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6.1 Language and Gender

The document discusses language and gender research, describing differences in conversational styles between women and men. It outlines explanations given from different approaches, including deficit, dominance, and difference approaches. Key differences discussed include rate of speech, turn length, and use of simultaneous talk between high-involvement and high-considerateness styles.

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Grace Jeffrey
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515 views24 pages

6.1 Language and Gender

The document discusses language and gender research, describing differences in conversational styles between women and men. It outlines explanations given from different approaches, including deficit, dominance, and difference approaches. Key differences discussed include rate of speech, turn length, and use of simultaneous talk between high-involvement and high-considerateness styles.

Uploaded by

Grace Jeffrey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Language and Gender

 The gender pattern which is explained in the section on


sociolinguistic patterns describes phonological differences in female
and male speech behaviour with respect to the overall frequency of
using certain phonological variants.
 These differences have also been referred to as typical sex-graded
variation.
 Studies into language and gender, however, have a less restricted
focus being concerned more generally with gender-based variation as
concerns specific female and male ways of speaking (i.e.
conversational styles and connected discourse features: structuring
conversation; lexical differences).
 The term ‘genderlect’ is used to refer to the communicative style
associated with a particular gender.
2
The Terms 'Sex' and 'Gender' in Language and Gender
Research

 Research into language and gender has focused on a description of the


conversational styles of women and men and their explanations
which have been given from a variety of (social) perspectives:

3
The Terms 'Sex' and 'Gender' in Language and Gender
Research
Sex:

 Is a biological category.

 Denotes biological sex: the distinction between females and males


defined in biological terms.

 Classification as ‘male’ or ‘female’ determined by specific biological


characteristics at birth: we are born ‘female’ or ‘male’.

4
The Terms 'Sex' and 'Gender' in Language and Gender
Research

Gender:

 Is a social category / label: the socio-cultural concept of what is


female and male.

 This concept entails the fulfilment of specific social roles which are
typically ascribed to women and men and associated with female and
male behaviour (= gender roles).

 We become socialized as females or males whereby we learn the rules


of female and male behaviour which constitute our gender roles.

5
The Conversational Styles of Women and Men

 Language and gender research is concerned with the conversational


styles of women and men which have been determined as
fundamentally differing from each other in several respects.
 Deborah Tannen (1984) has emphasized the existence of two major
types of conversational styles characterizing the communicative
behaviour of individual speakers: a high-involvement style as
opposed to a high-considerateness style.
 These styles can also reflect the general linguistic behaviour of women
and men in conversation.
 While women are said to prefer a high-involvement style, the
conversational behaviour of men can be described rather in terms of a
high- considerateness style.

6
The Conversational Styles of Women and Men

 The two types of conversational style differ from each other mainly
with respect to rate of speech (pace), length of inter- and intraturn
pauses, and occurrence (and evaluation) of simultaneous speech:

High-involvement style:
 Shows a minimization of inter- and intraturn pauses (-> faster
turn-taking).
 Shows a faster rate of speech (-> fast-paced in character).
 Speaker turns are characterized by frequently occurring simultaneous
talk referred to as ‘cooperative overlaps’.

….
7
The Conversational Styles of Women and Men

 Application of minimal responses / backchannels (hhm, yes…) as


signals of active listening and to encourage feedback.
 Furthermore: Turn construction is characterized by so-called
‘collaborative floors’: The term ‘collaborative floor’ describes the
sharing of a speaker’s turn at talk. I. e. the current right to speak is
shared so that there is a joint turn construction where a speaker
completes the turn begun by another speaker.

8
The Conversational Styles of Women and Men

 Cooperative overlaps and collaborative floors have no competitive


character; they are valued as a means of expressing group membership
and solidarity with and support for other speakers. Women’s style,
therefore, is also referred to as a supportive style.

 Using language in order to express group membership, solidarity and


thus close relationships between the participants to a conversation,
women typically engage in what Deborah Tannen (1990) has
described as ‘rapport talk’ in which simultaneous speech is used to
build rapport.

9
The Conversational Styles of Women and Men

High-Considerateness style:
 Shows longer pauses within and between speaker turns (-> slower
turn-taking).
 Shows a slower rate of speech.
 Shows avoidance of simultaneous talk. (-> no cooperative overlaps;
maintenance of the current right to talk).

10
Examples of
Female and
Male
Conversational
Style

11
Two Examples of Female and Male Conversational
Style

 (1) Is an all-female conversation illustrating the high involvement of


the speakers into the conversation with frequently occurring
simultaneous talk.
(Source: Coates in Coates 1998: 231f.)

 (2) Is a male monologue showing the possibility of long pauses within


a speaker’s turn at talk.
(Source: Pilkington in Coates 1998: 263)

12
Explanations

The explanations that have been given for differential


conversational styles concentrate on the linguistic
behaviour of women which has initially been treated
as some kind of ‘deviant’ and ‘deficient’ case of
language behaviour (in comparison with men’s
language) which needs to be explained.

13
Explanations of female communicative behaviour
within language and gender research have
traditionally been given within different frameworks.
Accordingly, there are several approaches to an
explanation which developed historically in the order
in which they are presented here.

14
(1) The Deficit Approach

Is the earliest approach within language and gender


research.

It argues that women’s language is deficient in


comparison with men’s language which constitutes
the social ‘norm’.

15
The early work of Robin Lakoff is typically
associated with the deficit approach.

In her book Language and Woman’s Place (1975)


Lakoff has coined the term ‘women’s language’
which is devalued as weak and unassertive and,
therefore, powerless in character.
Women’s frequent use of questions and tag
questions, hedges and ‘empty’ adjectives (nice,
divine…) in conversation are interpreted as a
linguistic expression of this unassertiveness.

16
(2) The Dominance Approach

• Argues that women have an inferior social


position in society and that men dominate
women.
• These social conditions are reflected in male and
female language use: Men dominate women
linguistically and women are linguistically powerless.
• The language women use is the linguistic expression
of their social powerlessness.

18
(3) The Difference Approach

Argues in resistance to the view that women are


socially inferior to men.
The genders are different (biologically and socially)
but equal in status.

20
Argues that the different conversational styles of
women and men are the result of socialization
processes whereby girls and boys learn to use
language in different ways.
Thus, one of its basic ideas is that women and
men belong to different subcultures with
different norms of using language.

21
More recent approaches direct the focus on the
importance of ‘doing gender’ for language and
gender research.

Gender is not a given and static characteristic; rather


gender identity is created in talk.

23
THANK YOU

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