are more interested in gossip than men are

Stereotypes? Are these stereotypes accurate or not? Women are

perceived as talking more than men but the evidence contradicts this (men speak more on talk shows, meetings, husband-wife dialogue)

Do men and women talk differently in different contexts, for example, in one-gender (all men or all women) conversation and in a mixed-gender conversation?

Gender distinctive use of language Gender influences the distribution of

social roles and economic and social activities one gets access to. These activities, in their turn, influence language use.

The differences may take various forms in different societies: e.g. competence in different languages or dialects, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.

Gender distinctive use of language A widespread belief that women’s language

should be more refined than men’s. Vocabulary range is sometimes regarded as a

feature of refinement. Difficult to conduct empirical study of

vocabulary range: a language study like this should control various factors in the two control groups (male and female), i. e. education, class, ethnicity, religion, etc. Difficult to have two homogenous groups.

Second difficulty: the interviewees may control their usage of vocabulary knowing the aim of the study (observer’s paradox).

Gender distinctive use of language Research on pronunciation

differences (the USA, Canada & the UK):

Except in casual conversations women tend to use more prestigious variants than men.

Society recognizes some accents as better than others: e.g. Received Pronunciation in Britain is associated with competence and intelligence.

Vocabulary differences R. Lakoff: Vocabulary of women’s talk: e.g. shirr; dart; Precise color terms: e.g. beige, aquamarine; Affective adjectives: e.g. divine, adorable; Superpolite forms: e.g. euphemisms; Hedges: you know, well, kind of; Tag questions: turn a statement into a

questions so that the force is reduced, etc.

Itemizing men’s and women’s language? Talbot (1998): We cannot expect to find a simple checklist

itemizing men’s and women’s language on the basis of linguistic forms. Linguistic forms are multifunctional: there is no one-to one correlation between form and function. The context of interaction determines the function of a linguistic form. The need to move from itemization of linguistic forms to the study of the dynamics of the interaction.

The problem of the inequality of men and women is not a linguistic but rather a social one.

Story-telling

Different aspects of studying stories: content of stories: themes, characters, situations, the structure of narratives; talk in which stories are produced and interpreted: how the stories are produced, how many narrators there are, the role of the audience, participation by the audience; why the storied are being told, etc.

Story-telling

Johnstone 1990, 1993.  Men talk about cars, modern technologies,

drinking, travel, fighting, etc. Such topics help to talk away from the personal:

men’s stories do not involve self–disclosure. All-female talk often involves self–disclosure: the

narrative will tell of an event that occurred in the speaker’s life, usually very recently, which had some kind of emotional impact.

Story-telling

Women’s stories are mainly set at home, the majority of men’s stories are set in the outside world; workplace – the least favourite setting for women; women talk while walking.

Women often reveal sensitive personal information and show that they are vulnerable.

Women often discuss trivial things. Gossip, chit-chat, natter is the content of everyday women’s talk.

Story-telling

Temporal relations: the majority of women’s stories are set in the recent past, the majority of men’s stories are set in the distant past.

Men’s talk portray a world peopled by male human beings.  

“When men are not the protagonists of their own stories, they tell stories about other men” (Johnstone).

86% of all-female conversations involve both women and men.

Story-telling

Men portray women in sexual terms. When women are not defined in sexual terms, they tend to be peripheral characters in men’s stories, appearing most commonly as wives or mothers.

Men have a significant presence in women’s lives. They are visible in women’s stories.

Story-telling

Men pay a great deal of attention to details.

e.g. talking about a car & mentioning the speedometer, the windscreen wipers, the fuses, etc.

Attention to details is an important strategy in men’s conversation: it allows them to avoid more personal talk.

Story-telling

Men use taboo language more extensively: it emphasises the point of the narrator and performs masculinity.

Men are emotionally restrained. It is often expressed by the usage of technical vocabulary and formal syntax.

Men talk about their achievements. Male protagonist is successful or a hero.

Story-telling

Men try to beat other men in their stories. They boast or add comments to their interlocutor’s stories.

Women’s talk is almost never competitive. In women’s stories the topic of fear or embarrassment is more likely to be covered.

Men have fun together. Males tell stories that are funny in themselves, but very often males also tell stories about having a laugh.

Story-telling

Men and women are actively creating different worlds in and through their stories (Johnstone).

Story-telling

Women tell more stories: women - 17 stories/ hour, men - 11 stories/ hour.

Physical alignment: women are more closely oriented to each other, more involved, sit closer to each other, maintain an eye contact, etc.

Encoding of gender difference in language Traditional terms of address for women:

Mrs., Miss; no terms showing the marital status of men. → Ms.

The convention of using a masculine pronoun when referring to the person whose sex is unknown or to both sexes (man).

Transmission of surname: woman losing her surname when getting married.

Encoding of gender difference in language Agent nouns: Old English: suffixes indicated the sex of

the referent: -er(e) (male), -ster(e) female:

Somebody who bakes – baxter Sews – Seamster If men moved to a profession, no new

word was introduced; if men became predominant in the profession, new terms were coined: e.g. seamstress.

Encoding of gender difference in language

In English terms that can refer to both sexes are almost always masculine: e.g. actor, author.

In contrast, terms that are morphologically marked as referring to females (actress, authoress) are never applied to males.

Complexity and variety of talks

Human talk exhibits complexity and variety. There may be many overlaps between women’s and men’s talk. Jennifer Coates: “alternative femininities” and “alternative masculinities” (2003: 134).

Mixed talk Male narratives in mixed conversations are more varied

than those produced in all-male conversation, both in form and function. A range of masculinities is produced, from the most macho, to the more sensitive and expressive.

In mixed talk, male speaker are encouraged by the female participants to take longer turns. In the presence of women men often explore topics such as cooking, which do not appear in all-male conversations.

Less taboo language for males, more taboo language for females.

Why are there gender differences in vocabulary & pronunciation? (Talbot, 1998) Speculations: The social position of women is less secure and more

subordinate, therefore it is more necessary for women to signal their social status linguistically and in other ways.

Men in the society are “rated” socially by their occupation, earning power – by what they do. This is not always possible for women. They are “rated” on the basis of how they appear. Since they are not rated by what they do, other signals of status, including their speech behavior become relevant.

In some Western cultures WC speech appears to have connotations of masculinity. It is not considered to be a desirable feminine characteristic. Features such as refinement and sophistication are preferred feminine characteristics.

When do gender differences in language use emerge?

Suggested Readings on Gender and Discourse

Coates, J. (Ed.) (1998). Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Coates, J. (2003). Men Talk: Stories in Making of Masculinities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Coates, J. (1996). Women Talk: Conversation between Women Friends. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Mey, Y. (1998). (Ed.). Concise Encyclopaedia of Pragmatics. Amsterdam, Lausanne, etc.: Elsevier. (pp. 316 – 325.)

Talbot, M. (1998). Language and gender: an introduction. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishers.

Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. N.Y., Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wodak, R. (Ed.) (1997). Gender and Discourse. London, etc.: SAGE Publications.