社会语言学期末论文稿

语言性别差异对比分析

社会语言学是一门研究语言和社会关系的学科，其中包括语言与社会、语言学与文化，语言与思维、语言与性别等诸多方面。自从20世纪初，关于语言与性别的研究在现代语言学领域受到越来越多的关注。然而，直到20世纪60年代，随着社会语言学的发展，语言性别差异才成为语言学家研究的重要课题。社会语言学家逐渐认识到，作为一种言语标记，说话人的心病别应当同其年龄、地位、角色身份这些内容同等对待，因而应当成为社会语言学研究中的一个独立研究变量。（杨永林）

语言性别差异可以分为两类：一类是语言本身性别歧视，说话人的说话方式显示出他们对男性和女性的不同态度。一类是男女使用语言的差异。

本文主要是针对男女使用语言的差异展开谈论的。男女使用语言方面的差异主要体现在：词汇的选择、句法和语用方面。文章的第一部分对社会语言学及语言性别差异作了简要的介绍。第二部分对语言性别差异的分类及前人研究成果综述。第三部分集中分析了研究理论框架。第四部分是关于研究方法的分析。第五部分从三个方面（言语目的、谈话话题及言语表达方式）讨论男性与女性在使用语言方面的差异。最后是结论部分。

通过对语言性别差异的分析发现它对外语教学有很大帮助。一方面，作为将来的英语教育者，我们有必要了解语言性别差异，从而可以教授学生正确的言语形式。男性与女性语言存在许多差异，了解这些差异对于外语教学领域是十分重要的。另一方面，我们需要尽可能地了解以英语为本族语的男性与女性的说话方式。

关键词：语言性别差异，社会语言学，分析

Contrast Analysis of Gender Differences in Language

Abstract

Sociolinguistics is defined as the study of language in relation to society, it involves many aspects, such as language and society, language and culture, language and thought, language and gender etc. The research of language and gender has been paid more attention to in modern linguistics since the beginning of the 20th century. Yet it is since 1960s that gender differences in language has been an important subject with the development of sociolinguistics. Sociolinguists come to realize that as a speech marker, the gender of the speaker should be treated equally with age, status, and role, so it should be an independent variable in sociolinguistics.

Gender differences in language may be divided into two categories. The first category is about sexism in language and the ways in which speakers demonstrate their different cultural attitudes toward men and women. The second category is about the differences in the actual speech of men and women.

This paper is concerning the differences in the actual speech of men and women. Differences in the speech of men and women may exist in many aspects, such as lexical choice, syntax and pragmatics. The first part makes a brief introduction about sociolinguistics and gender differences in language. The second part mentions categories of gender differences in language and previous study of gender differences in language. The third part concentrates on the approach of the analysis. The fourth is about the data collection and research methodology. The fifth part analyzes the differences of the speech between men and women from three perspectives— the purpose of the speech, the topic of the conversation and the mode of the speech. The final part comes to the conclusion about the gender differences in language.

Through the analysis of gender differences in language, I have realized that it is useful in teaching foreign language. On the one hand, as language teachers in the

future, we need to be conscious of gender differences in language so that we can teach our students in an appropriate way. There are differences in the speech of men and women, and we should know what the differences are, it is very important in the field of TESOL. On the other hand, we need to know as much as possible about the speech patterns of men and women who are native speakers of English.

Key words: gender differences, sociolinguistics, analysis

语言性别差异对比分析……………………………………………………………1 摘要…………………………………………………………………………………1 Contrast Analysis of Gender Differences in Language…………………………… .2

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..2

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………5

2. Literature Review………………………………………………….. ……………6

2.1 Categories of Gender Differences in Language………………………………6

2.2 Previous Study of Gender Differences in Language………………………….7

3. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………………8

4. Research Methodology……………………………………………………………9

4.1 Data Collection………………………………………………………………. 9

4.2 Research Methodology………………………………………………............10

5. Contrast Analysis of Speech of Men and Women in Daily Conversation……….10

5.1 The purpose of the speech………………………………………………..…..10

5.2 The topic of the conversation…………………………………………………11

5.3 The mode of the speech………………………………………………………11

6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..14 Reference………………………………………………………………16

1. Introduction

Language plays a very important role in our daily life, it relates many aspects of human life. We can use language not only to identify things, to think, or to record information, but also to represent all the things around us. In addition, language is a social behavior, we use it as a medium to get along in a community. So it is upon this fact that sociolinguistics is predicated.

Sociolinguistics, the study of language in relation to society, language is very important in the profession of TESOL. As the second language teacher, it is important to know language as a system of sounds, meaning units and syntax. Social rules, cultural values and the differences in communicative conventions should also be focused on.

Gender differences in language has been an important subject with the development of sociolinguistics since 1960s. Research into language and sex did not really begin in a systematic or serious way until the early 1970s. Lakoff (1973) assumes that language differences caused by different gender is counted as the real reflection of the inequality of men and women in reality. Thorne & Henley(1975) has affirmed that the male dominance theory has great influence on gender differences in language from the sociolinguistic perspective. Male are in higher position in society, so power can be reflected in their speech. Vice versa, gender differences in language strengthens male’s position in society.

Another reason which can be regarded as the source of gender differences in language is the different conception of value. Women and men have different conception of value. The value of men consists in what they can do, while women’s value depends on how they appear. Thus we can draw a conclusion that conception of value of the speaker determines the style of the speech. In general, the speech of men is direct and tough which can show their masculinity. On the contrary, women’s speech should be elegant and implicit which can embody their ladies style.

The knowledge of gender differences in language is very helpful for language learners, and gender differences may exist not only one but all languages. As a language learner, we should know the significance of the study of genders in language because in the future after graduation most of us will become a teacher of foreign language. As specialists in language teaching, on the one hand, we need to be conscious of gender differences in language so that we can teach our students in an appropriate way. There are differences in the speech of men and women, and we should know what the differences are, it is very important in the field of TESOL. On the other hand, we need to know as much as possible about the speech patterns of men and women who are native speakers of English.

This paper mainly discusses the different styles of speech between men and women in daily conversation, including the purpose of the conversation, the choice of the topics during the conversation, and the mode of the conversation.

All in all, gender differences can be reflected in many aspects in our daily life, we should pay more attention to it, thus we can avoid many misunderstandings between men and women.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Categories of Gender Differences in Language

According to Wolfson, the research about language and sex can be divided into two categories. The first category is about sexism in language and the ways in which speakers demonstrate their different cultural attitudes toward men and women. Two areas of sexism in English have been well-studied. One is that females are excluded from mention in English because the generic he/man problem. Men are regarded as the representatives of all human beings and their speech is the standard, while women are seen as inferior and secondary in society. The second is that females are give negative treatment in society. Bad words in our daily is always related to female words. Female words are often used to insult a male, whereas male words are usually

used to compliment female.

The second category is about the differences in the actual speech of men and women. The formation of these differences in language may have historical, physiological, social and psychological factors. Lakoff (1973) was one of the early articles to deal with the issue of differences in men’s and women’s speech. She has concluded six major characteristics of women’s speech: lexical choice, question intonation in statements, hedges which includes tag questions and statement modifiers which remove assertive force, emphatic modifiers and intonational emphasis, hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation and superpolite forms.

2.2 Previous Study of Gender Differences in Language

The research concerning gender differences in language has been an important subject with the development of sociolinguistics since women’s movement started in 1960s. Many scholars have done a lot of researches concerning language and sex.

In the west, Robin Fort wrote a book named Histories Nature Morale Desiles Anlilles, which is regarded as the earliest work concerning the characteristics of women’s speech in the middle of the 17th century. In 1922, linguist Otto Jesperson published Language in which he has expanded the differences of lexical choice and composition of the sentence, meanwhile he has also pointed out that women avoid saying gross and foul language instinctively, yet they are fond of concise, delicate expressions. Up to the late of 1960s, American linguists began to employ the new methods to investigate and scientifically and thoroughly analyze the form of variables of the urban area, and get some more information about gender differences in language. Since 1970s, some linguists, such as Lakoff, Trudgill, Aimmerman, and West have done a lot of research to promote the study of women’s speech.

Among them, Lakoff(1973) may well be seen as a forerunner of recent research into language and gender in Western societies. (Wolfson 1989:164) She has concluded six major characteristics of women’s speech: lexical choice, question intonation in

statements, hedges which includes tag questions and statement modifiers which remove assertive force, emphatic modifiers and intonational emphasis, hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation and superpolite forms. There are subsequent empirical studies to test Lakoff’s analysis. Crosby and Nyquist (1977) has tested the existence of “female register” through studies and found that gender differences were due to the different roles in society. Subsequently, O’Barr and Atkins (1980) studied sex-related speech in courtroom to test the similar hypotheses as did Crosby and Anyquist and found that the characteristics of women’s speech which Lakoff has described are not possessed by all women, they also found that the person who has the higher status, whose language must be powerful. Eakins and Eakins (1976) argues that men speak more often longer and interrupted more in faculty meetings. In recent years, the research about language and sex is becoming hotter and hotter and many linguists have proposed some new methods which are more challenging.

In china, research about language and gender can date back to the 1980s, those researches are mainly about differences in the form of male and female language. The scholars who took the lead to study the gender differences in language are He Ziran (1979), Wang Wenchang (1979) and Chen Zhongshen(1980). Since the 1990s, various theories and methods are applied in sociolinguistics, pragmatics and inter-cultural communication.

All the studies listed above are concerning the differences of the speech between men and women. The scholars, not only abroad but also domestic, have contributed a lot to the study of gender differences in language. I think there will be more and more scholars and learners focusing on gender differences in language.

3. Theoretical Framework

The contrast analysis of male and female language in daily conversation concerns many aspects, such as the topic of the conversation, the mode of the conversation and so on. The differences of the speech between men and women may

result from their conception of value, their hobby and their interest etc. They hold different opinions according to the same matter. So we can refer to the ethnography of speaking in describing the gender differences in language. Ethnography refers to the investigation of cultures using a particular methodology, that of participant observation. The ethnography of speaking proposed by Dell Hymes in 1962. …The ethnography of speaking is concerned with the situations

and uses, the patterns and functions, of speaking as an activity

in its own right. (Hymes 1962:101)

This ethnographic framework takes into account the various factors that are involved in speaking. An ethnography of a communicative event is a description of all the factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular communicative event achieves its objectives. (Wardhaugh1998)

Conversation means to exchange ideas through interaction, so we can also employ the approach of interactional sociolinguistics—rapport talk proposed by Deborah Tannen (1984,1982) to analyze the gender differences in language. Tannen (1990a) has described the characteristics of men and women’s speech from nine dimensions: intimacy-independence, connection-status, inclusive-exclusive, relationship-information, rapport-report, community-contest, problems-solutions, novice-expert and listening-lecturing. From the description, we can conclude that women’s speech tends to be solidarity, yet men’s speech tends to be independent.

4. Research Methodology

4.1 Data Collection

This paper mainly discusses the gender differences in language. Scholars have done a lot of researches concerning language and gender. I will select some useful descriptions to discuss here. The characteristics of the speech of men and women proposed by Tannen are mentioned in Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Analysis, are helpful to me in discussing gender differences in language. I also select some useful sentences from Family Album, U.S.A to verify my argument.

4.2 Research Methodology

There is a binary distinction between qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research is inductive, subjective, ungeneralisable, soft, process and verification oriented, hypothesis-driven, and hypothesis generating research, while quantitative research is deductive, objective, generalisable, hard, outcome and discovery oriented, data-driven and hypothesis testing research.

In this paper, I employ the quantitative and descriptive methodology to discuss the differences of the speech between men and women. Firstly, the characteristics of women and men’s speech are collected. Secondly, the differences are described through the collection.

5. Contrast Analysis of Speech of Men and Women in Daily Conversation

The speech of women differs from the speech of men in daily conversation. Men and women differ in the kinds of language they use because men and women often fill distinctly different roles in society. We can analyze the differences of the speech of men and women from many aspects, such as the purpose of the speech, the topics of the speech and the mode of the speech. Many of the differences may result from different socialization practices.

5.1 The purpose of the conversation

Whether men or women have their own purposes in the conversation. Tannen has pointed out that the research on the purpose of women’s speech should be from nine dimensions, which are shown as follows: intimacy, connection, inclusive, relationship, rapport, community, problems, novice and listening. The purpose of the women’s speech is to establish the rapport relationship among the members in the community. They try their best to become a member of the community. They want to keep intimate relationship through interaction. So in their speech, the main purpose is to express their feelings and listen to others. The style of their speech appears more obedient and negative.

However, the purpose of men’s speech is task-oriented, they have a more analytical approach, so they try to solve problems and troubles through interaction. They seldom express their intimate feelings to others. Tannen has also described men’s speech from nine dimension—independence, status, exclusive, information, report, contest, solutions expert and lecturing. They want to give information and solutions through conversation. They also want show their independence in the communication. So it is absolutely different from the purpose of the women’s conversation.

5.2 The topic of the conversation

The topic of women’s conversation is different from that of men’s. The topic of the women’s conversation mainly concerns social life, emotion, this can not be separated from their position, profession, social status, and personality. Women’s speech is regarded as trivial and gossip-laden because in the speech community of women, they mainly discuss clothing, love, family, trifles in daily life, experience, emotion, food and drink, life’s troubles. The purpose of the speech is to show the intimate relationship with the addressees, and through the speech they want to reinforce their membership in the community.

On the contrast, men show great interest in topics concerning business, politics, legal matters, sports, geography, economy and military etc., these aspects can reflect their solid position in society.

5.3 The mode of the speech

As for the mode of the speech of men and women, we can discuss from three layers—lexical choice, syntax and pragmatic.

Lexical choice

There are great differences in lexical choice in the speech of men and women. One can be embodied in the usage of color terms. As we know the application of vocabulary of visual color is very important, it can make language more vividly.

Women are better users of color terms because they love beauty and they like dressing up to make them beautiful. Their ability to identify color is very strong and they use color terms more frequently than men. They usually use elaborated color terms, such as mauve, azure etc. to describe things. However, because of the effect of culture and psychology, men are not sensitive to the color terms, they often use some restricted color terms.

The other can be embodied in using adjectives and adverbs to express complement and appreciation. According to Lakoff, women often use “empty” adjectives, such as divine and cute, which are not only meaningless, but also lack of any connotation of power. Women are more inclined to use adverbs, such as so, really, and very, to strengthen the mood, while by contrast, men’s adjectives, such as great and terrific, sound full of power.

Eg. Female: I’m really glad to see you. I mean…my brother’ll be really glad to see

you.

Female: She’s very pretty.

Female: He’s very nice. But I think he was nervous tonight. It was her first date

in two years.

Women also have more hypercorrect pronunciation than men, they tend to use forms of pronunciation which are closer to the prestige norm. In general, women can speak more formally than men do in similar situation.

Men use more interjections when they change the topics, such as Hey, Oh, and Listen. In contrast, women often use conjunction to change their topics, such as but, however, and whereas etc. Bloomfield (1933) assumes that women often use interjections differently from men.

Eg. A Female: This bacon is great. I love crispy bacon.

Male: Oh, what are you doing tomorrow?

B Female: I’d like that, but…

Male: But what?

Female: But Dad is always so busy.

C Female: Oh, dear, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again. Male: Shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.

Syntax

Women often employ question intonation in statements. The usage of question intonation shows that women’s speech is nonassertive, they make suggestions or request agreement from their addressees by using these patterns. In addition, they use tag questions and hedges frequently, such as kind and sort of, it seems more polite because it obeys the polite principles proposed by Leech.

Eg. Would you please open the window, if you don’t mind?

He is very intelligent, isn’t he?

According to Trugill’s study, women are more likely than men to be judged by how they present themselves rather than by what they do, and speech is very much a part of self-presentation.

The speech of men is direct and tough, men usually use imperative sentence, their speech sounds like the instruction of the product and is lack of emotion. Pragmatics

In daily communication, the differences of the speech of men and women can be embodied in pragmatics. As we all know, women are considered as talkative, the stereotype associated with women’s use of language has to do with the issue of verbosity. (Wolfson) But in the fact is different, men are the main speaker in the cross-sex conversation, they tend to take the initiative in conversation, but there seems to be the different purposes in the conversation: men speak less aggressively and competitively and women speak more about their emotion and family.

Men frequently interrupt women in cross-sex conversations while women rarely interrupt men, men want to use interruption as a means of dominating and controlling

interaction.

The styles that men and women employ in conversation are described as “debate vs. relate”, or “competitive vs. cooperative”. Women tend to establish intimacy by discussing problems and showing concern and empathy in order to reinforce relationships. However, men often try to seek solutions to problems and useful advice from others in conversation. Women pay more attention to details in conversation, while men pay less attention to details.

Eg. Male: Where the hell have you been?

Female: Well I had to find Foster n’ then

Male: Do you realize what time is it:

Female: Uh, yeah, but I couldn’t find Fos

Male: I’ve been standing around in that cruddy

reserve bookroom for the last half hour!

Female: Sshush! The whole hall is gonna hear you

Male: I don’t care! Next time you wanna

“just stop off on campus” you can use your legs.

----(杨永林 2004)

6. Conclusion

Gender differences indeed exist in all languages The different roles women and women play in social life result in the different skills or strategies they employ in conversation. According to O’Barr and Atkins, what Lakoff has termed “women’s language ” would be more appropriately termed “powerless language”, which means this kind of language is less convincing, less intelligent, less competent, and less trustworthy. On the contrary, men’s language is regarded as power because the controlling status in society.

Women’s speech is different from men’s speech in lexical choice, syntax and pragmatics in daily life. Women are more concerned about the emotion, intimacy, food, dress, relationship in conversation, they try to share their happiness and sadness with their friends. However, men are interested in business, military, politics, sport and geography, they communicate with others in order to exchange ideas with them.

Through the analysis of the gender differences in language, I realize as a language learner, we should not only learn the basic knowledge about language, but also know the culture of the language. Thus we can avoid misunderstandings as much as possible.

As a language teacher in the future, on the one hand, we need to know gender differences in language so that we can teach our students the appropriate forms of the utterances. On the other hand, we need to know as much as possible about the speech patterns or styles of men and women who are native speakers of English. It appears that the field of language and gender research has several important links to the field of TESOL.

Reference

[1] Nessa Wolfson. Perspective: Sociolinguistics and TESOL, Heinle & Heinle Publishers

[2] Ron Scollon & Suzanne Wong Scollon. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

[3] Wardaaugh. Ronald An Introduction to Sociolingutstics [M]. Oxford: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press &Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000.

[4] Greville G. Corbett. Gender. Peking University Press

[5] Family Album, U.S.A. Hubei Education Press

[6] 陈琳. 《英语中女性特点及其发展趋势探究》.《语文学刊》. 2010年第10期

[7] 杨永林. 《社会语言学研究》.上海外语教育出版社 2004

[8] 赵蓉晖.《语言与性别：口语的社会语言学研究》.上海外语教育出版社

[9] 胡文仲.《超越文化的屏障》.外语教学与研究出版社