Application of Concepts of Language And Power to Contexts - Term Paper Example

Concepts of Language and Power Name: Student No: Institution: Instructor: Date of Submission: 1. Introduction The idea that the language used by men is different from the language used by women has resulted into a number of assumptions of the roles of men and women in various functions. For instance, it has been considered that men are suitable for certain roles and women suitable for other roles (Kolln 1991). As a result, studies have been conducted to establish the nature of language power in men and women with the focus on understanding the nature of these languages. Another focus of this study has been the need to understand the areas where these qualities of language can be used best for the benefits of men and women. This has mainly focused on the manner in which men talk compared with the manner in which women talk and providing a suitable cases where such manners have been applied to assign roles to men and women. This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of language used by both men and women and explains areas where these qualities can be implemented for the benefit of men and women. 2. Politeness and the use of authoritative language During conversation among women, they are usually involved in the use of polite language in pleasant tones that reflect adherence to regulations of a particular location. As a result of this, women have been considered to be suitable for servant positions in work place such as secretaries in organizations (Ramanathan 2013). This is because they are able to talk to people in a polite tone that creates a sense of friendship. The quality of politeness has also been used to consider women the best people to work in the position of air hostess due to their ability to talk in a presentable and pleasant manner. Women also have the quality of being harmless due to the polite look on their faces. As a result, they are considered to be people who can be approached more easily compared with men. This is why they are considered for the positions such as nun in a household work. The person providing this role to a woman expects that she will use her polite tone to comfort babies under her care and also be loyal to his family. All these positions require a person who can talk to clients in a polite manner and use friendly language during communication. Men have been observed to use authoritative and vulgar language during communication. They are also more likely to use high tones during communication with one another. As a result of these qualities, most men have been preferred for positions such as security guards in areas where security is important (Kleinman 2000). This is because it is expected that they will use the authoritative tones to scare away people who are likely to cause discomfort in the areas that require high security or limited access. These are qualities that represent unfriendliness and lack of politeness in communication. The quality of use of authoritative language has also been used in the army or administration police service where the commander of a group is usually a man (Harris 1997). In organizations where operational activities take place, men are given the supervisory roles because they are able to apply their authoritative tones to control other employees so that they can perform their duties according to the expectations of the companies. This is aimed at making use of his authoritative language to control a particular group. The look in most men’s faces is also frightening in most cases and they are likely to be feared by the people they are addressing. 3. Quantities of words used Women have been observed to talk more to express particular information compared to men. They may use many words to express an idea compared with men and they talk so that they can arrive at a decision. This implies that their talk is aimed at arriving at a consensus with the person they are talking to (Commonwealth Secretariat, & Commonwealth Of Learning 2004). As a result of these qualities, women have been regarded suitable for positions that require the use of large quantity of words such as teaching language subjects such as literature in schools. This is because they are considered able to make use of their talking capability to teach literature skills to students in schools compared with men. In addition, they have been considered suitable for debates where gender roles are involved because they can contribute to the discussion by use of many words they speak. In reporting events that have taken place, women have been considered the best to narrate the events because they have the ability to use many words to describe the events in an understandable manner. On the other hand, men have been observed to use few words to express their ideas. They also talk from the decisions they have made and discussions involve actions they have performed. As a result, they have been considered suitable for positions such as managers where actions rather than words are required (Chaturvedi and Chaturvedi 2008). This is because they are able to direct employees to perform particular actions with little instructions. In learning institutions, they have been considered suitable for teaching technical subjects such as sciences and mathematics due to their ability to focus on the main process of performing the calculations rather than explaining actions. Another area of professional tasks where the use of few words has been used is the operation of machines. This is because men use more actions than words and are able to operate machines more effectively than women. As a result, most machine operators are men and there are very few cases where machine operator can be a woman. 4. The quality of being talkative in private and in public Men are more likely to be talkative in public but silent in private locations. On the other hand, women are more talkative in private locations and silent in public. These different characteristics of men and women have contributed to the manner in which they contribute to speaking in various places. For instance, in matters related to public speaking such as masters of ceremonies, men have usually performed better due to their quality of public speaking than women (Benninger-BudeL 2008). The voices of men are usually louder and easier to understand compared to the voices of women. They are also less capable of keeping secrets compared with women. Thus, any activity that requires public awareness communication such as news reporting is usually provided to men in preference to women. On the other hand, women have been excellent in provision of private speaking activities such as guidance and counseling and communication within a family (Harris 1997). This is because they possess the ability to communicate confidently in private places compared with men. They are also able to maintain secrets of the family when discussing family matters. They are able to contribute to a discussion such as counseling family members and warning their children to behave well. This is why women are better family leaders compared with men. They can be easily understood by their children due to this quality of being able to talk in privacy. 5. Names and titles There are titles that have been considered suitable for men while others for women. This has resulted from the fact that these titles are based on the ability of either gender to perform certain roles effectively. For instance, there are titles used in organization in reference to men such as departmental chairman and managing director. This is because; the organization is more comfortable when these titles are used to refer to men than when they are used to refer to women (Kleinman 2000). Employees are also more likely to be confident in their leader if a particular title such as Supervisor is used to refer to a man rather than a woman. On the other hand, there are titles that have been preferred to be used by women rather than men. For instance, matron in a health setting is mainly used to distinguish a woman health worker from male health workers because the stakeholders are comfortable when the woman is in the position of a matron. 6. Gendered Nouns An example of gendered noun is the word ‘man’ which is used to refer to male gender. In conversations, confusion resulting from the use of this noun is avoided by replacing them with words that result into a more general meaning. For instance, in writing the history of America, they found it savvy to explain that ‘all people are created equal’ rather than ‘all men are created equal’. The other gendered expression in communication is the word ‘you guys’. This expression is used to mean a group of men, groups of women or groups composed of both men and women (Benninger-BudeL 2008). It is mostly applicable in a situation where people are addressed and there is the need to avoid being biased towards a particular gender or consider another gender as weaker than the other. Another gendered language include words such as ‘Mr”, “Mrs’, Miss’ that are used to refer to a man, woman and young ladies who are not married. However, the word ‘Mr’ is used to refer to a man whether he is married or not. This is aimed at emphasizing that the significance is that he should be distinguished from women and not his marital status (Harris 1997). This has been observed in many organizations where male employees are regarded as “Mr” irrespective of their marital status. However female employees are either not referred to by use of these titles or specific titles are used to refer to them. Gendered nouns have also been used extensively when referring to jobs positions denoting sex of the person holding the position. This is mainly common when the person in a particular position is against common expectations. However, there are titles that are generally used to refer to men while other titles are used to refer to women (Kolln 1991). For instance, in medical practice the word ‘nurse’ is used to refer to either male or female nurse but it is likely that people may associate the title with that of a woman. Thus, in order to avoid confusion, it is required that sentences such as ‘the male nurse treated the patient’ or ‘the female doctor provided the medication’. However, when the sex of the doctor or nurse is not important to the sentence, it can be omitted. 7. References Benninger-BudeL, C. 2008. Due diligence and its application to protect women from violence. Leiden, Brill. Chaturvedi, P. D., & Chaturvedi, M. 2008. Business communication: concepts, cases and applications. India, Dorling Kindersley. Commonwealth Secretariat, & Commonwealth Of Learning. 2004.The GMS toolkit: an integrated resource for implementing the Gender Management System. London, Commonwealth Secretariat. Harris, M. 1997. Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage. 3rd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kleinman, S. 2000. “Why sexist language matters.” The Center Line, a newsletter of the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, pp. 6-7. Kolln, M 1991. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects. 2nd Ed. Lunsford, Andrea and Robert Connors. The St. Martin’s Handbook. 3rd Ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Ramanathan, V. 2013. Language Policies and (Dis)Citizenship Rights, Access, Pedagogies. Clevedon, Channel View Publications.  Read More