Language and Gender
Emma Naylor and Joe
Hudson
Zimmerman and West



Looked at turn taking in mixed/same sex
groups.
They recorded 20 same sex conversations
and 11 mixed sex conversations
They analysed the conversations to try and
find interruptions and overlaps
Their Results


Same Sex: There were 22 Overlaps and
Seven interruptions
Mixed Sex: There were Nine Overlaps by
men and 0 by women there were also 46
interruptions by men and only two by women
Conclusions

From their conclusions they found that men
are more likely to interrupt in mixed sex
conversations, where as women generally
followed the politeness principles.
Problems





The number of conversations recorded weren’t the same for both
groups, there were more same sex conversations than mixed sex.
The participants were residents near the University of Los Angeles
so were not a conclusive international study.
Participants chosen could have a range of personalities and some
could be more dominating than others
Don’t mention overlaps and interruptions in same sex conversations
Small sample size, only a small range of people so cant be seen as
international.
Our Study


We studied conversations by three age
groups; teenagers, adults and grandparents.
Our groups included; two males, 2 mixed sex
conversations and one two female
conversation.
We checked for interruptions, overlaps and
other linguistic features.
Two Teenage Males








Dan: [Looking at television] Oh Jesus no. (7) I’d love to hear him recorded being recorded. (6) Do
you want to hear a joke that Sham said (.) it’s a bit racist (2) Why are all black athletes fast? (2)
Because all the slow ones are in jail.
[Laughter] (7 Pause)
Overlap
Dan: It is so racist. It’s great
Jack: I think loads of people are racist though
Dan:
Right (.) I’ve got another one, there’s (.) a double decker
bus (.) and this is in Sham’s own words so I’m not being racist here right (.) there’s Paki’s on the
top deck and there are Paki’s on the bottom deck (.) there all partying and bouncy on the bottom
deck and then one of the people from the bottom deck goes up to the top (.) to find out why the
top is so quiet (.) and he asks (.) and one of the guys comes up and looks at him and says well
that’s fine for you guys you’ve got a driver down there but we haven’t got a driver up here!
[Laughter]
(20 Pause)
Dan: I am actually going to have to ask Sham for some more of those jokes (2) it’s incredible.
Grandparents








Grandad: Yeah, little buggers. (1)Your mam, your nana took
them to the shops. (2) They both come out with two handfuls of
sweets. [Laughter]
Nana: You buy me this nana, you buy me this. [Laughter]
Grandad: Have you seen what they made today?
Me: Ha, what is it? A spider?
Nana: It’s a spider. We stuck pipe cleaners on it to make the
legs.
Me: It’s good.
Grandad: They make all bloody sorts you know, they used up
all my flour yesterday. (2) And
Overlap
Nana:
They did not, there’s half a bag left.
We only used a bit to make banana pie.
Two Adult Females







Auntie: What did mam say?
Mum: She was alright. First thing she asked was, ‘is our Christine going?’ (1)
But after she knew you lot weren’t going she was alright. Dad never said a word
though.
Auntie: Didn’t he? He was probably too busy watching deal or no deal
[Laughter]
Mum: I know. They’ve been ringing me all week saying I haven’t been round.
(2) And I told them last week that I’ve been working on a bid for St Helens. But
then I turn up and they don’t take their bloody eyes off the television. I think if
you’d have come with us she’d have been gutted though
Auntie:
Yeah.
Mum: And it would have been expensive with Gina…
Auntie: [Laughter]
Overlap
Parents








Mum: Oh, so they get them issued in the army? They don’t buy them
themselves?
Dad; No, no.
Mum: Oh right.
Dad: They all get, and it’s not just the army. It’s the navy and the air force and
the marines. So he said you hand, obviously they get them issued and then
they have to hand them back in as they, you know . . .
Interruption
Mum:
Leave.
Dad: . . . as they leave. So he said if, like, one of them, I think’s, a 1980s
marine’s watch. So he said you know that, you know you could argue, well it’s
been to the Faklands because it’s, he said, or, you know, it’s one of them’s an
RAF watch, he said. So you could think, oh well, you know if, he said if you
traced it back cos you might be able to, to, I think, apparently you can trace the
er . . .
Mum: The pilot?
Interruption
Dad: . . . the provinence of it.
Our Conclusions
Same sex overlaps and interruptions
1.2
Mixed sex overlaps and interruptions
1
0.8
3.5
Same Sex
Overlaps
0.6
3
2.5
Mixed Sex
Overlaps
2
Mixed Sex
Interruptions
1.5
1
0.5
0
Male
Female
Same Sex
Interruptions
0.4
0.2
0
Male
Female
Our Conclusions

In mixed sex conversations our results were
the opposite to those found by Zimmerman
and West. We found that women were more
likely to interrupt and overlap.