Language and Gender: Do women and men talk differently?

The research on language and gender has been essential in providing answers regarding the sociolinguistic variation associated with speaker 's gender. One of the main topics widely discussed in gender and language research is concerning the difference in language between men and women. This assignment is an attempt to answer the question: Do women and men talk differently? I will thoroughly investigate the question looking at the evidence which suggests women and men differ in language as well as examine how it differs. I will also search to discover the motivating factors which make women and men speak differently. I will include some personal observations in relation to language use and gender, based on conversations I have participated in or overheardI will examine gender as a sociolinguistic variable in speech behaviour. Britain (2005) explains 'sociolinguistic variation ' as "the study of the way language varies and changes in communities of speakers and concentrates in particular on the interaction of social factors and linguistic structures." Language and gender research can be divided into two main categories. The first category is concerning the relationship between language and sexism, wherein the general attitudes towards both sexes seems to reflect in language too. For example, some language forms indicate towards the superiority of men and position women negatively. However, in this assignment I will be concentrating on the second category which focuses on the difference in language between men and women. In this kind of research, two main areas of language behaviour have been examined. Wodak (1997:1) points these out as "speech behaviour of men and women on the phonological level and interactions (conversational styles) between women and men in discourse."As far as terminology is concerned, the category under discussion will be 'gender ' as opposed to 'sex '. It is important to make the distinction between the two terms so that, as Wodak (1997:2)

Bibliography: aalen, I.V. (2001) 'Male and female language: growing together? ' Internet Journal :Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguistics,19th April 2001 Available from : http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/hsl_shl/van%20Baalen.htm [Accessed 19 January 2006]Bayley, R. (2002). The Quantitative Paradigm In Chambers, JK, Trudgill, P. & Schilling-Estes, N. (Eds) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change Malden: Blackwell Publishing LtdBergvall, V.L. (1999). 'Toward a comprehensive theory of language and gender '. Language in Society Vol.28, No.2, pp. 273-293Britain, D. (2005) 'Sociolinguistic variation ' in Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, 11th May 2005 Available from : http://www.lang.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/goodpractice.aspx?resourceid=1054 [Accessed 18 January 2006]Chambers, JK, Trudgill, P. & Schilling-Estes, N. (2002) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Malden: Blackwell Publishing LtdCoates, J. (1993) Women, Men and Language (2nd ed) .London and New York: LongmanCoates, J. & Cameron, D (eds.) (1989) Women in Their Speech Communities. London: LongmanCrawford, M. (1995) Talking Difference: On gender and Language.London: SageFreed, A.F. & Greenwood, A.(1996). Women, men, and type of talk: What makes the difference? Language in Vol.25, No.1, pp. 1-26Holmes, Janet (1984): "Women 's Language: A Functional Approach". General Linguistics 24/3: 149-178. Horesh, U. (2001) Language and Gender: Women 's language and men 's language Linguistics 001: Introduction to LinguisticsAvailable from: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2001/ling001/gender.html[Accessed 20 January 2006]Kunsmann, P. (2000) Gender, Status and Power in Discourse Behavior of Men and Women, Jan 2000 Linguistik online ISSN 1615-3014: Vol 5 Available from: http://www.linguistik-online.de/1_00/KUNSMANN.HTM [Accessed 21 January 2006]Milroy, J. (2002) Social Networks In Chambers, JK, Trudgill, P. & Schilling-Estes, N. (Eds) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change .Malden: Blackwell Publishing LtdMoore, A. (2006) Language and gender Universal Teacher Available from: http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm#intro [Accessed 18 January 2006]Nichols, P.C. (1998) Black Women in the Rural South: Conservative and Innovative In Coates (Eds) Language and Gender: A Reader UK: Blackwell Publishing LtdPatrick, P.L (2005) Notes on Sex and Gender-linked Patterns of Variation University of Essex, Dept. of Language and Linguistics Available from: http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/lg232/SexLinkNotes.html [Accessed 18 January 2006]Talbot, M. (1998) Language and Gender: An Introduction .Cambridge: PolityTannen, D. (1990).You Just Don 't Understand, Women and Men in Conversation, New York: Ballantine Books. Wodak, R. (1997) Gender and Discourse .London: Sage.