The Mutual Evolution of Gender Roles and Languages - Essay Example

The Mutual Evolution of Gender Roles and Languages Evolution of Language: Language is in a manner the index of our existence, it is intimately connected with all our domestic relations as well as with our relations to other people. Some fifteen centuries ago, a great portion of Europe was absorbed in the vast empire of Rome. Rome has imposed her own language upon the conquered provinces and the population of as much of Western Europe as formed part of the empire, spoke generally the Latin tongue. The vast sweep of territory to the north of the Roman frontier, in nearly its whole extent, was occupied by the great Teutonic race. The Teutons eventually overrun and conquered the Roman provinces, and the three distinct tribes of the Low Germans,-the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, made themselves the master of Britain. The establishment of the Teutons in the Roman provinces brought with it a change of language. On the continent, over nearly the whole extent of the western empire, the modern languages is derived from the Latin, and were known during the whole period of the middle ages by the name Roman. In England the Teutonic language completely superseded the Latin. It was Angles, who were numerically by far the most powerful of the Teutonic settlers, who first took the lead in intelligence and literature. The earliest literally productions of the Anglo- Saxons, and the oldest Anglo-Saxon traditions known, appear to belong chiefly to the family of the Angles, and their influence over the rest was so great, that not only these accept from the general title of Englise, but even the nations of the continent who have preserved the Roman language, generally agreed in giving to the Teutonic population of Britain the name of Angli and it is from them that our language was called English. The written English language of the present day is founded upon that dialect in which King Alfred wrote, and which held in Saxon England somewhat the same position as the Attic dialect in ancient Greece. No doubt many words now found in the English language, and especially in the provincial dialects, of which the origin is now unknown, had their equivalents in pure Anglo-Saxon. Nevertheless, it is likely that, "once upon a time," there was indeed only one language, one with a limited vocabulary and simple rules for combining words into sentences. As the need arose; the vocabulary could expand by combining old words or inventing new ones, and the rules could become more and more detailed. At some point, long ago, the vocabulary and the grammar apparently leveled off: All languages today, no matter how "primitive" the people, appear to be equal in their abilities to express the nuances and complexities of human life. Gender Role: Communication and language link people to their societies such that the concept of gender is constructed and reconstructed over time. Communication scholars grounded in both social scientific and humanities backgrounds have long been interested in gender and its construction. Early communication research in which gender was investigated did not, however, challenge the hegemonic worldview of white, male dominance. Gender became a euphemism rather than a category including both males and females. From an interactionist's perspective, gender definitions evolve as individuals interact within their environments. Further gender may be seen as a product of psychological imprinting, social learning and language. A gender role is a set of behavioral norms associated particularly with males or females, in a given social group or system. Gender role is expressed through language and behaviors of individuals. The concept of psychological gender orientation is based on the assumption that psychological differences between men and women should be expected because males and females differ biologically. It is a focus of analysis in the social sciences and humanities. The process through which the individual learns and accepts roles is called socialization. Socialization works by encouraging wanted and discouraging unwanted behavior.Language usage of women and men has changed through the years, roughly paralleling the form and impact of social movements. There is a tremendous impact of language that is used in general on the human experience and particularly the role that language plays in determining which thoughts and even which feelings we experience. Each language system embodies a particular worldview and probably influences not only what its speakers can say, but also what they can think. Language can be described as our means of ordering, classifying and manipulating the world. It is through language that we become members of human community, that the world becomes comprehensible and meaningful, that we bring into existence the world in which we live. Men and women, on average, tend to use slightly different language styles. These differences tend to be quantitative rather than qualitative. Men have a report style, aiming to communicate factual information, whereas women have a rapport style, more concerned with building and maintaining relationships, such differences are pervasive across mediums. Communication styles are always a product of context, and as such, gender differences tend to be most pronounced in single-gender groups. people accommodate their language towards the style of the person they are interacting with. Thus, in a mixed-gender group, gender differences tend to be less pronounced. A similarly important observation is that this accommodation is usually towards the language style, not the gender of the person. That is, a polite and empathic male will tend to be accommodated to on the basis of their being polite and empathic, rather than their being male. Sociolinguistics: Sociolinguistics can be defined as the study of the language in relation to society. Understanding language in society means that one also has to understand the social networks in which language is embedded. The value of sociolinguistic is the light which it throws on the nature of language in general, or on the characteristics of some particular language. The difference between sociolniguistics and the sociology of language is very much one of emphasis. Sociolinguistics is different from many of the other branches of linguistics in that it studies external as opposed to internal language. Internal language applies to the study of language on the abstract level, or in the head, put simply. External language applies to language in social contexts, or outside the head. One of the fundamental findings of sociolinguistics, which has been hard to disprove, is that class and language variety are related. the working class tends to speak less standard language. The lower, middle, and upper middle class will in turn speak closer to the standard. However, the upper class, even members of the upper middle class, may often speak 'less' standard than the middle class. This is because not only class, but class aspirations, are important. In the process of wishing to be associated with a certain class (usually the upper class and upper middle class) people who are moving in that direction socio- economically will adjust their speech patterns to sound like them. However, not being native upper class speakers, they hypercorrect, and end up speaking 'more' standard than those whom they are trying to imitate. The same is true for individuals moving down in socio-economic status. In the united states, people tend to imagine linguistic diversity as a mosaic or quilt. In this linguistic imaginary, each piece is labeled- "Southern", "Brooklynese", "Ebonics", "Bilingualism", and so on and typified as collection of word and phrases used by certain kind of people.The words and phrases are imagined as packages that stand out against the linguistic background, the middle class english standard. They are three set of linguistic situation in the United States: those of African Americans, of Spanish-English bilingual, and of Native Americans. For most Americans, such perception of language have become common sense (natural,taken for granted) and, for many heavily ideolised. Types of people are often too reduced to the type of language they speak that naturally contrast with the white norms, that's why they talk in the way they do. What brought the linguistic variation is not the type of person but the historical and social dynamics that led to the development of certain forms and practices, and that also led to the isolation and naming of group as if they are natural set. The establishment of colonial power has heavily involved the lamination, the layering together of , race, region, language, and economics that contrast colonised people and colonising nation. Language and Accent: Accent and prononciation must be diligently studied by the conversationalist. A person who uses vulgarisms will make but little way in good circles. A proper accent gives importance to what you say, engages the respectful attension of your hearer, and is your passport to new circles of acquaintance. Accent was itself to be regarded as a marker of social acceptability, facilitating or impeding social advance; it could secure deference or disrespect, acting as an image of worth in a culture which was increasingly attuned to the significance of phonetic proprietry. Over two centuries of comment on the images of accent and its associated properties bear witness to the rise of a whole range of socially sensitive variables for the spoken in which notions of the 'dropped letter', such as 'h'in house, or the 'g' in words such as walking, can still, of course remain prominent. Revealimg the strategic integration of pronounciation within the concerns of prescriptivism and its attendant idelogies, the late eighteen century emerges as period in which issues of correctness and purism relating specifically to matters of accent attained hitherto unprecedented levels of deatil and attension.The widespread existence of a specifically linguistic form of conduct literature, concentrating on the phonetic markers which popularly made up 'talking power', is in itself eloquent testimony to the anxieties and insecurities which were generated in the wake of such newly articulated preoccupations. Though language is, and was, innately variable, spakers locating themselves on continua of formality and 'proper' language depending on their immediate audience and varying the way they choose to speak accordingly. Like class itself, accent was, in effect, to become a major national obsession over this time. Classes are getting mixed, confused, we are so concious of the process that we talk of class distinction more than anything else, talk and think about them incessantly. Since it was accent which popularly came to be conceived as a prime marker of such class distinction, this habit was, in many ways, thus almost guaranteed to ensure its prominence in the public mind. In a number of ways how one speaks has of course almost always been bound up with conceptions of social identity. Language Disease: Language assumes an independent power, and reacts on the mind, instead of being, as it was intended to be, the mere realisation and outward emboidement of the mind. Disease of language is perfectly intelligible, it has been proved to be natural and inevitable. Disease of language leads not to a positive position, but to a position which regards philosophy as an analytic activity. The analytic task of philosophy is to restore a healthy use of language. Picks Disease: Pick's disease is a form of dementia characterized by a slowly progressive deterioration of social skills and changes in personality, along with impairment of intellect, memory, and language. Onset typically occurs sometime in the 50's, though it can occur as early as age 20 or as late as age 80. As with all FTDs, the course of Pick's disease will vary from one person to another. Not every symptom will be experienced by every person, nor will these symptoms develop in a pre-ordained sequence. All patients with Pick's disease will experience a gradual, steady decline in functioning. All Pick's disease patients suffer from behavioral symptoms. A progressive deterioration in the patients' ability to control or adjust his/her behavior appropriately in different social contexts is the hallmark of all of these behavior changes, and results in the embarrassing, inappropriate social situations that can be one of the most disturbing facets of FTD. Behavioral Symptoms: -> Stereotyped and/or Repetitive behaviors can include re-reading the same book multiple times, hand rubbing and clapping, humming one tune repeatedly, or walking to the same location day after day. -> Personal hygiene habits deteriorate early in the disease progression, as the person fails to perform everyday tasks of bathing, grooming, and appropriate dressing. -> Hyperactive behavior is exhibited by some patients, and can include agitation, pacing, wandering, outbursts of frustration, and aggression. -> Hypersexual behavior can range from a preoccupation with sexual jokes to compulsive masturbation. ->Impulsive acts can include shoplifting, impulsive buying, and grabbing food off of another person's plate. Emotional Symptoms: -> Apathy or indifference toward events and the surrounding environment can be marked by reduced initiative, and lack of motivation. -> Lack of insight into the person's own behavior develops early. The patient typically does not recognize the changes in his or her own behaviors, nor do they exhibit awareness or concern for the effect these behaviors have on the people around them, including loved ones. -> Emotional blunting develops early in the course of the disorder, and is manifested as a loss of emotional warmth, empathy, and sympathy, and development of what appears to be indifference toward other people, including loved ones. Language Symptoms There are some FTD subtypes (semantic dementia and progressive non- fluent aphasia) which have specific language deficits as their cardinal feature. Listed below are the general symptoms of language deterioration that can accompany any FTD diagnosis. -> Dysarthria: Agrammatica refers to an increasing difficulty in remembering or understanding the rules of grammar that help us get meaning from a sentence. -> Echolalia refers to a repetition of a word or phrase said by another person. -> Perseveration is the repetition of a word or phrase said by the patient himself. -> Mutism eventually develops in many FTD patients during advanced stages of the disease. There is no cure for Picks disease. Although specific symptoms may vary from patient to patient, the progression of Pick's disease is an inevitable progressive deterioration. The length of progression varies, ranging from less than 2 years in some to more than 10 years in others. Pick's disease itself is not life-threatening. It does, however, predispose patients to serious complications such as pneumonia, infection, or injury from a fall. References: Andrews A, Linguistics, (University of Texas press, 1984). Coates J. Women, Men and Language, (Longman, 1993). Crystal D, Language Death, (Cambridge, 2002). Holmes Janet. An introduction to Sociolinguistics, (Longman, 1992). Jesperson Otto, Language: Development and Origin, (Holt, 1922). Knowles G. A Cultural History of the English Language, (Arnold, 1997). Lippi-Green Rosina, English with an accent: language ideology and discrimination in the United States, (Routledge, 1997). Montgomery M. An Introduction to Language and Society, (Routledge, 1995). Pearson et al. Gender and Communication, (Brown and Benmarch, 1995). Sanders C. French Today, (Cambridge University Press, 1993). Saville-Troike, M. The Ethnography of Communication, (Blackwell, 1982). www.ftd-picks.org/p=diseases/picks Read More