chapter 7 gender and age

7/26/2019 Chapter 7 Gender and Age

1/28

Gender and ageChapter 7


2/28

Do women and men speakdiferently?

Do children speak diferently

rom adults?


3/28

The answer to both thesequestions is almost certainly yesor all speech communities! and

The reasons in both cases aremainly socialand cultural"


4/28

The linguistic orms used by women and mencontrast # to diferent degree # in all speech

communities"There are other ways too in which the linguistic

beha$ior o women and men difers% politeness

The discussion o gender in this chapter ocuses

on contrasts between eatures o womens andmens speech"

&t is claimed women are more linguistically politethan men

'omen and men rom the same speechcommunity use diferent linguistic orms orwomen and men emphasi(e diferent speechunctions"


5/28

Gender%e)clusi$e speech diferences*+ighly structured communities

The ,ma(on &ndians # women and men speakdiferent languages

The language is shared by women and men!but particular linguistic eatures occur onlyin the womens or in mens speech" -smalldiferences in pronunciation or word%shape!morphology.

%/)" 0ontana -,merican &ndian tribe. bread

%&n this community! i a person uses the wrongorm or their gender! they are consideredbise)ual


6/28

There are diferences in

1" 2ronunciation or word%shape-morphology.

3" 4ocabulary

5" 2ronoun system


7/28

'ord shapes in other languages contrastbecause women and men use diferent

a6)es"

%&n ana and Chiquita! some o the words usedbetween men are longer than the equi$alentwords used by women and to women

because mens orms sometimes add a su6)"&n 8apanese orms o nouns or women are

requently pre9)ed by o%! to show politenessor ormality"

There are also diferences between the$ocabularyitems used by men and women in8apan


8/28

0odern 8apanese

&n modern 8apanese! thesedistinctions are more a matter odegrees o ormality or politeness

than gender:;o the mens orms are

restricted to casual conte)ts and

considered macho or coarse!while the womens orms areused by e$eryone in public

conte)ts"


9/28

;ome languages signal the gender o thespeaker in the pronoun system

& a community is $ery hierarchical! orinstance! and within each le$el o thehierarchy men are more powerul thanwomen! then linguistic diferences betweenthe speech o women and men may be


10/28

Gender%e)clusi$e speech ormsre=ect gender%e)cusi$e social roles"

The responsibilities o women andmen are diferent in suchcommunities ! and e$eryone knows

that! and know what they are"


11/28

Gender%2reerential ;peech>eatures* ;ocial Dialect esearch&n 'estern urban communities where

womens and mens social roles o$erlap!the speech orms they use also o$erlap"

0en and women do not use completelydiferent orms"

They use diferent quantities orrequencies o the same orms"

@oth the social and linguistic patterns inthese communities are genderpreerential


12/28

>or instance women use more #ingpronunciations and ewer #inpronunciations

&n 0ontreal! both women and mendelete -i. but men do more otenthan women

&n ;ydney! some women and menpronounce the initial sound in thing a-.! but the men use thispronunciation more than the women"


13/28

@oth the social and the linguistic patterns inthese communities are gender%preerential-rather than gender%e)clusi$e."

Though both women and men use particular

orms! one gender shows a greater preerenceor them than the other"

&n all these e)amples women tend to use moreo the standard orms than men do"

0en use more o the $ernacular orms than

women do"&n ,ustralia! inter$iews with people in ;ydney

re$ealed gender%diferentiated patterns o -h.dropping"


14/28

Gender and ;ocial Class

The linguistic eatures which difer in the speech owomen and men in 'estern communities areusually eatures which also distinguish the speecho people rom diferent social classes"

;o how does gender interact with social class?

Does the speech o women in one social classresemble that o women rom diferent classes! or

does it more closely resemble the speech o themen rom their own social class?

The answer to these question is quite complicated!and is diferent or diferent linguistic eatures"

There are howe$er! some general patterns whichcan be identi9ed"


15/28

,cross all social groups women generally use morestandard orms than men and so correspondingly!men use more $ernacular orms than women"

Detroit

'omen choose o$ertly prestigious orm0en choose orms that are not admired o$ertly by

the society as a whole"

This widespread pattern is also e$ident rom a $eryyoung age -boys use more #n and girls #ing.

The diferences o this sort were obser$ed in thepronunciations o girls and boys as young as si)years old"


16/28

,merican childrens speech insemi%rural Aew /ngland $illage"


17/28

'hy does emale and malespeech difer in this way?


18/28

/)planations o 'omensBinguistic @eha$ior

>our diferent -though not mutuallye)clusi$e. e)planations were suggested"

1" The 9rst appeals to social class and itsrelated status or an e)planation

3" 'omans role in society"

5" 'omens status as a subordinate group

" >unction o speech in e)pressing

gender identity! and especaillymasculinity"


19/28

/)planations o 'omensBinguistic @eha$iour

'hy do women use morestandard orms than men?

1" The social status e)planation

3" 'omans role as guardian osocietys $alues

5" ;ubordinate groups must be

polite" 4ernacular orms e)press

machismo


20/28

;ubordinate groups must bepoliteChildren are e)pected to be polite to adults"'omen as a subordinate group! it is argued!

must a$oid ofending men # and so theymust speak careully and politely"

@y using more standard speech ormswomen are looking ater their own need tobe $alued by the society"

&nstead o asking why do women use more

standard speech orms than men? it makesmore sense to ask why dont men use morestandard orms?


21/28

4ernacular orms e)pressmachismo

0en preer $ernacular orms becausethey carry macho connotations omasculinity and toughness"

0en regard $ernacular orms positi$elyand $alue them highly" /$idence

$ert prestige" The standard $ariety ina community has o$ert prestige"

;peakers who use the standard $arietyare rated highly on scales oeducational and occupational status"


22/28

Co$ert prestige! % reers to positi$eattitudes towards $ernacular or non%

standard speech $arieties" Despitetheir o6cial protestations! peopleclearly do in act $alue $ernacular

$arieties" ,berrant promiscuous


23/28

,ge%graded eatures ospeech0ost ob$ious speech diference

between women and men is inthe pitch o their $oices"

&n any community there willalways be some women whosenatural speaking pitch is deeper

than that o some men" # physicale)planation or gender diferencein $oice pitch"

;ocial and cultural actors


24/28

oung boys $oices oten become lower inpitch than girls $oices well beore there

is any physical basis or the change"&t is more masculine to speak with a

lower%pitched $oice! and so young boysoten de$elop this masculine eature"

&n=uence in public domains has been amale prerogati$e"

There are other eatures o peoples

speech which $ary at diferent ages too"4ocabulary! pronunciation! and grammarcan diferentiate groups


25/28

There are patterns which are appropriateor 1E%year%olds or teenagers which

disappear as they grow older" These areage graded patterns"

The e)tensi$e swear word $ocabularywhich some teenagers use is similarly likely

to change o$er time" The requency withwhich they use such words tends todiminish! especially as they begin to ha$echildren and sociali(e with others with

young amilies";lang is another area o $ocabulary which

re=ects a persons age"


26/28

,ge and ;ocial DialectData;ocial dialect research has pro$ided a

great deal o inormation about the patterso pronunciation and grammar or diferentage groups"

The graph suggests the relati$e requencyo $ernacular orms in diferent agegroups"

&t indicates that they are high in childhood

and adolescence! and then steadily reduceas people approach middle age whensocietal pressures to conorm are greatest"


27/28

4ernacular usage gradually increasesagain in old age as social pressures

reduce! with people mo$ing out othe workorce and into a morerela)ed phase o their li$es"

The use o standard or prestigeorms peaks between the ages o 5Eand FF when people e)perience

ma)imum societal pressure toconorm


28/28

,ge grading and language change

'hen a linguistic change is spreading

through a community! there will be aregular increase or decrease in the use othe linguistic orm o$er time"

>or an inno$ation # a orm on the increase #this will show up in a graph as a low use oorm by older people and high use amongyounger people"

>or a orm which is disappearing

chapter 7 gender and age

Documents