Department of Applied English
Southern Tainan University
Gender and Language Use
Instructoe: Dr. Raung-Fu Zhong
Student: Hsin-Yu Liang
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Introduction
Language is unique for human beings, as a human being, we make conversation
with others ever day for delivering our thoughts.
While we are communicating with
our people, we also have interaction with others; it means we are developing our
social connection.
connection?
However, what is the meaning for our conversation and social
The research of the relationship between language and society is
sociolinguistics.
we try to probe it.
There are at least seven issues or factors of sociolinguistics when
The seven factors are gender, age, income, education, area
distinction and setting.
The studies of language and gender have been taking an
important part of sociolinguistics since Lakoff discussed firstly in 1975.
Numerous
studies (Lakoff, 1975; Key, 1975; Bonvillain, 2000; Sunderland, 2000; Cameron,
2006; Inoue, 2007; Besnier, 2007; McElhinny & Mills, 2007) claimed that the way of
language use between male and female is obviously dissimilar, this motivates the
author to explore if male and female exactly use distinct styles in their
communication.
The aim of this research is to prove that the thoughts of male and female use
different language style is true or false.
For proving this, the author will use four
indicators which are tag questions, uncertain words, compromise and politeness to
examine the conversation that recorded by the author.
wants to explore the swear words reflected in gender.
Furthermore, the author also
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Literature Review
According to Wardhaugh’s study (2010), he observed that men are more
talkative than women, besides in his study also indicated that women use more polite
forms and compliment to develop stability of their social relationship.
Moreover,
various studies pointed out that women tend to use tag question more than men.
(Cameron& McAlinden& O’Leary, 1988; Dubois & Crouch, 1975; Holmes, 1986)
Therefore, several studies had noted that the reason why women use more polite
forms and tag questions is that women are usually considered a secondary status
relative to men. (Lakoff, 1975; Romaine, 1999; Brown, 1980) Other researchers
have found that women often use uncertainly verb phrase in writing and speech.
(Mulac&Lundell, 1994;Hartman, 1976; Poole, 1979) A relative interpretation of
women use hedge phrase is that women are reluctant to force other people accept their
thoughts.
The idea of Lakoff was agreeing this thought; he claimed that women use
polite forms more than men in the same situation, the idea of Lakoff was supported by
the subsequentworks. (Holmes, 1995; McMillanet al., 1977)
In Asia, most of women have been taught to follow some rules which affect by
the thought of Confucian since they were young.
Generally speaking, these rules
request women have to be polite and have good manners.
As a result, it is no doubt
that why women are always more polite and seldom speak swear words in public
place. On the contrary, it is acceptable for people to hear men speaking swear words
since people think men should express their thought directly.
In Liao’s study (1995),
she pointed out that males tend to use more swearing words as they grow older, but
females are contrary.
The function of swearing words is expressing one’s emotion;
therefore, some studies have classified the types of swearing words.
In the study of
Andersson and Trudgill (1990), they classified swearing words in four types within
expletives, abusive, humorous and auxiliary.
Another study of Jay (1992), he
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proposed eleven types of swearing words based on the meaning of words.
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The ten
types of swearing words are cursing, profanity, blasphemy, taboo, obscenity, vulgarity,
slang, epithets, insults, slurs and scatology.
Overall, there are evidently shows that the language usage between men and
women is opposite; furthermore, men and women aren’t taken as the same status in
the society.
However, in nowadays, is the circumstance still the same?
still be afraid of expressing their ideas directly?
in this study.
Do women
This is exactly what we will discuss
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Methodology
The purpose of this study is to investigate that if men and women have different
linguistic behavior in nowadays.
Participants
The participants of this study are two females and two males.
Both of females
are graduated students in applied English, they have learned English at least 11 years.
They were informed before recording.
The two males have different English
learning background and occupations.
One of them is graduating from college and a
soldier now; he has learned English about 8 years.
recording.
He was also informed before
Another male participant is a hair designer with senior high education.
He isn’t good at English because he only learned English for 3years.
He didn’t
know while recording.
In this study, all of the participants used pseudonyms.
Procedures
All of the conversations were recorded by recorder in different occasion.
One
of the conversations is with two females, another is with two males and the third one
is a conversation between a male and a female.
Two conversations were informed
before recording, except the conversation of the two males.
These conversations
were recorded for about 3 to 5 minutes.
Data collection
The data is from the three conversations. After recording the conversation, the
author typed all of scripts.
Potential Limitation
In this study, the recorded conversation is very short and the author only selects
part of the conversation for analyzing easily.
Due to the time of the recorded
conversation, there must be some indicators cannot be contained.
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Findings and Discussion
In this section, the three conversations are discussed by the five indicators.
Five indicators within this section use uncertain words, tag questions, compromise,
politeness and swearing words.
The First Conversation
This conversation is between Joyce and Tina (see Appendix A).
At first, they
discussed about one of their classmates were absent in the morning, then they talked
about coffee.
Finally, their topic of discussion turned into the health of family.
this conversation, there are three indicators showed obviously in it.
In
The three
indicators are uncertain words, tag question and swearing.
The part of uncertain words only showed once in the beginning.
When they
talked to if their classmate would attend in the afternoon, although Joyce knew that
their classmate would attend in the afternoon, she still answered uncertainly as
showed in the following sentences.
Tina:所以楊咩下午會來嗎?
Joyce:應該會吧?她是說她下午會來
Tina:喔~他有說
For checking the tag question, this part is showed when they talked about coffee.
Joyce noticed that the cover of the coffee was familiar; she knew that the coffee is
famous because it was made form one of animals’ excrement but she forgot which
kind of animals.
Then Tina told Joyce the name of this animal and the other name of
this animal, however, Tina used tag questions in the sentence as showed following.
Joyce:我有看過這個，我有看過這個
Tina:喔?你是說那隻動物嗎?
Joyce:就是這個包裝。我有看過
Tina:喔!
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Joyce:對!還蠻有名的!
Tina:真的真的
Joyce:就是動物…就是動物的大便啊!
Tina:喔~麝香咖啡!
Joyce:馬來饃什麼的大便?
Tina:麝香…麝香應該是.... 麝香
Joyce:麝香就是…
Tina:麝香貓還是??
Joyce:喔~麝香貓嗎?
Tina:麝香貓…麝香貓是不是果子狸?
According to this conversation, the author found that any swearing words are
showed in this conversation.
Moreover, the author considered that the reason why
this conversation did not include compromise and politeness was the topic of
conversation.
The topic did not include any request; therefore, the indicators of
compromise and politeness would not show.
The Second Conversation
This conversation is including two males, they were talking about the rule of
reply in the military (see Appendix B).
In the military, if the soldiers are on the
vacation, they have to reply to the center of army in specific time.
One of the male
participants is a soldier now; another has completed his compulsory military service.
In their conversation, they talked about a person who did not reply on time and his
leader called him.
After viewing this conversation, the author found that swearing words are used
in males’ communication.
歪 and 他媽的.
In this conversation, the swearing words are such as 雞
Form the classification of Andersson and Trudgill (1990), these
two swearing words are expletive.
In addition, all of the sentences in this
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conversation without using uncertain words, tag questions, compromise or politeness,
this consequence support the idea that male use less uncertain words, tag question and
compromise.
For the politeness, it cannot be analyzed because the topic of this
conversation is not including request.
The Third Conversation
There are lovers including in this conversation. (see Appendix C) The male is
soldier and stays in Kinmen.
He was on vacation in November.
The female is
graduated student who majors in applied English. At first, they talked why the male
ate so much before eating dinner, then they talked about the education for the dog.
In this conversation, the female did not use any uncertain words or tag question,
but she said some swearing words instead.
豬,你很噁心,屁啦 and 白目.
These swearing words are such as 你是
According to the classification of Jay (1992), these
kinds of swearing words are insults and scatology.
For the other indicators, the reason why they did not include was similar.
This
conversation did not include any request; therefore, the indicators of compromise and
politeness were not used.
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Conclusion
The findings of this study are very interesting because some parts are not
consistent with the previous studies.
For agreeing with the previous works, it has
showed evidently that female use uncertain words and tag question frequently,
moreover, male actually says swearing words in their conversation.
For the corns, in
the conversation of lovers, the frequency of using swearing words of female is more
than male without saying any swearing words.
However, the author considered that
the swearing words which the females use were not really with the function of insults
or scatology, it is a kind of tags instead and it is common used in nowadays.
In
addition, females express their ideas directly more often in nowadays according to the
two conversations include females.
For example, in the conversation of lovers, the
female criticized the male’s teaching way of dog and she also told the male what her
rule of teaching dog is, she asked the male had better follow the rule.
Another interesting finding is the topic of these conversations.
When the
conversation includes females, the topics must relate to health or education. For
example, in the first conversation, females discussed about health problems for their
family and in the third conversation, the female told about the education of dog.
However, in the conversation between two males, the topic may focus on their
experience of something.
To sum up, the language behavior of male and female is definitely distinct,
especially the topic of their conversation, we could know that what male and female
concern is contrary.
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Reference
Andersson, L. & Trudgill,P.(1990). Bad Language. Basil Blackwell: Oxford UK.
Besnier, N. (2007). Language and gender research at the intersection of the global and
the local. Gender and Language, 1(1), 67-78.
Bonvillian, N. (2000). Language, Culture, and Communication: The meaning of
messages. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brown, P. (1980). How and why women more polite: Some evidence from a Mayan
community. In S. McConnell-Ginet, R. Borker, & N. Furman (Eds.), Women and
language in literature and society (pp.111-136). New York, NY: Praeger.
Cameron, D. (2006). Gender and the English language. In B. Aarts & A. McMahon
(Eds.), The handbook of English linguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Cameron, D., McAlinden, F., & O’Leary, K. (1988). Lakoff in context: The social and
linguistic functions of tag questions. In J. Coates & D. Cameron (Eds.), Women
in their speech communities (pp. 74-93). London, UK: Longman.
Dubois, B. L., & Crouch, I. (1975). The question of tag questions in women’s speech:
They don’t really use more of them, do they? Language in Society, 4(2), 89-94.
Holmes, J. (1986). Functions of ‘you know’ in women’s and men’s speech. Language
in Society, 15(1), 1-22. 15 GENDER AND LANGUAGE USE IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM
Inoue, M. (2007). Language and gender in an age of neoliberalism. Gender and
Language, 1(1), 79-91.
Jay, T. (1991). Cursing in America: a psycholinguistic study of dirty language in the
courts, in the movies, in the schoolyards and on the streets. John Benjamins:
Philadelphia.
Key, M. R. (1975). Male/Female Language: with a comprehensive bibliography.
Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
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Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Liao, H.Y.(廖嫻雅)(1995). A Study of the Different Use of Insulting Words: Gender
and Age as Social Determinants. M.A. Thesis. Fu-Jen University.
McElhinny, B., & Mills, S. (2007). Launching studies of gender and language in the
21st century. Gender and Language, 1(1), 1-13.
Mulac, A.,&Lundell, T. L. (1994). Effects of gender-linked language differences in
adults’ written discourse:
Multivariate tests of language effects. Language & Communication, 14, 299–309.
Romaine, S. (1999). Communicating gender. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sunderland, J. (2000). New understandings of gender and language classroom
research: texts, teacher talk and student talk. Language Teaching Research, 4(2),
149-173.
Sunderland, J. (2000). New understandings of gender and language classroom
research: texts, teacher talk and student talk. Language Teaching Research, 4(2),
149-173.
Wardhaugh, R. (2010). An introduction to sociolinguistics. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell.
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Appendix A
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
所以楊咩下午會來嗎?
應該會吧?!她是說她下午會來，
喔~他有說
她不是說她早上吐了，不知道為什麼吐了
昨天明明還好好的有看到她然後~她跟學妹出去吃飯
大病毒啊~他
吼~真的
等一下她來…..不要靠近我不要靠近我!!他說什麼?好沒有同情心
真是沒有同情心的同學
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
妳要不要吃這個??
南瓜酥 你吃啊!
我不要..........
(笑)
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
我覺得這個…恩.…..怎麼爛爛的感覺(台語)
爛爛? (台語)
就是她的包裝
喔
我有看過這個
我有看過這個
喔?你是說那隻動物嗎?
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
就是這個包裝 我有看過
喔
對 還蠻有名的
真的真的
就是動物 就是動物的大便啊
喔~麝香咖啡
馬來饃什麼的大便?
麝香 麝香應該是.... 麝香
麝香就是
麝香貓還是??
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
糖的
Tina:
Joyce:
喔~麝香貓嗎?
麝香貓
麝香貓是不是果子狸?
ㄟˊ....對對對對.....好像是...
果子狸那種
好像是....就是用他們的大便然後烤出來的咖啡
ㄏㄚˊ...........無糖
很苦啊
然後聽說是要喝無
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Tina: 就是要喝她原味這樣子
Joyce: 對啊 可是我不懂欣賞原味的咖啡
我都只喝
Tina: 喔~一定要有很多牛奶的
Joyce: 對啊 像上次跟我爸說 中午都不吃東西(台語) 都只喝咖啡(台)
然後我爸就跟我說阿咖啡不是有牛奶 會止餓啊(台)
啊我說為什麼我每次都
只喝咖啡止餓然後就會胃痛(台語)
Tina: 喔~
Joyce: 因為咖啡是酸性
Tina: 對對對
Joyce: 就會胃痛
Tina: 喝咖啡很多副作用
Joyce: 我爸真的很誇張ㄝ….早上也喝咖啡
常吃
Tina: 真的假的?
中午也喝咖啡
然後晚餐才正
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
長期以來
從我有記憶以來他就是這樣子
為什麼?他是因為工作關係需要這樣子提神嗎?
恩…可是
晚上要不要來一瓶蠻牛
他真的很愛喝咖啡
那他是喜歡喝咖啡還是
我不知道 可是他咖啡喝一喝還是一樣繼續睡
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
好厲害
沒有…他是真的是已經上癮 然後已經沒有那個
我都跟他說
你就不要到時候老了(台)
骨質疏鬆
對啊 什麼胃癌啊..
喔…對 可是喝咖啡不是有可以預防一些什麼
可是那一種是少量
咖啡有防腐劑什麼的
我就跟他說你就不要到時候什麼肺癌 口腔癌 什麼胃癌通通都一起來
對啊..ㄟˊ…這個真的很恐怖
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
Tina:
Joyce:
是壯
我爸又抽菸 也是老菸槍 對啊
我爸很瘦ㄝ
看你就知道啦 身材也是會遺傳
那我還有點像到我媽…
妳媽
他很壯
很壯?她是高高壯壯還是
我媽跟我一樣高 可是他很壯
比我還狀
比我還胖
說難聽一點是胖
說好聽一點
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Tina: 不會啦
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我覺得….你這樣應該是還好
Joyce: 我妹跟我爸一樣….我妹是…我妹是那種整個受到是皮包骨的
然後怎
麼吃都吃不胖 然後我阿嬤都說他一定是有糖尿病
因為我妹吃不胖
所以
我阿嬤都一直說我妹有病
Tina: 可是糖尿病 也要看你們家族有沒有
Joyce: 我阿嬤有糖尿病
Tina: 你阿嬤有
Joyce: 對…可是問題是
Tina: 所以他有可能會有潛在基因
Joyce: 不知道…可是問題是我妹
我媽說沒有
Tina: 恩….但是我覺得他飲食什麼的最好是控制一下….因為如果真的是過量
那就真的會
Joyce: 可是我妹自己也很挑食
Tina: 喔
Joyce: 她也很挑食
我覺得我家最有可能得糖尿病的是我哥吧
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Appendix B
Yuan：你回報阿沒阿
Jun:回報阿
Jun:沒回報會不會怎樣阿
Yuan：不會啦，那是在嚇你的啦
Jun:我這次 3 次沒回報
Yuan：那時候很好笑，我才剛下部隊而已，那時候吼~怎樣~
Jun:都很乖就對了
Yuan：不是不是，是裡面就狂宣導說，不回報會把你怎樣怎樣，不要讓我抓到怎
樣怎樣。副連長就雞歪就對了，然後有一次我回去，我聽人家說的，我同梯的。
你有沒有回報阿，有阿有回報阿!你知道副連長怎樣嗎，打電話給我，我就接起
來，副連長問我說，你在哪裡阿，報告副連長，我在家裡(燈等等登登登~等等登
登登←全家店鈴聲)他媽的!你在哪裡，在哪裡阿?這樣聽得懂嗎?(台語)
Jun:我知道啦!(台語)
Yuan：我就要笑到快死掉了。報告副連長，我在全家，因為我家前面有全家，買
一下東西這樣。好好趕快回家
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Appendix C
Joyce:吃什麼7-11的炒麵(笑)你幹嘛?你幹嘛?(台語)
Jun:沒有。我炒麵吃玩又吃了一份...
Joyce:你是豬喔!!(台語)
Jun:吃炒麵之前 我又吃了一碗稀飯。
Joyce:你很噁心ㄟ，吃那麼多東西幹嘛阿?
Jun:餓嘛!
Joyce:是多餓?
Jun:不是餓，只是要在這15天裡把所有吃過的東西再吃一便。不然那邊都沒有東
西可以吃。
Joyce:這麼可憐，好可憐喔!你累了嗎?
Jun:差不多了。
Joyce:等一下嘛!不是說20分?很累~你要去哪一間郵局阿?
Jun:小東路的好了，有順路。
Joyce:阿如果我的卡又不能領咧?
Jun:那去7-11領。
Joyce:吼~去7-11領又要扣手續費，上次我媽又那邊哎哎叫….
Jun:就沒辦法啊!(台語)怪我囉?
Joyce:很痛ㄟ!幹嘛?小熊又再吵了…你為什麼都不教小熊?
Jun:教小熊什麼?
Joyce:就他不乖你都不教他你還在那邊跟他玩。
Jun:我哪有跟他玩 !我有兇阿!
Joyce:屁啦!你剛剛叫牠罰站不要動還在那邊笑。
Jun:我看他站在那邊很可憐，覺得很好笑。不要動,他就坐在那邊，然後他就趴
下，嗯!!他又坐起來，然後就坐在那邊一直看著我。
Joyce:你這樣不行阿!教小孩子的時候前一秒在打，後一秒在笑。
Jun:我也不想笑阿!可是越看越好笑。
Joyce:你就是這樣子才會把他寵壞了。
Jun:我覺得罵他,他就會聽。
Joyce:他有聽阿，還不是一樣繼續白目。
Comments:
a. Very good in organization and analysis
b. Interesting in presenting your ideas
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