社会语言学

An Analysis of the Features and Causes of Female Language1401 全雪萍1430100137Introduction:The study of gender language has a long history. As early as 1922, Jens Otto Harry Jesperson has specially opened up a chapter of “ The Women” in his book Language, which discusses the language differences between men and women. Since the 1970s, some famous scholars such as Lakoff , Trugill and others advanced the study to systematize the study of gender study.In recent years, the studies of “female language” are increasing in many magazines and books, which draws much attention. Many researchers have almost reached the same conclusion that women have their own language. Crosby and Nyquist got the conclusion from their studies: the so-called female language is not existed since women are born, but this kind of language reflects the people in the society always put the female in this position that is hard to change.In our society, the female language is characterized by a lack of social status. In this paper, I will start from the features of female language, and simply discuss the factors of its formation.I.The features of female languageMany observers believe that men and women are different in language communication. The female language exists in any language as a widespread phenomenon. Men and women have different choices in expressing ideas when they use the same language. For example, abstract nouns have gender differences in grammar, men call women as “ feminine”, while women call men as “masculine”. The education received by women is that they tone should be soft when they talk; do not refute others; be gentle and modest in language communication; avoid arbitrary or offending others; be aware of overconfidence. The features of female language can be summarized from following aspect：the choice of words, the choice of syntactic and pronunciation and intonation.1.The choice of wordsBoth men and women have their partial words, which can be said that a considerable number of words have been given the label of “feminine” or “masculine”. Men don‟t use( scorned, unwilling to use) some peculiar words in female language that is “ feminine” words. At the same time, women also avoid the “ masculine” expressions. Women often express their feelings without control, they like exaggeration when they talk, so they have the following characteristics of choosing words:1)Like using exaggerated adjectives, such as divine, charming, cute, gorgeous, heavenly” andso on. Men sometimes also use these words, but they rarely use these words to express the same meaning in terms of tradition. “ What a divine idea!” obviously comes from a woman‟s mouth.2)Like using some degree adverbs to emphasize, also like choosing some adverbs to strengthenadjectives, such as “ so” “quite” etc. Lakoff( 1972) and Tarone (1979) prove that men like using “very” and “really” while women like using “so”.3)Are good at using some color words, especially some rare color words, such as “ lavender,magenta, aquamarine”.4)Like adding “-ie” or “-y” after some words or appellations to express “intimacy” or “ little”,such as “ auntie, Billy” etc.5)Women pay more attention to the elegant, subtle language, and try to avoid vulgar words.Such as “ shit, damn, hell”, they prefer to say “ oh dear, god, my Heavens” and some other more gentle and implicit words.6)Using euphemism instead of unpleasant meanings or disrespectful expressions.7)Using more expressions marked as courtesy. Such as “ thank you”, “please” etc.2.The choices of syntacticSyntactic of female language doesn‟t have distinctive features like vocabulary of female language, but some features still show the gender differences in language. Women often use the following syntactic structures:1)Tag questionsWe find that women often add tag questions after some statements, in order to show courtesy, politeness and euphemism. They seldom use direct w ays to express their feelings. They don‟t say “ He can‟t do that.” , but say “He can‟t do that, can he?”. For example, nurses often say “ We are going to have our temperature taken, aren‟t we?”2)Ambiguous sentences and subjunctive mood sentencesWomen often use ambiguous sentences for showing respectfulness, politeness to the hearers. For example, the family nanny often use this kind of sentences: we are going to take our snap or go right to sleep.” women pay more attention to avoid direct order s or requests when they talk. For example, they always say “ Would you like to wash the dishes?”when they want their husband to wash the dishes.3)The regulating structureUsing this kind of very kind and polite structure can express tentative requirements or suggestions, also can avoid direct response. Using some words like “ I suppose, I think, I guess” or some uncertain words like “ probably, possibly, sort of, kind of” reflects women‟ s less confidence and less decisiveness than men.4)Standard syntactic formsWomen are more conscious than men in the use of standard syntactic forms. For example, women rarely use nonstandard multiple negatives . Besides, fewer nonstandard words are also found in female language.3.Pronunciation and intonationMen and women have phonetic differences in language, in addition to natural factors of voice forming, many phonetic differences between men and women in language are caused by social factors. It is widely acknowledged that women‟ s pronunciation are more standard, so it‟s more close to “ Received Pronunciation”(RP). Women lead the standards of language changes. Trugill and Fisher …s studies showed that the majority of men (62.2%) pronounce the “ing” to “in”, while only 28% women pronounce to “in” women have more opportunities to pronounce the lateral “ ɪŋ” than men. ( Trugill, 1983: 86)And women have more intonation changes than men, so women are more expressive. Generally speaking, women often use rising intonation in conversation in statement sentences to express in order to show their respect and create a relaxing atmosphere, not as decisive and affirmative as men using falling intonation. Because women do not have much assurance to show their decisive and affirmative attitude than men. For example:Husband: when will dinner be ready?Wife: Oh..., around six o‟ clock ?Although the wife can affirm that when dinner will be ready, she still use rising intonation to answer her husband in order to show her uncertainty and timidity.II.Factors contributing to the development of female language changes1.Physical and psychological factorsWomen‟ s physiological characteristics determine some features of female language, such as the high peach of tone, and they can master the correct language forms easily. Female unstable social status makes them very sensitive to the standard language which can reflect people‟s identity and status. In order to obtain the same power and status of men, women have been trying their best to use superior or standard language all the time in order to establish their own gender pronouns. This is why women‟ s language style and accent are closer to the standard and more elegant than men. Women tend to accept the idioms and jargons of so-called upper class for improving their social status. Women are the pioneers who brought standard language to their communities, and their language is bound to affect their offspring. Female language usually is more tactful, hesitant and ambiguous. On one side, it shows women‟ s lack of confidence; on the other side, it symbolizes the features of female language in female politeness theory.2.Social factorsThe language differences between men and women are also caused by many social factors such as cultural differences, social status and roles, they also reflect the different interests and different reactions to others of men and women. In almost every language society, men are always in the powerful and dominant position, while women are obedient and subordinate, thus female language also companies with consulting and obedience. Because women‟ s status and power on society are relatively inferior to men, they need to be timid, gentle, subtle and uncertain and like using rising intonation and avoiding problems. And the society specifies higher standards f or women‟ s words and deeds, so women often use mild and correct language style to communicate with others as possibly as they can in order not to offend others and to be discriminated. The duty of bearing and parenting children also makes them try to use polite and standard language. Besides, women pay more attention on the elegance of language than men, they prefer some pleasant words to get others‟ acknowledgment , even when they express their dissatisfaction. And women …s pronunciation is more correct and standard, it proves that men enjoy higher power in language using than women, women have to be obey the conventional standards.III.ConclusionThe gender differences of language is the result of different social division of labor and different position in social political and economic life of men and women, language will also change instantly if social attitudes towards men and women have some change. With the promoting of women‟ s power and status, the gender differences of language will also have different reflections. Now more and more women come to society, social work makes women become more confident when they talk, they still prefer gentle and tactful language, but they add more strength and flexibility to their language and the skills of female language also have been widely promoted. With the improvement of social civilization, the gender differences of language will be gradually reduced, even there will be no obvious differences in the future.References:Judith Orasanu et al. ( edt ). Language, Sex and Gender: Does La Difference Make a Difference? [M]. New York: The New York Academy of Science, 1979.Lakoff, R. Language and Women‟ s Place [M]. Harpers ＆Row Publishers, 1975.Trugill, D. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction [M]. Penguin Books, 1974.程欣，从女性语言特点看英语中性别歧视现象[M]. 郑州航空工业管理学院学报(社会科学版), 2011(30): 164-167.李红艳，论英语中女性语言的特点和对女性的语言性别歧视现象[M]. 中山大学研究生学刊(社会科学版), 2005(26): 122-128.于崇洛，张广保，美语中的女性语言[J]. 临沂师范学院学报, 2001(2):133-135.张爱玲，论女性语言的特点及其文化内涵[J]. 外语界, 1995(1):73-79.张从江，论英语中女性语言的特点[J]. 齐齐哈尔大学学报, 2002(7): 79-80.。