Gender and Language
Variation
Wolfram & Schilling-Estes
Chapter 8
Why would we expect to find linguistic
differentiation between men and women?
• Social differentiation is reflected in
linguistic differentiation
• The phenomenon exists in other
languages
The role of language ideology
• Two clear-cut categories
• Biological sex (cf. “race”)
• Characteristics grounded in “natural” features of
two groups
– Pitch difference
– Directness
• A caveat: research shows that there is always
more variation within each category than across
categories
“gender” as social construct/practice
• Not: “What gender differences will I
find?”
• Rather: “What sorts of language features
do people use to present themselves as
women vs. men, or as particular kinds of
women of men?”
• Gender is something that one “does”
rather than “has”
Problems in dealing with gender:
• Lack of social separation as with other
social categories
• Intersection of class and ethnicity
8.1 Gender-based Patterns of Variation
as Reported in Dialect Surveys
• Principle I: For stable sociolinguistic variables, men use
a higher frequency of nonstandard forms than women.
– Principle Ia: In change from above [the level of consciousness],
women favor the incoming prestige forms more than men.
• Principle II: In change from below, women are most
often the innovators.
• An apparent contradiction [that women are
simultaneously more linguistically conservative and more
innovative]??
– sociolinguistic variables involved
– social class of woman
8.2 Explaining General Patterns:
• The Prestige-based Approach
• Labov: women are more prestige-conscious
•
than men
Trudgill: more on prestige—
– Women transmit culture through childrearing
– Women’s social position more insecure, so they
attempt to signal social status linguistically
– Women judged not by what they do, but by how they
appear (linguistic “cosmetic” of prestigious language)
– Women avoid vernacular forms associated with
“masculinity” in symbolic value
PROBLEMS: studies that provide contradictory evidence
8.3 Localized Expressions of Gender Relations
• Eckert: “because women have little power
in most communities they seek to acquire
such power in symbolic ways”:
– Standard language variants = power by
association with the most powerful
socioeconomic classes = “symbolic capital”
– Innovative vernacular forms = symbolic
membership in important local social groups
COROLLARY: those who have the real power
don’t need to worry about “symbolic” power
8.4 Communities of Practice:
Linking and Local and the Global
• How is individual behavior (the local) linked to larger
social structures (the global)?
• Qualitative studies based on communities of practice
involve in-depth analysis of the language use of
individuals and small groups
• Studies based on large-scale quantitative samples of
language use by social category provide information on
the “norms” that individuals orient to
• “Although people may mix and match various linguistic
features to project individualized or situationally specific
meanings and identities, they cannot do so randomly,
since linguistic features often derive their social
meanings from association with particular groups, or
particular situations of use.” (p. 247)
8.5 Language-Use-based Approaches:
The “Female Deficit” Approach
• Male speech as the “norm”
8.6 The “Cultural Difference” Approach
• Boys and girls are socialized into different
uses of language
8.7 The “Dominance” Approach
• Men have the power in the society and
exercise it (consciously or unconsciously)
through their use of language
8.8 Further Implications
• Social roles
• Gender as social construct
• Relation of gender to other social factors
• More focus on men’s language
• The idea of meaning as context-
dependent (i.e. certain language forms are
not inherently “strong” or “weak”)
8.9 Talking About Men and Women
• 8.9.1 Generic ‘he’ and ‘man’
• 8.9.2 Family names and terms of address
• 8.9.3 Relationships of association
• 8.9.4 Labeling
8.10 The Question of Language Reform
• Alternatives to “he or she”
• Alternatives to generics
• Avoidance of sexual stereotyping