malefemale language

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male/female language

• Waldemar Mizich

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Content

• Sex and Gender
• Social Structures Masculinity and Femininity
• Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
  Speech
• Speaking in Reference to Male and Female
• Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages
• Sources

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Male and Female Differentiation Sex vs. Gender

• Sex
• Sex refers to the male and female duality of
  biology and reproduction. An organism's sex
  reflects its biological function in reproduction,
  not its sexuality or other behavior.
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S
  ex)
• Gender
• Although "gender" is commonly used
  interchangeably with "sex," within the academic
  fields of cultural studies, gender studies and
  the social sciences in general, the term "gender"
  often refers to purely social rather than
  biological differences.
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender)

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Social Structures Masculinity and Femininity

• Masculinity
• Masculinity refers to qualities and behaviors
  judged by a particular culture to be ideally
  associated with or especially appropriate to men
  and boys. Distinct from maleness, which is a
  biological and physiological classification
  concerned with the reproductive system,
  masculinity principally refers to socially
  acquired traits and secondary sex
  characteristics.
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity)
• Cicero "a man's chief quality is courage"

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Social Structures Masculinity and Femininity

• Femininity
• Femininity refers to qualities and behaviors
  judged by a particular culture to be ideally
  associated with or especially appropriate to
  women and girls. Distinct from femaleness, which
  is a biological and physiological classification
  concerned with the reproductive system,
  femininity principally refers to socially
  acquired traits and secondary sex
  characteristics.
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femininity)
• In western culture gentleness, patience,
  kindness
• Consideration of different societies and their
  definition of Femininity and Masculinity

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Social Structures Masculinity and Femininity

• Masculinity and Femininity are relative terms
• - some women have more muscle than some men
• - some women weigh more than some men
• - some men have finer hand movement than some
  women
• - some men are more patience than some women
• - some women are more courageous than some men
• examples rainforrest, Japan

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Social Structures Masculinity and Femininity

• female language male and
  female language male
  language
• the majority of people use a combination of male
  and female language

females only
some females, some males
males only
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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Slyles of speech are influenced by many factors
  such as
• - geographical dimensions (place)
• - temporal dimensions (age, time)
• - context of situation (the how, when, where,
  the who with, the what, under what
  circumstances)
• Influence by gender
• one must consider
• The gender of the speaker
• The gender of the hearer
• The gender of the audience
• The gender of the person referred to or spoken of

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Examples/exercise
• A man talks to a man
• Lets get sloshed! (short, vulgar, NOT
  impolite)
• I dont like this topic at all. (formal
  behaviour, audience, statement)
• He was a hell of a man! (talking about
  s.o., compliment)

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• A woman talks to a woman
• Lets meet for a make up party next saturday.
• (informative, polite)
• Do you mind if we change the topic.
• (formal behaviour,
  audience, politeness)
• The guy I met in the elevator had a very bad
  attitude.
• (honest, polite, bad
  experience)

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• A man talks to a woman
• Would you like to have another drink?
• (polite, playing a role,
  thinking of own interest)
• We will discuss the topic tomorrow if you dont
  mind.
• (politeness, formality,
  audience)
• He is a very strange person.
• (covering own antipathy with
  politeness)

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• A woman talks to a man
• You should hurry up honey.
• (indicating time pressure,
  polite, hidden information)
• I will announce my decision tomorrow at 2 pm.
• (formal, audience,
  informative)
• It was an interesting experience to meet him.
• (polite description of a
  bad experience, hiding emotions)

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exercise

• Pretend to be the opposite sex than you are and
  write a short message to your boy/girlfriend
  using female/male language.
• Explain what makes your message sound like a
  man/woman.

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Each sex is bilingual
• - not two languages but two different ways of
• speaking
• formal
• vernacular
• - the more you use fomal language the more it
  becomes a part of your vernacular, not vice versa

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Difference in treating infants and talking to
  them
• - different responses
• Examples
• A father (low voice) speaking to his little son
• Come here, you little nut!
• Hey fruitcake!
• Respond (low voice) of the son Yes dad.
• A father (low voice) speaking to his little
  daughter
• Come here princess.
• Who is daddys sunshine?
• Respond (low voice) of the daughter Im coming
  daddy.

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• A mother (high voice) speaking to her son
• Come here Franky.
• Respond (high voice) of the son Im coming
  mummy.
• A mother (high voice) speaking to her daughter
• Would you like an apple Anna?
• Respond (high voice) of the daughter Yes mummy.

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Tags
• Women use tags differently than man
• women
• Use facilitative tags, which have no
  informational function but an important
  interactional function more often than men
• Quite a nice room to sit in actually, isnt it.
• Expressing personal opinion and value-judgement,
  does not require confirmation from anyone else
• men
• Use tags to acquire information in the first
  place
• You were in Canada last year, werent you?
• Mentioning a fact, which you already know, asking
  for further information about this fact

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Baby talk
• Used to show a certain relationship or to control
  another human being.
• - women use it more frequently than males
• mothers may use it to sons longer than to their
  daughters
• men may use it to their car, or their gun, or
  when they are drunk
• fathers may use it to their small daughters

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Patronizing (male stereotype)
• Often used with children, the mentally
  incompetent, hospitalized patients, females
• Anchorman introduces a female newscaster as
• lovely Jane Doe.
• Female reporter completed her part, the anchorman
  acknowledges it with, Thank you, dear!
• You wouldnt use it to a professional colleague
• However can be considered as a complement as
  well
• Pattern is reversed when a man becomes ill

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Sociolect Differences Dialogues and Styles of
Speech

• Explanations (male stereotype)
• Men are forever explaning things to women.
• Men as givers of information, not receivers
• dominates conversation
• Language of apology (more used by women)
• Women are always asking for pardon, whether or
  not they are to blame for something is not the
  issue.
• But Conversational Rituals, therefore also used
  by men

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Speaking in Reference to Male and Female

• How is you Father? He is fine.
• Where is your Mother? She is in the bedroom.
• Where is my book? Its on the desk.
• I met Alex yesterday. We played ball.
• Where are Ben and Kelly? They are still at
  school.
• Non-specific persons
• Someone tried to get in, didnt (he, she, they)?
• Someone owes you money, doesnt (she, he, they)?

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Speaking in Reference to Male and Female

• Explanation
• Dinosaur Syndrome
• Dinosaurs come in both sexes. We still refer to
  a Dinosaur as he.
• when we say he, we mean both sexes

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Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages

• Paralanguage
• Comprises all extra-speech sounds or
  modifications of speech. These may be separate
  sounds such as whistling, yelling, or tsk-tsk.
  Paralanguage may also consist of modifying
  features accompanying speech in the way of
  quality of voice, pitch, or loudness vocal
  expressions that add emotional and attitudinal
  meaning to the verbal expression.
• (Key, 1996)

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Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages

• Examples
• Biologically conditioned
• High pitch, thin quality of a womans voice
  like that of a child
• Socially conditioned
• female behavior often coincides with childrens
  behavior
• - Women use a higher than usual pitch to
  indicate innocence, femininity, and helplessness
• men use an exaggerated low pitch to signal
  masculinity
• teen-age boys lower their pitch to appear tough
• Imitation of the other sex
• Yes dear, Ill be down in a minute imitated
  by a man
• Aw, just one more little drink. imitated by
  a woman
• Whistle to call someone

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Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages

• Kinesics
• Is body language, any movement from muscular or
  skeletal shift. These body movements result in
  such acts as postural expression, facial
  expression, and gestures.
• (Key 1996)
• Can hardly be described in general
• Consideration of temporal and cross-cultural
  differences
• Example
• childrens games, certain hand movements

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Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages

• Postural behavior
• Women
• women very often tilt their heads (i.e. greeting)
  
• - convey an attitude of coyness or
  submissiveness
• closed legs when sitting
• - clothes effect the walking and sitting posture
  (i.e. mini skirt)
• Men
• men stand and sit with their legs apart

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Nonverbal, Extra-Linguistic Messages

• facial expressions
• Men and women interprete these aspects of
  communication in the same way
• Provide important social and emotional
  information
• Indicate positive and negative mood signs
• mouth
• women smile more than men throughout their
  lifetime
• eye contact
• The meeting of eyes arouses strong emotions
• Different meaning in different cultures

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sources

• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-languag
  e/
• Mary Ritchie, Key. 1996. Male/Female Language
  With a Comprehenssive Bibliography 2nd ed.
  Lanham, MD Scarecrow Press
• Wolfram, Walt and Natalie Schilling-Estes. 1998.
  American English. Dialects and Variation. Oxford
  Blackwell
• Ronald, Wardhaugh. 1998. An Introduction to
  Sociolinguistics. Oxford Blackwell
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femininity
• Deborah, Tannen. 1995. Talking from 9 to 5.
  London Virago Press
• Coates Cameron. 1991. Women in their speech
  communities. London Longman