从社会语言学角度英语语言性别差异字数3365

Gender Differences in the English Language from A Perspective of
Sociolinguistics
2012812059
杨光
Abstract
Language is a symbol system closely related to human life. Gender language, as a social variant of language, with its characteristics and differences, has attracted increasing attention from a great many linguists at home and abroad. The characteristics and differences of the language use between male and female are distinctive. Men and women are the subjects of social activities, language is an important tool of human social activities. The socialization of gender roles leads to the differences of gender in using language. The gender differences in English language have distinctive linguistic characteristics and actual presentations in terms of pronunciations, intonation, vocabulary and syntax from the perspective of sociolinguistics. Through a descriptive and comparative analysis of the language differences between males and females, we tries to find out the causes of formation of gender differences in English language from the perspective of social and cultural background, social position, biology and psychology. The characteristics and differences of the language use between male and female are obvious. The gender differences in English have distinctive linguistic characteristics and actual presentations in terms of pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, syntax and communication from the perspective of sociolinguistics. These differences are closely related to the cultural and historical background, social roles and physiological and psychological features of the females.
Key words:sociolinguistics; gender differences; male; female;
Since the 1960s, the gender differences in sociolinguistics has made remarkable achievements. On the one hand, the study of the phenomenon of language gender differences contribute to a more reasonable explanation of the intricacies of the language phenomenon and to improve the accuracy of the research. On the other hand, it establishes a gender patterns based on the analysis of the language to successfully reveal the relationship between gender differences and class differences and enrich the connotation of the theory of language variation. Specifically it studies choices of language forms and expression by the speaker for the sake of gender differences. As an emerging linguistic variety, it has a parameter identification of applied sociolinguistic[1].
The differences of voice and intonation: From a physiological point of view, the vocal organs of men and women are different. The vocal cords of males are longer and thicker than that of females which lead to gender difference in voice quality. The gender differences of English voice quality is a linguistic phenomenon with social marker from a cultural perspective. The nasalization has a rough, vulgar implication that is not appropriate for females because the females’ behaviors should be graceful. Pitch refers to the frequency of the sound when the vocal cords vibrate. The vocal cords of men are long and thick, the pronunciation of average pitch is lower than the females. Generally speaking, the man's voice frequency is about 100-150 Hz, while the woman’s voice frequency is between 200-325 Hz. The females speak in rising tone which are full of fluctuations and expressiveness, while males are in low tone which have not much changes. The most favorite tones of females are fall-rise and rise-fall that have a subtle and optimistic implication, because there is a strong hint and enthusiastic response. The females often answer questions in rising tone,eg: “When shall we go shopping?”, they always say with consultation: “Oh, around eight o’clock tomorrow morning?” which shows that hesitation, gender ,co nsiderable personality and the virtue of respecting others, sometimes they probably add “if that is ok with you”, “if you agree”. On the contrary males will show fortitude, firm characters using a falling tone. Comparing with males , females take fluent, standardized and authoritative pronunciation seriously, thinking that the pronunciation is an important symbol of their upbringings, whereas males don’t pay attention to the subtle aspects and they are proud of making use of non-standardized forms of pronunciation. Males like to express the subordinate form of –in or the form of –i instead of the form of –ing, so women have more gifts than males.
The gender differences presented in vocabulary: (1)women are good at using
color words. There is a basic vocabulary of color such as black, white, red, yellow, blue, green, gray, brown, orange and so on. Different colors will bring different feelings such as cold and warm feelings, the sense of distance and weight and excitement, so various colors have different symbolic meaning in language, females have a stronger acquisition than males. In 1981, Nowaczyk made a test for Y ork University students focusing on color matching and color description. During a test of matching 20 colors, the female students are able to accurately write 71% of the color names, male students write 46%. 63% of female students are able to describe differences of colors, only 40% of male students can communicate this task. In addition, the results also showed that female students use more complex color terms than males’.(2) From an aesthetic point of view, women have a stronger recognition of color than men because they feel the external form of beauty more deeply than men. Therefore women have an innate cognitive advantages making them possess richer vocabulary , perception ,classification and mental characters of colors than males.(3)A research of sociolinguistics shows that women like to use words to make their own words with emotional meaning such as tone, interjection and exaggerated words as a means of expression of emotion in speech activities. They tend to use the words of showing praise and intimacy in the process of communication. In actual communication they make use of these words to make communication smooth such as so good, such fun, exquisite, lvoely, divine, precious, adorable, charming, fantastic, sweet, darling, baby, babe which are regarded as socially lubricant to expose female emotional performance. The prototype of males is calm, confident .If they use these words ,they should be sissy. Females use more adjectives and adverbs than males to strengthen language power such as so, much, quite, very very, so so, awfully, pretty, terribly, vastly, quite, whereas males tend to use these words such as very, really ,utterly. Males always use the curse, profane, insulting and obscene words and interjection to express their feelings such as shit, damn, piss, cunt, fuck, because their personalities are bold, forthright, strong and ambitious. In the aspect of interjection they will choose Lord, Good lord, Good heavens, Bless my soul, while females choose Oh dear, Goodness, Gracious, Dear me, birdie，bookie，hankie，dearie，sweetie. The following example is cited by Lakoff , we can clearly see the differences of interjection used by men and women:
O h dear, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.
Shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.
Females like to use exaggerated sense of the word such as gorgeous, lovely, cute,
divine, adorable, darling, precious, sweet, charming. eg: Y our dress is too adorable. / He’s a wonderful friend. However males tend to use plain words to strengthen effectiveness such as good, very, really ,utterly. Jesperson found that females would more widely use the word “so” than males to strengthe n the mood and express attitude, eg: It was so interesting.(4)Females will more widely use polite words than males such as please, thanks. They tend to use some euphemism or indirect words to express what they feel inconvenient or undesirable or embarrassed. eg: I have to go powder my nose instead of I need to use the toilet. Would you mind shutting the door, please?
I wonder if you could possibly shut the door, please? “I really appreciate if……”;“I’m very sorry, but……”. As a kind of informal term, slang is often considered as men’s territory, eg: With one’s pants down. Males are willing to say : “you caught me with my pants down”, it won’t be appropriate for women to say that.
Oscar Wilde said: "women are charming, they may never want to say anything, it was enough to make ecstasy swing soul if they said.” The long-standing ritual practices show that women should be gentle, demure and prudent, so women must always pay attention to their demeanor and use graceful and standardized languages , otherwise they will lack self-cultivation. Therefore, in this social atmosphere women should speak in a soft, gentle sound. W omen mental age are earlier than males’ before puberty which makes their understanding of interpersonal relationships and psychology deeper than males. After puberty, males are brave to risk, women are gentle and delicate. These different psychological characteristics determine that there are obvious differences in language style.(1) males’ words are more succinct and direct. An American sociolinguist had ever said that the discourse of women are politer than females’ words because the expressions of women are less confident than males’, women always like to express their views adding "You know", "I think", "I guess" or "I'm not sure" “It seems to me”“Well”, “you know”, “kind of” "Do you think so?” and "Would you please ...? ". The study finds that even if women feel confident about what they say, they are still not confident or hesitant. Women like to use modal words to suggest others instead of ordering others to do something such as could, may, might, should, would. And then they like to use some adverbs of modal meaning to avoid assertion such as maybe, perhaps, probably, possibly, certainly. If they entrust others, women often take an indirect tactful way to say: “I was wondering if you could possibly do me a small favor, if you wouldn’t mind.” But men like bluntly to express their wishes and ideas instead of hesitating. The study also shows that there are some gender differences in the use of the imperative. Women will
use complex sentences or questions whereas men use simple sentences without modifications. The situation in the Lebanon is awful, isn't it?”“They caught the robber last week, didn't they?”
Michael:Grime the pliers (Poochie gives pliers to Michael).
Huey: Get off my steps (Poochie moves down steps) (Coats,1986:107).
If we want others to turn down radio volume, men generally like to use "Please turn down your radio." Women will say "Would you please turn down your radio?" or "Will you please turn down your radio? "[2]. Women also like to use the sentence pattern of Let’s, eg:Sharon: Let’s go around subs and subs.
In general, men often talk about some topics such as work, economy, sports and competition, the topics of women are social life, family, personal affairs and emotional feelings. Comparing with men, women are more willing to talk about the topic directly and candidly reveal their emotions, men seldom reveal themselves in front of others. The reason is that women seek to establish intimate friendship by talking about the topic of personal feelings, Men expect to show prestige and dominance through some serious topics.
Gender differences in word-formation: Modern society is“phallocentric”and “logocentirc”, Derrida points that in a patriarchal society, the word center is very obvious, women are implicit halfly. An American linguists mentioned a typical example in the book of Sexism and Language,
Let me show you the restrictions that would be placed on my daughter...Among the peculiar restrictions placed on her would be that could never really participate in the brotherhood of mankind. And regardless of what her forefathers were, she couldn’t have been born an Irishman, a Frenchman ,or a Dutchman...At school she would have to learn early that she could serve on committees but never be the spokesman or chairman. She could participate in sports, but she could not practice sportsmanship. In baseball she could be a pitcher or a catcher but not the ball boy or the first baseman...even if she rose to real power in the world and became a queen, she couldn’t rule because there are only kingdoms-no queendoms...But if by some happenstance, she did succeed in gaining power in government, the real tragedy is that she could never be a statesman-only a politician.
In the passage we can understand that the whole human race belongs to mankind, the country is a kingdom of mankind, statesman is mankind as well as chairman, policeman, businessman, and salesman, kinsman, countryman, Dutchman, Frenchman. Some words of animals are used to describe the characteristics of human
behaviors, but this evolution is embodied with gender discrimination, eg: chicken( a young girl who has no experience). <Sexismand Language> mentioned that: In her youth, she is a chicken, then she marries and feeling cooped up, so she goes to hen parties where she cackles with her friend.Then she has her brood and begins to henpeck her husband. Finally she turns into an old biddy.
Gender differences in proverbs: English proverb has a long history that records the experience and wisdom of working people in different times. They have some implications of machismo, indicating that women are inferior to men such as
1)A man is as old as he feels and a woman as old as she looks.
2) The beauty of a man is in his intelligence；and the intelligence of the woman is in her beauty.
3) Frailty, thine name is woman.
4) The only secret a woman can keep is that of her age.
5)There are three ways of spreading news-telegraph, telephone, and tell-a-woman.
6) Modesty is the ornament of woman.
7) The more women look in their glass, the less they look to their house.
8) A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they will be.
9) A man of straw is worth of a woman of gold.
Modes of discourse and strategy: Women are willing to cooperate with each other in the conversation, everyone has a chance and turn to speak. At the beginning of the conversation, women tend to explicitly mention the topic which has been said and try to make their own words associate with it and keep the conversation coherent and smooth. Therefore, they always focus on a topic to talk about for a long time, the switch of the topic is relatively slow. Women pay more attention to the listener’s reactions which are reflected in the speech. When someone is talking, the women will response actively and use a a number of words and sentences to express they are listening. They rarely interrupt others and will say something to apologize if they do. Men often exhibit stronger competitiveness in the conversation and seize a chance to control the topics. At the beginning of their conversation men simply say what they want to express, the switch of the topic is abrupt which never has coherence. When others say, they react slowly and seldom agree with others. They often interrupt others but never show their sense of apology. The men who are interrupted are to protest while the women who are interrupted keep silent. So there are many disputes among
men. In addition women like to make use of polite words, the theory of “face” directly points out that the degree of politeness is determined by mutual benefits of people, eg: “Would you mind closing the window?” is politer than “Please close the window”. In Britain people always satisfy the demands of face especially women.
English is an exhibition of gender differences like other languages. The simplest and most obvious difference is the personal pronoun, man is “he” and woman is “she” which are hated by feminists. When the object of gender described is unknown, we often use "he” to represent“he” and “she”, “men” to represent “men” and “women” in the traditional writing rules. But the study shows that when people read or hear "man" or "he", they usually assume to write or say a male, the vast majority of the tested all say that the mind is an image of male not the combination of image of male and female.(Jennifer Griffith)
The underlying causes of the gender difference in the English language: Sociolinguistics defines that a social phenomenon, language reflects society all the time. There are some differences in social division of labor of men and women, so men are regarded as the master of the family and social center holding dominance in the social system. On the contrary women are in the weak, dependent and subordinate position. Gender differences in the language faithfully reflect the social reality. On the other hand , as a carrier of culture language is not only an important part of social consciousness but also the specific manifestations of the culture. In most traditional cultures, people expect women to be gentle, kind and perceptual and men to be strong, calm and decisive. There are different requirements for speaking style and speech acts of men and women in the society based on this starting point. Some linguists believe that men and women grow up in different socio-linguistic context of subcultures, they must learn their own behaviors and communicative ways that are adapt to gender, this cultural background is an important factor of gender differences in the language.
(1)physiological factors: The innate physiological differences of men and women determine language use of “men and women are different”. According to the latest medical research, the left hemisphere of the brain of a woman is much earlier than that of a man that determines women speak standard, fluent and emotional language. In addition the lung capacity of women are less than that of men so the sounds of women are soft and weak while while the male is rugged and powerful.
(2) cultural and psychological factors: In any country and cultural beliefs, people have different expectations of gender roles and behavior thus female languages are cordial, courteous, kind while male languages are rough, arrogant, firm. This inherent
social expectations become a powerful social pressure forcing people to regulate their own behaviors in accordance with their respective gender patterns.
(3) social factors: Language is a special kind of social phenomenon which is created from labor and has close relationship with activities of production. In the traditional concept of western, woman is just a rib of man ,she is subordinate to man. The men represent power, status, domination, etc, the social roles of women are decoration and embellishment. The traditional thinking seriously hinders the female perspective and has direct impact on the political and economic status of women. In this environment, female languages are identified as non-standard or strong so women lack self-confidence and like to rely on others when speaking. With the development of a society, some women go out to work and gain higher positions in certain sectors. There is no gap of personal ability between men and women. Social advancement and enhancement of the ability make women become more and more confident. The gender differences in the English language gradually narrow but there are still arduous tasks and a long road to achieve equality. The gender differences in the English language are rooted in the lower social status of women and dependence on men.
The society is an universe, men and women in it are materials , language is the role of various substances. In short, gender differences in the English language are closely linked with social factors, cultural factors and psychological factors. To some degrees it probes into the needs of the political, economic, cultural style and these factors restrict language use. The correct recognition and understanding of gender differences have significances for parole communication. It can guide the different gender students to learn to use authentic English to express their ideas for their own gender roles and understand language while enhancing the students' awareness of the culture of the target language.
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