Gender Speak: A linguistic Approach to Communication styles - Research Paper Example

Gender Speak: A linguistic Approach to Communication styles s Outline I. Gender grammar usage A. The way each gender uses prescriptive grammar and the gender most likely to use it. B. The way each gender uses descriptive grammar and the gender most likely to use it. II. Gender linguistic features A. Phonological analysis on the way each gender speaks. B. Syntax patterns from each gender III. Gender variation amongst ethnic groups A. Mainstream (European Americans) B. Minorities Currently, gender researches play a significant role in development of humanitarian sciences. Studies of gender differences in cultural context as well as their symbolic and semiotic manifestation in philosophy, history, language, and art help identify new aspects in the society’s evolution. As a result of fundamental differentiation of the society into two groups based on biological sex, each individual is given a gender role – female or male. Thereby, sex is a biological concept, whereas gender is understood as a “socially constructed category based on sex” (Coates, 2014, p.4). Based on these roles, the society formed as set of general stereotypes of behavior, gender stereotypes, which manifest themselves in multiple spheres of life including social stratification, cultural background, education and language. Within the theoretical of gender theories, the scholars assert that “in terms of language use, the social constructionist theory assumes that males and females are not confined to one particular language style, but exchange styles based on the social context of their interactions” (Bell et al., 2006, p.1009). Although both sexes usually acquire the language in the same way (excluding the communities, where males and females rarely contact) and absorb relatively common systems of language, different speakers tend to adopt different approaches to communication, that would characterize them (McConnell-Ginet, 2011, p.82). This process is explained with the fact that acquisition of language and communication style goes hand in hand with the process of socialization and adoption of gender roles dictated by the society. Particularly in language and verbal activity, gender asymmetry manifests itself on various levels including pronunciation, ways of syntactic constructions’ use, lexical planning etc. and is reflected in formation of an individual idiolect. In English, gender differences in speech are rather difficult to identify, as the language contains no accurately fixed classes, which either only males or only females are allowed to use. This means that there are no specific grammatical forms, lexical units and combinations or phonological variants, used exclusively by men or women; however, the set of diversities is present. I. Gender grammar usage Use of grammar in communication is one of the aspects of gender asymmetry in linguistics, yet this type of gender differences is observed rather seldom in English. However, they are clearly seen in Japanese or in Thai, where women tend to use reduplication of verbs in order to emphasize the action denoted by them and men use the descriptive verb ‘mak’ for this purpose (Smith, 1985, p.5) However, in most languages with strict grammatical system and construction building rules, e.g. in English, grammatical differences aren’t easily traced. A. Prescriptive grammar In terms of prescriptive grammar, the general tendency determining communication style of the genders lies in the fact that women are more likely to adhere to norms of language, grammatical rules and sentence structure, whereas men typically pay less attention to the norms of pronunciation and grammar, using more colloquial style of communication. Regarding parts of speech, women use more adjectives, being more expressive. According to linguistic studies, “women are said to use adjectives evoking frivolity and triviality” (Voegeli, 2005, p. 5). B. Descriptive grammar. Speaking about descriptive grammar, there are certain peculiarities, too. For instance, in their speech, women use quality-related terms and locatives, whereas men do not resort to them that often. Next, women typically use many words and word combinations aimed at intensification of the speech content: these can be adverbial intensifiers like ‘lovely’ and ‘super’, or adjectival word combinations such as ‘great beautiful’ (Yelkenaç, , ). Besides, females use pronounce ‘we’ and ‘you’ more often than man. II. Gender linguistic features A. Phonological analysis on the way each gender speaks. Phonology – the way people pronounce words – also implies a set of gender differences in numerous languages including English. Focusing on how males and females speak rather than what they speak, phonology provides the perspective on gender asymmetry in pronunciation. Gender diversities “involving phonological aspects of language which are clearly distinguished in varieties of language” (Subon, 2013, p.69). The most visible differences is seen in intensity of voice; men and women tend to demonstrate different verbal skills and different characteristics of voice (Subon, 2013, p. 68). Women possess more diverse intonation patterns. As far as women follow language norms in all aspects, their pronunciation is better. Particularly, the research shows that men’s pronunciation of –ing is worse than that of women; more than 60% of men were reported to pronounce it in the wrong way (Xia, 2013, p.1485). Gender differences in phonology are observed in many languages, with Koasati, Mongolian, Japanese, Bengali and others being among the most illustrative languages. Particularly, in Mongolian, males’ backlingual rounded vowels /u/ and /o/ coincide with females’ central vowels /u/ and /o/; whereas central vowels /u/ and /o/ in male speech correspond to laminal /у/ and /о/ in female speech. Moreover, in Bengali, male speakers often pronounce opening /n/ like /l/. For English in Great Britain and the U.K., sociolinguistic researches illustrate that female speakers are generally more prone to using more prestigious standard variants in their pronunciation that men, i.e. women’s pronunciation is more similar to the standard. Although linguistic preferences of males and females still remain ambiguous to certain extent, many linguists assert women to be closer to conservative language norms, as they play greater role in upbringing of the new generation and thus tend to speak according to the standards of the literary language. It is also remarkable that women have been proved to pay more attention to accents and changes in pronunciation. B. Syntax patterns from each gender The ways men and women speak also differ in terms of various communication strategies and patterns as well as in tendencies of syntax use. Thereby, there are several remarkable gender differences in syntax. Firstly, women are more prone to using various adverbial intensifiers in their expressions (Voegeli, 2005, p.6), most common of which are ‘really’ and ‘very’ (Braun, 2004, p.15). Obviously, this tendency descends from general psychological characteristics of females, which are considered more emotional. Secondly, female speakers are prone to using so called “hedges”, such expressions as ‘well’, ‘you know’, ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’ and epistemic modals, for example, such as ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘would’ and others (Saci, 2014, p.9). Thirdly, female syntax preferences include more interrogative sentences including tag questions, than male syntax preferences do. Moreover, as women are usually more subtle in their verbal activity, they tend to avoid rough imperative constructions, using indirect orders and polite requests. In addition, this illustrates absence of dominant patterns in behavior. The researchers assert that “questions are more common in women’s contributions to dyadic interactions (e.g., “Does anyone want to get some food?”), whereas directives that tell the audience to do something (e.g., “Let’s go get some food”) are more likely to be found in men’s conversational contributions” (Newman et al., 2008, p.212). In other words, male speakers use more directives in their speech (Braun, 2004, p.15) and often interrupt and suppress the conversation partner with competitive style of communication. In contrast, women usually react to the speaker’s words unobtrusively, with short words like ‘yes’; the strategy they tend to use is backchannelling, presupposing lending support to the speaker with help of short minimal responses rather than interrupting him or her. Length and complexity of syntactic constructions differ in the two genders, too. Females prefer sentences of average length, using more subordinate clauses and beginning sentences with adverbial clauses; while males avoid complex structures, using more elliptic (less grammatical) sentences. III. Gender variation amongst ethnic groups A. Mainstream (European Americans) As far as language is acquired by an individual in the process of socialization and under the influence of various extra linguistic factors, certain patterns and styles of communication are subjected to social conditions, in which he or she acquires the language. Therefore, mainstream ethnic group living in the U.S., European Americans are likely to form their gender-specific patterns of linguistic behavior based on perceptions and norms accepted in their society. Therefore, it is wise to assume that they are likely to absorb gender-related specifics of English in childhood with their native language. Hence, the ethnic majority is will illustrate gender differences in most linguistic aspects in the most comprehensive and traceable way. B. Minorities In minorities, the situation is rather different, because ethnic and linguistic minorities existing inside the nation typically have different racial, ethnic or language characteristics, which predetermine the natural environment they grow up and live in. Therefore, they might lack proper environment for adopting social norms, roles and typical patterns of behavior or men and women accepted in American society. For instance, living in Latin American community and speaking Spanish as a native language, an individual is unlikely to be able to fully absorb norms of language and gender differences implied in it. Furthermore, Spanish belongs to the languages with more distinct gender differentiation than English does, where gender differences in speaking are rather subtle. Particularly, speaking about phonology, minorities are less likely to illustrate gender differences in pronunciation – or such differences will be much more difficult to trace due to accents. At the same time, English spoken by ethnic, linguistic or racial minorities is likely to intervene spoken English, if it is not a native language; moreover, the minority citizens having insufficient knowledge of the language might have numerous mistakes in syntax and grammar, mispronounce etc. Certain variants of English “adapted” by the minorities imply untypical grammatical constructions and syntactic patterns: for instance, African American Vernacular English). Generally, it could be stated that studying gender differences in spoken language (particularly, English) would probably be efficient only in the native speakers, as the language behavior patterns male and female native speakers choose are not artificial and are likely to create a comprehensive linguistic image of gender representation in the spoken language. IV. Conclusion Gender as a socially constructed concept manifests itself on numerous levels of our male-dominated society, emerging in various spheres of life, including language. Whereas psychological approach to gender differences typically focuses on extralinguistic issues and gender differences; linguistic approach focuses directly on several levels of language, including grammar, lexicon and pronunciation. However, gender differences in communication styles also depend on the structure of language, and hence the number and extent of gender differences may vary. Particularly, in English, communication differences between male and female speakers are rather modest with predominantly general tendencies being identified. According to the data stated above, the most considerable differences are traced in the way syntactic constructions are used by males and females: length of sentences, usage of subordinate clauses of various types, frequency of questions usage and many others. Moreover, we can observe a tendency in pronunciation and grammar illustrating women trying to adhere to language norms, which is reported to be connected to a woman’s gender role of a mother and a role model for her children. Men prove to be freer in terms of expressions and adheres to language standards, both in pronunciation and in grammar or syntax. In general, the set of differences traced in the aspects of language is tightly connected to gender role and stereotypes adopted by the certain society. At the same time, it should be mentioned that gender differences are most likely to be identified and traced in native speakers of a certain language, as formation of gender stereotypes and thus gender peculiarities of communication occurs in close connection to extralinguistic factors like culture, race, ethnicity etc. and cannot go on separately. References Bell, C.M., McCarthy, P.M. & McNamara, D.S. (2006). 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(2013). Gender Differences in the Use of Linguistic Forms in the Speechof Men and Women in the Malaysian Context. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 13, Issue 3, pp. 67-79. Voegeli, F. (2005). Differences In The Speech Of Men And Women. Linguistic Construction And Performance Of Gender: The German Subtitling Of Gender-Specific English In The Documentary Venus Boyz. Retrieved February 13, 2015 from http://www.venusboyz.com/PDF/DissertationFVoegeli.pdf Xia, X. (2013). Gender Differences in Using Language. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 8, pp. 1485-1489. Yelkenaç, S. (2001). Language and Sex Differences. LinGate. Retrieved February 13, 2015 from http://www.lingate.8k.com/serap.html Read More