Does Gender Affect Language
Does our gender affect our language use?
If so, how and why?
Begmyrat Gurbansahedov
99649299692
Teacher: Ahsen Hande Mısırlıoğlu
Sociolinguistics İNÖ 352-B
Anadolu University, Faculty of Education,
ELT Department
26.12.2014
Before we start to talk about gender, it will be useful to be understood the distinction between gender and sex since these terms can be used interchangeably in many context. Despite their same meanings in most contexts, they have quite different meanings when we talk about social aspects of language. To some scholars sex means as simple as being born male or female, which affect how we experience and act later on in this world. In this view, to some extent, sex related to gender but they are not the same things.
…show more content…
Consider how man and women seen by society under the same working conditions. Or think about the way in which occasionally women are addressed as a “girl” in public speech (such as, “We have a new girl at the office”) while men are not referred to as “boy” in similar context. This seems related to Wittgenstein’s claim which he says: “The limits of one’s language are the limits of one’s world”, which suggests that how we use language reveals our experiences and cannot be beyond our experiences. However, researchers do not quite agree with this claim. Because there are evidences that without having the word for explaining our feelings, we can experience it. An example of this, in 19th century woman have experienced “domestic abuse” before such a term existed (Allyson Jule, 2008). So in this case the experience is the contributing factor of the creation of a term, which is opposite of Wittgenstein’s claim. Even though some of the claims don’t agree with each other, we will see that the way we speak tells so much about who we are as a person as …show more content…
And we owe a lot for all these happenings to Feminist movements which made the gender distinctions less important. The terms such as “policeman”, “firemen”, and “chairmen” etc, are changing into “police officer”, “fire fighter”, and “chair person” etc (Ronald Wardhaugh, 2006). Here we cannot simply make an assumption and say that men are/were self-centered since all the work is done by men in those jobs I mentioned above. All these changes arise from the needs where both genders took part in the jobs these days.
References
Beauvior, S. (1999). The Second Sex Quotes. Retrieved on December 26, 2014 from http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/879666-le-deuxie-me-sexe-i-les-faits-et-les-mythes-ii-l-expe-rience-ve-cue
Holmes, J. & Meyerhoff, M. (2005). The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Jule, A. (2008). A Begginer's Guide to Language and Gender. Toronto: MM Textbooks.
Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Wittgenstein, L. (2010). The Ethnics of Writing: Authorship and Legacy in Plato and Nietzsche. Retrieved on December 26, 2014 from
Rhetorical Analysis Of Who Does The Talking Here By Deborah Tannen
710 Words | 3 PagesOf all the 70 scientific studies Tannen could have chosen to talk about, the number of which she releases later in her paper, her choice of these two serves to demonstrate how biased and varied in results the scientific studies on this topic have been in the past. This helps Tannen justify the need for her article on the subject as it gives reason to why the issue on which gender speaks more still has not yet been resolved. Later in her essay, Tannen uses the results of a survey done by Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres on the results of 70 studies published in scientific journals several times. Her first use of their results follows her statements on the studies talked about earlier in this paper, noting that they “found that counting words yielded no consistent differences”. She then goes on to say, “Campbell and Ayres note that many studies find women doing more ‘affiliative
Rhetorical Analysis Of America's Vocal Fry
349 Words | 2 PagesThe author’s point of view is to prove that young women are using linguistic features to build a relationship. In the text, the author uses an informative tone. He describes the text in a related language that grabs the attention of teens, specifically young women. The text made the young women groups feel more differently than the male gender
Sex Lies And Conversation Analysis
807 Words | 4 PagesSex, Lies and Conversation There are many differences between a man and woman, communication is just one difference. Deborah Tannen, a University of California graduate, got her PhD in linguistics at Georgetown University; there she studied the communication between men and women. Tannen has published over one hundred articles and wrote over twenty books, including You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (1990), which spent almost four years on the New York Times best seller list and was translated into twenty-nine languages. The article Sex, Lies and Conversation appeared in the Washington Post in 1990 and gives insight to how opposite sexes communicate with each other. From an early age we are programed to play and be friends with the same gender as our own.
Psy 311 Week 2 Gender Roles Research Paper
396 Words | 2 PagesRosemary Okumu PSYC 1113 – Section 11/18 /2016 Gender Gender is the state of being male or female. Male are thought to be adventurous, aggressive, strong whereas females are to be affectionate, attractive, shy and sexy. While I highly identify with my feminine gender characteristics, at times l possess masculine characteristics like confidence, ambition, and sometimes aggression.
Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Guys And?' By Anne Curzan
577 Words | 3 PagesIn an effort for people to correctly identify themselves, languages adopt and replace numerous terms over time. When it comes to terms to define one’s gender, there is a correlation between the terms and a person’s age. Anne Curzan’s article “Guys and …?” explores the issue of finding age appropriate terms to describe women. The article discusses how this dilemma is prevalent for female college students, as at times neither “girl” nor “woman” seems suitable.
West And Zimmerman Analysis
495 Words | 2 Pages“Doing Gender” by West and Zimmerman is similar to Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” However, West and Zimmerman build upon the ideas that Butler puts forth. Butler focuses on gender as performance and how gender is made up by specific actions. While West and Zimmerman take the concept of performance and constitution and applies it to a new concept, the sex category and how sex categories and gender are intertwined in society. Sex categories and gender, according to West and Zimmerman, are different and interconnected.
The Little Mermaid Gender Stereotypes
1690 Words | 7 PagesGender is something that is brought to the attention of people well before people are even brought into the world. Take for instance, when a woman finds out that she is pregnant and is about to have a child. The first question that that women is asked is “What are you having?” In doing this we are automatically emphasizing the importance of being able to identify whether or not to buy “boy” things or “girl” things. As a society we deem it important for each sex to practice a set of “norms” of how to behave via that sex.
Gender Differences In Japanese Language
1930 Words | 8 PagesGender Language in Japan The study of language and gender has had a big impact on Japanese ideology. The use of Japanese language in Japan include, how the language reveals attitudes towards gender and how people use the language by speaking and writing in ways that reflect gender. In Japan for instance, gender differences in Japanese language used to be very recognizable, but recently the language has become more gender natural as the language evolved.
How Have Gender Roles Changed Over Time
465 Words | 2 PagesAlthough gender roles have changed over time, where males and females have become more equivalent , a certain level of behaviors and tasks which are acceptable for men and women still exist today. Alternatively of women and men steadily playing the gender roles they always play, they should change it around and try to do something divergent when being defined in a category of gender roles. However, women are becoming equal to men in our generation. For instance , would be men can take supervision of the children when the women go to work. Women are more maverick that they don’t need to depend on a man.
Deborah Tannen How Male And Female Students Use Language Differently
383 Words | 2 PagesMorghan Renfrow Instructor C. Shackelford English 1113, Section 101 1 September 2016 Analysts of “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” An essay written by Deborah Tannen called “How male and females students use language differently”, is describing how they talk and interact with others. The writer presents different studies on how language changes based on a certain person. The essay states that men are more aggressive and talkative, while women are calm and modest about talking about the views they share.
What Means Switch Short Story
1131 Words | 5 PagesThe story picked is What Means Switch written by Gish Jen. It revolves around the life of Mona Chang, an 8th grade American-born Chinese girl in New York during the 1960s. She meets Sherman Matsumoto, a new Japanese student who becomes her boyfriend. She battles Japanese, traditional and modern Chinese influences, in a western environment. The concepts derived from this short story are as follows.
Nature Vs Nurture Gender
1387 Words | 6 PagesAccording to sexologists John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, sex and gender are separate categories. “Sex, they argued, refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined. Gender they saw as a psychological transformation - the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction” (Sterling 4). Although there are biological differences between the two sexes, but gender roles are socially constructed. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, behave and interact with society.
Men And Women In Conversation Deborah Tannen Analysis
999 Words | 4 PagesCorinne LaLonde Professor Creighton CWP 102 8am March 8th, 2018 Critical Analysis of Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural Communication The issue of differences between men and women in conversation has been a subject of overreaching research, with various scholars in the subject of linguistics providing different views and conclusions. The current paper criticizes an excerpt of Deborah Tannen’s work, Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural Communication. In the exceprt of her work, Deborah Tannen, a professor of Linguistics, addresses linguistic differences as they relate to intimate male and female relations (Githens). While Tannen contributes significant literature to the study of linguistics, his work lacks clarity and
The Genderlect Theory: Explaining Communication Between Men And Women
1816 Words | 8 PagesOne of these perspectives is analyzing communication through gender. In the book, You Just Don’t Understand, Deborah Tannen (1990) popularized the term “genderlect” to describe the way in which men and women communicate with each other. She suggested that men and women have different styles of conversing, forming two distinct dialects. In a review of Tannen’s book, DeFrancisco (1992) attributed the differing communication styles of men and women to the respective cultures in which they grow up. Because of such gender differences, misunderstanding between men and women creates a gap in the communication process.
Lakoff's Theory Of Gender Differences In Language
1344 Words | 6 PagesKramarae (1981:145), on the other hand, states that ‘men specialize in instrumental or task behaviours and women specialize in expressive or social activities’. Society’s sex-stereotyping of jobs influence girls’ behaviour and expectations, and encourage positive attitude towards language learning while society’s division of tasks and assumptions according to sex is transferred to boys and girls through formal and informal instruction. This alliance between society-education may explain boys’ and girls’ different concerns, attitudes and expectations. Girls’ communicative skills are enhanced if not maximised because of their expected patterns of interaction. Consequently, girls may develop a liking for languages.
More about Does Gender Affect Language
Rhetorical Analysis Of Who Does The Talking Here By Deborah Tannen
710 Words | 3 PagesRhetorical Analysis Of America's Vocal Fry
349 Words | 2 PagesSex Lies And Conversation Analysis
807 Words | 4 PagesPsy 311 Week 2 Gender Roles Research Paper
396 Words | 2 PagesRhetorical Analysis Of 'Guys And?' By Anne Curzan
577 Words | 3 PagesWest And Zimmerman Analysis
495 Words | 2 PagesThe Little Mermaid Gender Stereotypes
1690 Words | 7 PagesGender Differences In Japanese Language
1930 Words | 8 PagesHow Have Gender Roles Changed Over Time
465 Words | 2 PagesDeborah Tannen How Male And Female Students Use Language Differently
383 Words | 2 PagesWhat Means Switch Short Story
1131 Words | 5 PagesNature Vs Nurture Gender
1387 Words | 6 PagesMen And Women In Conversation Deborah Tannen Analysis
999 Words | 4 PagesThe Genderlect Theory: Explaining Communication Between Men And Women
1816 Words | 8 PagesLakoff's Theory Of Gender Differences In Language
1344 Words | 6 Pages