Influence of Sex and Ageon Language Use:

Sex, Gender, ‘Women’s Language’, Sexist Language, Indexing

Amin Manjaya – C11.2011.01250Ayu Monita – C11.2010.01185

Lidiana Astuti – C11.2012.01319Rani A. Pradipta – C11.2010.01114

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SEX & GENDER

CLICK ME

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SEX & GENDER

Sex has come to refer to categories

distinguished by biological characteristic,

then we used the term gender.

Gender is more appropriate for distinguishing

people on the basis of their socio-cultural

behaviour, including speech. (Holmes – Page

157)

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A distinction has sometimes been drawn

between gender exclusive and gender

preferential features in a language.

a. Gender- Exclusive speech differences:

Highly Structured Communities

b. Gender-Preferential Speech Features :

Social Dialect Research

GENDER4

a. Gender- Exclusive speech differences:

Highly Structured Communities

Differences in language used (given by

Holmes 2001: 159)

Differences in linguistic features (eg. found

in Jespersen 1922)

GENDER5

Differences in language used

A community is very hierarchicalExample: In Bengali society, A wife being subordinate to her husband She’s not permitted to use husband’s name. Because of his name was tara, which also

means ‘star’. Since she could not call him ‘tara’, his wife used the term nokkhotro or ‘heavenly body’ to refer him.

GENDER6

Differences in linguistic features :

Women and men do not speak in exactly in

the same way as each other in any

community.

Particular linguistic features occur only in the

women’s speech or only in the men’s speech.

These features are differences between the

vocabulary items used by women and men.

GENDER7

A preferential feature is one that is distributed

across speakers or groups, but is used more

frequently by some than by others.

b. Gender-Preferential Speech

Features :

Social Dialect Research

GENDER8

1. Women and men use same speech forms –

difference in quantities or frequencies of use.

The speech forms in Western urban

communities where women’s and men’s social

roles is overlap, in other words women and men

do not use completely different forms.

GENDER

b. Gender-Preferential Speech Features :

Social Dialect Research

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WOMEN MEN

In English Use more –ing [iŋ] pronunciation.

SwimmingDancingTyping

Use more –in’ [in] pronunciation.

Swimmin’Dancin’Typin’

In Sydney Some women use the initial sound

in the word ‘thing’ as [f]

Use the initial sound in the word

‘thing’ as [f] more than women

Those kind of the examples of the social and the linguistic

patterns are gender-preferential (rather than gender-

exclusive) because both of women and men use particular

forms, one gender shows a greater preference for them

than the other.

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2. Women tend to prefer standard forms, men

prefer vernacular forms. Examples:

1. Women produced more ‘th’ than alternatives [f], [t], [d].

2. In Australia, interviews with people in Sydney revealed

gender- differentiated patterns of [h]-dropping.

Ex : Women pronounce Mrs. Hall with less [h]-dropping than

men while men pronounce Mrs. Hall with more [h] dropping

Mizall.

b. Gender-Preferential Speech Features :

Social Dialect Research

GENDER11

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 2 3 4 5

Women

Men

GENDER & Social Class

Social groups or classes

Pe

rce

nta

ge

[in

] p

ron

un

cia

tio

n

Figure 1. Vernacular [in] by sex and social group in Norwich Source: Holmes 2007, 161

4 3

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68

81 8191

97100

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Explanation of Women's Linguistic Behaviour

Why do Women Use more Standard

Forms than Men?

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1. Social status : status conscious

Women use more standard English than men

because they are more aware of the fact that the

way they speak shows their social class background

or status. The use of more standard speech forms as a way of

claimming such status.

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2. Women's role as guardian of society's values

The society tends to expect 'better' behavior from women than from men.

That’s why women are designated the role of modelling correct behavior in the community.

However, this explanation is certainly not

true for all because the interaction

between mother and her child are likely

to be very relaxed and informal

(vernacular forms occur most often in

everyone’s speech.

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Children and women are subordinate groups.

They use more standard forms than men

because they must avoid offending men,

therefore they must speak carefully and

politely.

3. Subordinate groups must be polite

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4. Vernacular forms express machismo

Men prefer vernacular forms

because they carry macho

connotations of masculinity and

toughness. Therefore women

might not want to use such

form, and use standard forms

that associated with female

values

or femininity.

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5. Women's categories

Not all women marry men from the same

social class, however it is perfectly possible

for a women to be more educated then the

man she marries, or even to have a more

prestigious job than him.

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6. The influence of the interviewer and the context

Women tend to become more cooperative

conversationalists than men.

Men tend to be less responsive to the speech

of others, and to their conversational needs.

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INFLUENCE OF AGE

1. AGE- GRADED FEATURES OF SPEECH

2. AGE-SOCIAL DIALECT DATA

3. AGE-GRADING & LANGUAGE CHANGE

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1. AGE- GRADED FEATURES OF SPEECH

Different pitch range

Different vocabulary

Different pronunciation

Different in using grammar

- Differences are relative

BABIES TODDLERS KIDS ADOLESCENTS ADULTS

MALE FEMALE

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1. AGE- GRADED FEATURES OF SPEECH

How Queen Elizabeth delivers her speech

in young age is quite different from she is now.

Justin Bieber‘s voice from his childhood until teenager also different

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1. AGE- GRADED FEATURES OF SPEECH

What the f*** are you

doing today?

Not much b**ch

SLANG WORDSSWEAR WORDS

TEENAGER

http://www.empowerlingua.com/english-localisation-british-and-american-swear-words/

RESTRICTReason:solidarity

REDUCE

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HOW ABOUT THIS?

SESUATU YA

CUCOK DEH

CIYUS

OUT OF DATE SLANG

BRITISH: spiffing, topping, super, groovy, fabBRITISH: spiffing, topping, super, groovy, fab

SLANG is so EPHEMERAL

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Influence of age on vocabulary25

2. AGE AND SOCIAL DIALECT DATAP

RE

ST

IGE

Age 0 30 50 70+

Vernacular speech

Figure 2. Relationship between use of vernacular forms and ageHolmes 2007, 176

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Age Vernacular

Childhood andAdolescent

High

Middle age Reduce

Old age Increase again

2. AGE AND SOCIAL DIALECT DATA

How could it happen?

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3. AGE-GRADING & LANGUAGE CHANGE

When a linguistic change is spreading through a community,there will be a regular increase or decrease in the use of the linguistic form over time.

Linguistic Form Age Group20-30 years (%)

Age group40+ years (%)

Glottal stop [ʔ]for final [t](e.g. [baʔ] bat )

82 33

Flap for medial [t](e.g. [leder] for letter )

35 6

A form on the increase – this will show up in a graph as a low use of the form by older people and a higher use among younger people.

A form which is disappearing just the opposite will be true.Younger people will use less of the STANDARD form and older people

more.

Vernacular pronunciation of standart [t] in medial and final position in New Zealand English

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Women’s Language

In the former, it is explained that social dialect

research focussed on differences between women’s

and men’s speech in the areas of pronunciation

and morphology, and multiple negation (syntactic).

While Robin Lakoff, shifted the focus on

gender differences to syntax, semantics,

and style.

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Lakoff's linguistic features of women's speech

Robin Lakoff

Women’s linguistic features Examples

1. Lexical hedges or fillers you know, sort of, well, you see

2. Tag questions she’s very nice, isn’t she?

3. Rising intonation on declaratives

It’s really goód.

4. ‘Empty’ adjectives divine, charming, cute

5. Precise colour terms : detail magenta, aquamarine

6. Intensifiers (just and so) (emphasizing)

I like him so much

7. ‘Hypercorrect’ grammar Consistent use of standard verb forms

8. ‘Superpolite’ forms Indirect request, euphemisms

9. Avoidance of strong swear words

fudge, my goodness

10. Emphatic stress It was a BRILLIANT performance

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According to Deborah Tannen

Six categories described by D. Tannen. Each of which pairs a contrasting use of language by males and females in their communication:Status v. support Advice v. understandingInformation v. RelationshipOrders v. ProposalsConflict v. CompromiseIndependence v. intimacy

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MEN WOMEN

Build Status Seek / Offer Support

Advice For A Solution Seek For Sympathy

DEBORAH TANNEN

Message Oriented Social Facilitation

Direct imperatives Superpolite Forms

Use confrontation Words

Avoid Conflict In Language

‘I’ , ‘my’ , ‘me’ ‘We’, ‘our’, ‘us’32

Gender Differences

Men Women

Information Social facilitation

Competitive Cooperative

Assertive Qualifying, justifying

More & longer turns Fewer & shorter turns

Short openings &

closings

Elaborate openings &

closings

Sarcasm, teasing, joking Laughter; humorous

anecdotes

Strong language Hedges, emotional language

Adversarial Supportive, polite

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GENDER : INTERACTION

Holmes identifies the distinction of women’s

and men’s interaction. Both of them are:

1.Interrupting Behaviour

2.Conversational Feedback

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Interruptions

A conversational interaction between a man and a woman:Woman: How’s your paper coming?Man: Alright I guess. I haven’t done much in the past two weeksWoman: yeah. Know how that canMan: Hey ya’ got an extra cigarette?Woman: Oh uh sure (hands him the pack) like my pa-Man: How ‘bout a matchWoman: ‘Ere ya go uh like my pa-Man: ThanksWoman: Sure. I was gonna tell you my-Man: Hey I’d really like ta’

talk but I gotta go – see yaWoman: Yeah

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Feedback

Mary: I worked in that hotel for – ah 11 years and I found the patrons were really really you know good.

Jill: Mm.Mary: You had the odd one or two ruffian’d come in and cause a

fight but they soon dealt with.Jill: Right, really just takes one eh? To start trouble.Mary: yeah, and and it was mostly the younger ones.Jill: Mm.Mary: that would start you know.Jill: Yeah.Mary: The younger – younger ones couldn’t handle their booze.Jill: Mm.

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Gossip

Gossip describes the kind of relaxed in-group talk

that goes on between people in informal contexts.

In Western society, gossip is defined as ‘idle talk’

and considered particularly characteristic

of women’s interaction.”

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Gossip

For example, apparently men ‘gossip’ just as much as women do (see Pilkington, 1998); men’s gossip is just different.

Men indulge in a kind of phatic small talk that involves insults,challenges, and various kinds of negative behavior to do exactly what women do by their use of nurturing, polite, feedback-laden, cooperative talk. Or talking about same hobby.

In doing this, they achieve the kind of solidarity they prize. It is the norms of behavior that are different.

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According to Deborah CameronLanguage and Sexuality

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Language and sexuality is definedas ‘…inquiry into the role played by language in producing and organizing sex as a meaningful domain of human experience’.

Example: Single Father speaks to his daughter.After his wife died, he played a role as a father and also a mother to his daughter.

Sexist Language

Sexist language is language that expresses bias

in favor of one sex and thus treats the other sex

in a discriminatory manner. In most cases, the

bias is in favor of men and against women.

Sexist attitudes stereotype a person according

to gender rather than judging on individual

merits. Example: Mrs, Ms, Miss, Mr.

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Sexist Language

By relegating women to a dependent,

subordinate position, sexist language

prevents the portrayal of women and men as

different but equal human beings.

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Sexism in language is also showed in that the noun of feminine gender can only be obtained by adding a certain bound morpheme to the noun. Example:

MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALEMan woman manager manageressPrince princess god goddessauthor authoress mayor mayoress

Sexist Language42

Sexist Language43

Rosalie Maggio says：“It is also necessary to acknowledge that there can be no solution to the problem of sexism in society on the level of language alone .Using the word ‘secretary’ inclusively , for example, does not change the fact that only 1.6%of American secretaries are men .Using director instead of directress does not mean a woman will necessarily enjoy the same opportunities today a man might .”(Maggio,1989).

Sexist Language44

Indexing : Direct and Indirect Indexing

Indexing is a relationship of identification. The distinction between direct and indirect indexing was introduced by Elinor Ochs.

Index can be used to refer to a more socially situated analysis of variables. One of the main points in talking about indexing is that it ‘puts gender in its place, indicating that it enters into complex constitutive relations with other categories of social meaning’ (Ochs 1992: 343).

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Direct Indexing

A linguistic feature directly indexes something

with social meaning if the social information is a

conventional implicature (e.g., speaker gender is

directly indexed by some forms of some adjectives

in French, je suis [pr:e] : “I” (male speaker); je

suis [pret] (female speaker).

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Indirect Indexing

However, most variables associated with, e.g., male vs female speakers only indirectly index gender.

Their distribution is sex-preferential, not sex-exclusive. They are generally associated with several other social meanings, e.g., casualness and vernacularity with masculinity.

Because these other factors help to constitute what it means to be ‘male’ the index between vernacular variants and male speakers/masculinity is indirect.

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Indirect Indexing

Pronoun: First person (‘I’)

Men’s speech Women’s speech

Formal watakushiwatashi

watakushiatakushi

Casual/plain bokuore

watashiatashi

Japanese language

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