阐释DifferencesGender试述Differences试述in试述Verbal试述Communication要求

Abstract：This paper aims to analyze the gender differences of language use at the level of pronunciation, lexicon and syntax in order to proclaim gender equality in the aspect of language use.
Key words：gender difference;verbal communication;social status
1672-1578（2013)07-0003-02
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication, which implies that la源于：论文格式范文www.618jyw.com
nguage is human specific. To be human is to use language in speech and writing in order to be a person. Obviously our human beings tend to cluster into social networks. Males and females can be considered as two large different and independent social groups. The question is to whether there is gender difference between them is still being debated. There is, however, such unanimous opinion that possible gender differences in language use do exist. This thesis just aims to make a brief observation on such issue.
1 Distinction between Sex and Gender
Sex is annotated as different from gender. A working definition in use by the Webster’s New World Dictionary is that sex is “either of the two divisions, male or female, into which persons, animal, or plants are divided, with reference to their reproductive functions.”. The concept of gender is the interpreted identity that males and females choose to take on. In the Oxford English Dictionary, gender is defined as" a euphemi for the sex of a human being, often intended to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes.", French female writer and feminist Beauvior pointed out that the basic gender characteristics of human beings may form certain styles due to social and cultural factors, and he influence upon human beings thoughts and behiors. In brief ,gender refers tp the social and cultural sex distinguished by social cognitive psychology. Therefore the study on gender differences of language use should be carried out from the aspect of gender instead of sex.
2 The Origin of the Research of Language and Gender
Gender, as an sociological issue and an important part of interpersonal communication, has received growing attention in recent years. Over the last decades, many researchers in the West he done much work on the gender differences in language use. F. Mauthner was the first linguist who concluded that gender differences in communication are the result of male and female inequality in society. The earliest research also began with Danish linguist Otto Jesperson. In 1922, the concept “women’s language” was put forward in his book Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, in which he describes differences in women’s speech compared to men’s speech claiming that women’s vocabulary as less extensive and the periphery of language and the development of new words are only for men’s speech. In 1960’s rose females rights movement in the western countries resulting in the belief that language is the symbol of family and social structure. Robin Lakoff is a representative those days. In his book Language and women’s place he found that “Women’s speech contains more linguistic expressions of uncertainty than men’s speech does. Women tend to use more tag questions hedges, and question intonation patterns in declarative sentences, which suggests a degree of uncertainty or a lack of assertiveness.” This paper is, from the practical standpoint, to make the research on this issue in the actual verbal communication. 3 Different Gender Styles in Language Use.
In human history, our society has developed stereotypical male and female gender identities. Men obviously speak in a different ways from women. For example woman’s voice is biologically of a higher frequency than men’s because of the difference in theirvocal organ structure.. But more importantly the differences are socially determined. Such difference can be found in the aspects of language system—pronunciation, lexicon and syntax.
In term of pronunciation , men and women may use different intonations when saying declarative sentences. Woman usually use rising tone whereas men are often likely to use falling tone which suggests men’s dominance and women’s submission. So Men would utter the last syllable /trai/ in a falling tone while women with rising tone in the sentence I wish I’d he a try; men are more likely to drop final /g/ sound and initial/h/ as in the words “singing” or “hot”; women tend to drop their accents when they feel that they are in a position where they he to make a good impression or when they are on the phone.
In daily conversation, men and women for different topics and aspects of life. Therefore they he different vocabulary stored in their mental lexicon. Generally, women are more likely to use words describing colors, clothes, house keeping, child caring, weight losing, body building and beauty treatment while men would for vocabulary describing cars, sports, politics, stock and military affairs. In addition, In English there are words that seem to be reserved for men to use such as “Dame”, “Shit” , “Fuck” with only “Oh”,” dear”, “My God”, “Gosh” left for women which can reduce their shyness and retain their humbleness. Lastly women prefer empty adjectives such as “divine”, ”charming”,” lovely” to show their good manner and their care for others.
Besides word choosing, women and men are different in grammar structures as well. Women like saying hedging phrase such as “sort of”, ”kind of”, “It seems like…” “I guess”. Tag question is also another linguistic strategy for women like “isn’t it?”, ”didn’t they?”. When uttering imperative sentences, women would rather choose indirect speech than direct speech. For example, “ Would you please stop watching TV?” instead of “I’m asking you to stop watching TV?”. Female speakers tend to use more standard forms or fewer non-standard forms of language than male speakers from the same social class. When quoting other people’ words, women usually quote d摘自：毕业论文格式www.618jyw.com
irectly while men, on the other hand, are inclined to illustrate, paraphrase, or explain them. When faced with a necessary change into a new speech community, females tend to adapt their dialects to that of the new situation while men choose to maintain their original dialects. The last difference is that women are likely to take much more efforts to include others by using the first person plural and more willing to discuss issues raised by others. But men like to interrupt the conversation and start their new topics. 4 The Causes of Identified Gender Difference
The differences discussed above denotes that gender difference in language use is a complicated matter and different factors can be the explanation for such phenomenon. A common explanation would be that different social positions for men and women lead to their different ways to speak. Women are traditionally seen to play a subordinate role in male dominant society and this is what form the mode of their speech. So their linguistic insecurity is well reflected by their inadequate confidence and assertiveness in speech. Women speak as they do because of the greater social pressure on women to conform to various norms which regulate the use of proper speech forms associated with mainstream social values, high-class speech and school education. Only in this way can they show their respectability refinement and social status. Compared with women, men are more free to make their own language modes. In most cases, they play a role as brilliant conversationalists by starting a conversation on their won or making constant interruption or overlaps here and there during a conversation.
Another reason is that men and women belong to different subcultures. They grow up in different cultures. The talk between men and women can be regarded as a form of cross-cultural communication. The differences in men’s and women’s speech are interpreted as reflecting and maintaining gender-specific subcultures. In general, fameless in their childhood are expected to behe better than males in a lady manner while males are expected to be aggressive and competitive like heroes .That is the reason why in speech women are more supportive, cooperative and sympathetic whereas men are more dominant ,assertive and subjective.
5 Conclusion
It is acknowledged from the above discussion that gender differences indeed exist in male –and-female verbal communication. No matter what speech patterns the two genders prefer, the language they use is neither good or bad, superior or inferior even though they apply different ways in the pronunciation, the use of words, and grammar structures. However, the steps towards the total equality of social status is going to be a lengthy process. It will be up to the society to decide what is acceptable or unacceptable.
References：
Victoria Neufeldt. Webster’s New World Dictionary[Z].New York: Simon&Schuster Inc.,1988.
Otto.jesperson. Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin[M].London: Allen and Unwin,1922.
[3]Robin.Lakoff. Language and Women’s place[M].New York: Harper &Row,1975.
[4]Zhao Rong-hui. Language and Gender[J].Foreign Language Research,2002(4).
作者简介：刘娟（1964-），女，四川内江人，内江师范学院外国语学院，学历：学士，副教授，主要研究方向：英语语言学和英语教学。