Gender Differences In Language

Language reflects, records, and transmits social differences, so we should not be surprised to find reflections of gender differences in language, for most societies differentiate between men and women in various marked ways. The study will examine the differences from the topics covered by male and female communicators. In social interaction, men and women have different interests in choosing their topics. When men are talking, they are more likely to choose the topics of politics, economy, stocks, sports, current news and sex related topics. While women have more interest in talking family affairs, such as the education of children, clothes, cooking, fashion, etc. Women‟s talk is associated with the home and domestic activities, while men‟s is associated with the outside world and economic activities. Thus, while there is a popular prejudice that women talk more than men, empirical studies of a number of social situations such as committee meetings and internet discussion groups have shown the opposite to be true. Women may talk more in informal occasions than men, but they surely play the second role in the formal occasions and tend to speak less than men. Sociolinguists studied women’s silence in public situations as well as the linguistic work they do in their partnerships (Spender, 1980). Besides these differences, other sex-linked differences exist, such as women and men may have different paralinguistic system and move and gesture differently. In a recent set of