Lakoff's Theory Of Gender Differences In Language

Everyday thousands of people communicate with one another. These conversations happen nearly instantaneously between people and are a key to a successful relationship. In Deborah Tannen’s essay, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” she explains the differences between men and women’s communication patterns. In Tannen’s essay, she uses documented research, vocabulary, and figurative language to help draw in as well as inform her readers’ about different gender communication patterns.

She compares the “physical positon” between male and female during a conversation. Women talk face-to-face, while men look everywhere. The “physical position” cause women to consider men are not listening. As Tannen states, “The impression of not listening results from misalignments in the mechanics of conversation” (264). Besides, Tannen claims that men change a number of topics in a conversation, but women stay one topic instead. The drawback of “[s]witching topics is another habit that gives women the impression men aren’t listening” (264). Finally, men as listeners do not make noises is another habit that women believe men are not listening. Linguist Lynette Hirschman found that women make more listener-noise, such as “mhm,” “uhuh,” and “year,” to show “I’m with you (qtd. in Tannen 265). Women expect listeners to express opinions or agreement or give comfort. On the other hand, men keep silent because they do not tend to argue with women in the

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender, as well as the influence of family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.

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. The main points that will be looked at are the different genders, backgrounds, and groups. These are used to help to better understand why language is used differently.

While gender roles and stereotypes may seem innocent and almost nonexistent in today’s culture, they are still present and cause a major effect on the current and future generations. They set limits on both boys and girls talents and skills. They try to force men and women into certain job categories. They affect education by telling boys to go to school especially in college and limit girls education, They affect the way a person is raised in the family from their childhood and how they keep themselves by labeling traits and behaviors as female or male.

There are many factors that can affect a child’s language and communication. Some of these factors can be positive; however, some can be negative. A cultural factor affecting emergent literacy could be children who have English as an additional language (EAL) this is because they know more of their native language than they do English and can be difficult to grasp another language at such a young age. Also some EAL children may have the knowledge of the English language and can speak the language however; their self-esteem, self-confidence and shyness could play a part in this and therefore may not be willing to use the English language. Also, EAL children may find it difficult to grasp the English alphabet. This is because in the English alphabet

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.

Unlike ‘sex’, which typically refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is a sociological concept that describes the social and cultural constructions that is associated with one’s sex (Giddens & Sutton, 2013, p. 623-667). The constructed (or invented) characteristics that defines gender is an ongoing process that varies between societies and culture and it can change over time. For example, features that are overly masculine in one culture can be seen as feminine in another; however, the relation between the two should not be seen as static. Gender socialization is thought to be a major explanation for gender differences, where children adhere to traditional gender roles from different agencies of socialization. Gender

The question about whether or not an individual’s identity is innate or acquired, has always been a debatable issue. Some people argue that gender identity is a result of the social context they live in, while others believe a person is born into it. Gender identity is a “person 's subjective sense of themselves as masculine or feminine and is exhibited by the degree to which they act upon their gender roles” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). However, based on the current society people live in, it is more likely that an individual’s identity, such as their sexuality, education, and social status are acquired as a result of the social context they live in.

Communication is an essential part of everyday life. People encounter some form of communication with others on a daily basis, whether it is face-to-face, electronically, etc. However, communication is not universal in that everyone interacts with each other through these several methods. Thus, numerous studies about communication from different viewpoints have been conducted. One 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. Tannen used her genderlect theory to help bridge that gap by acknowledging and achieving an understanding of the language of each gender.

The fact that gender-differentiated socialization exists in society cannot be disputed. Equally, to find that differences do emerge with regard to speaking styles between men and women is not surprising. However, by failing to associate gender arrangements to the power arrangements that they promote and enforce is naïve in an intellectual way. Considering the highly integrated lives of the American men and women, to assign full-fledged cultural status to patterns that emerge out of socialization is of doubtful validity. Besides, Tannen moves from the initial premise that boys and girls grow up in two distinct cultures, which is a disputed fact, to the questionable claim that problems with communication between adult males and females are equivalent to other types of cross-cultural miscommunication. With this view, her final conclusion that the issue of miscommunication between men and women emerges from our lack of familiarity with gender specific styles of communication is founded on biased, fictional information.

In our society exists another social norm, a code called, “Behavior Code”. Even at this moment, many idiosyncratic babies with different characteristics are born around the world. In their adolescence, however, many boys and girls question themselves whether their behaviors are in accordance with the behavior code. For instance, some girls grow into tomboys — “girls start wearing stylish clothes and watching from the sidelines as the boys acted and spoke” (Pipher, p1). But, unfortunately, at some points of their adolescence, those idiosyncratic girls lose thier authenticity and become a part of the society, behaving correspondingly to the behavior code. “You all die at 15”, notes Pipher in “Reviving Ophelia”. Girls “die” and set themselves apart from courage, competency and irreverence that a word “tomboy” accompanies with, ultimately developing themselves into oppressed wives. According to Judy Brady (Brady, p1), unlike what dictionary says, our society defines wife as coo, housekeeper, nutritionist, chauffeur, friend, sex partner, valet, nurse, social secretary, ego-builder, and more; There are a lot of works that are labeled as “women’s”: keeping house clean, serving dishes, taking care of children, etc. Socially considered female, women are expected to solely finish those jobs. Nevertheless, one may argue that now that the kind of task defines gender, everybody becomes “female” if one

Communication flow are affected by three factors, individual, organization, culture. In the business communication, these three factors are described as interpersonal communication, intercultural communication and organizational communication. By handling problems that bring by these factors, the communication within the group will be more efficiency. In a group working, an effective communication can help us have a better understanding of others’ opinions, this is the fountainhead of productivity and efficiency. In addition, effective communication is one of the most important factors that can influence the result of team’s work. Whether there is a good result of group’s work

The film, Growing Up Trans, was a great medium for me to better understand and reflect on gender socialization, gender identities, and countless variations within the transgender communities. Each child and his/her stories give the audience an insight to both the personal troubles of living as transgenders and the systemic errors of the society that intensifies these troubles.

Language is an important part of our life. Language and communication cannot separate. People use the language as a means of communication to express their ideas and feelings. They communicate either with each other using language in every social interaction; communicate with others directly or indirectly in the spoken and written form. Therefore, language is an important thing of communication in social life. In the social life, language and society are two things that support each other. It is impossible if there is society without language and there is language without society, because language is a device to communicate one to another (Adam J.H, 1982; 3). There is the study to organize between language and the society that is called sociolinguistics.