Gender Differences in Daily Conversation 日常会话中的性别言语差异.doc

日常会话中的性别言语差异gender differences in daily conversationabstractstudy of gender differences in linguistics is one of the eternal topics in a variety of the language. gender difference is an essential feature in human society. gender is considered to play an important role in interpersonal communication. in the chinese and western countries there are many studies about the gender differences. mostly linguists analyze and study the gender differences in aspects in detail. from the daily life and their practices the linguists make some conclusions that there exist significant differences in the use of the language of men and women, those differences are mainly reflected in using the polite words in the daily , the topics in conversation and some taboos using in the daily communication. they also point out that there are several big gaps in the conversational styles, those differences are mirrored through dominance and passivity; direct and indirect; cooperation and competition. those are the master differences of the men and women. furtherly they research the reasons and impacts of the gender differences. in order to analyze and explore the two main forms in the performance of the gender differences, namely the different language using and different conversational style, and also explore the main reasons causing the gender differences, we refine some novel views about the gender differences. from the chinese and western general theoretical approaches of gender differences, through citing specific examples, it elaborates the gender differences in different aspects. and it researches the different characteristics demonstrated by the language use and the conversational styles. whats more it analyzes and explores a series of problems and the influences arising from them. key words: gender differences; the language use; the conversational style内 容 摘 要性别语言差异在多种文化的不同语言中，是语言学研究的永恒话题之一。性别差异是人类社会的一个基本特征。在中西方国家中有很多关于性别言语差异的研究，许多的社会语言学家们认为男女在语言的使用中存在着很大的差异，并认为男性和女性在使用语言方面和会话风格方面有着比较大的差距。在语言使用方面通常表现在日常的礼貌用语, 日常的交谈话题和一些常用的禁忌语的使用。在会话风格方面他们存在的差异比较大，男性通常比女性主动直接易反驳，相反女性则表现为被动委婉易接受。继而从中西方研究性别差异的理论分析性别言语差异的两个主要的表现形式即语言使用差异和会话风格差异，以及造成其差异的主要原因.因此通过举出实例来具体研究和探讨使用语言和会话风格在性别差异上所表现出来的不同特点，分别做出研究和分析。并探讨由此引起的一系列的问题和所产生的影响。关键词: 性别差异；语言使用；会话风格contentsintroduction11. general review of gender study21.1 gender differences research in western countries21.2 gender differences research in china42. gender differences in using the language52.1 politeness52.1.1 interruption62.1.2 minimal responses72.2 topics92.2.1 topic choice92.2.2 topic control102.3 swearing and taboo language113. gender differences in conversational style123.1 dominance or passivity133.2 direct or indirect143.2.1 tag questions143.2.2 hedging expression163.3 cooperation or competition174. causes and effects of gender differences in conversation174.1 cause184.1.1 the cultural factors184.1.2 the social factors194.2 effects204.2.1 miscommunication204.2.2 complementary21conclusion21notes23bibliography24acknowledgement25iiiintroductionsince the later of the 20th century, there has been a worldwide interest in gender differences in conversation. more and more social linguists study the gender differences in conversation. gender is considered to play an important role in interpersonal communication. as we all know that sex differences are fundamental features of human life, and women and men have known that they often possess different goals, values, believe and approach to life. so they think that in their minds there are existing some different kinds of power which it will emotive people to do different things. those differences are mainly mirrored through the language using differences and the conversational styles. in the language using many people think that women always use the polite words and downy statements, while men use swearing and taboo words in using language. this is the master distinct feature of men and women in daily conversations. and in daily conversation men and women are also different in choosing the talking topics. in common we are all conscious that each person has his own characters, so that men and women have taken shape their own unique conversational styles, the differences between men and women are mainly manifested in dominance and passivity; direct and indirect; cooperation and competition. that is to say, men speak imitatively; directly and competition. on the contrary women are in passivity, speak indirectly, and cooperation. every thing may bring and arouse the different causes and the effects because of their differences; this is the same to the gender differences. from the large extent, the social and the cultural factors are mainly influenced the gender gaps. so that the gender differences in conversation will make people miscommunication with others, and differences will make them learned from other gender. this paper mainly analyses differences gender in using the language and in conversational style in daily conversation. and the causes and effects are influenced by gender differences. 1. general review of gender studysince in the 20th century, the gender language research was prevailing, especially in western countries. and at the same time gender language research is on the whole a new branch of learning in china. 1.1 gender differences research in western countriesgender differences have been studied long time in the field of sociology, anthropology, linguistics, education, etc. by scholars all over the world. in ancient times many greek linguists have been brought up this view, it is not pay great attention to other famous linguists and psychologists. unfortunately the view was not popular because it was not acceptable. until in sixteen century eighties, the language research on this topic began to come into being and gradually became systematic. in concrete terms, this theory stemmed from the linguist mulcusters description and analysis of pronunciation differences between men and women. form the beginning, many people supported that just only man has the right to speak at the front of others; womens language is nothing than the mens. even more women have not chance to debate and to win their respect. with the improvement of womens liberation and the growth of linguistic, many researchers had further studied the gender language, and the gender differences have been attached by more and more scholars. at length much more researchers set store by these ideas; therefore, they become more and more important variable studies in linguistics. after that so many linguists air their views one after another, for example, robin lakoff published language and womens place and womens language which probe into gender language and womens social place.1 and bolinger tried to find out a way of reforming women-biased language in the sociological aspect. to our surprised, this theory extended to other fields. many linguists use new approaches to orient towards the macro language usage. recently, with the advancement of the study, the approach of gender differences study has changed from intra-linguistics to inter-linguistics perspectives, which involves womens study, anthropology, etc. in the field of education, many scholars study the relationship of gender differences and education from different angles pedagogies, educational psychology, second language acquisition etc. they have done quantitative research in different parts of the works and collected data to support their assumptions. their researches concluded that gender bias, partially revealed through gender differences in conversation. time has seen their accomplishments. as far as gender differences and second language acquisition are concerned, many qualitative, researches have been conducted in western countries to study the relationship between gender differences in english as a second language and english as a foreign language.21.2 gender differences research in chinaits very hard to make sure about when gender research came into being in china although its very early to start gender research in the west. as for as the author is concerned, gender language was commented by gu hongming in 1915 in his article chinese women, a part of his famous book the spirit of chinese people. gender language research, as a new branch of study, made a start after cultural revolution, with the publication of chen yuans sociolinguistics and his language and social life and chen songcens introduction to sociolinguistics. their books filled the gap in gender language research in contemporary china and are typical textbooks of gender language research in chinese linguistics. in early 1980s, gender language research in china also came up in foreign language research field. but most of the books and articles are only introduction to western theories and findings on gender language research. with the prosperity of cultural communication and the development of academic study in china, recent studies are reaching its popularity among scholars of both chinese linguistics and foreign language research. the study of this topic in china mainland has made much progress, especially that of gender differences in conversation among chinese people. it seems that much quantitative research approaches are employed in gender differences in conversation. the study of gender difference in conversation finds its way in mainland. this dissertation attempts to make a systematic analysis of gender differences in china mainland from the perspective of using language and conversational styles.2. gender differences in using the languageabove we discuss the theory of the gender differences, linguists study the theory from different aspects, many differences in gender language using in daily conversation will be demonstrated from three aspects: politeness, topics, swearing and taboo language. 2.1 politenessin this thesis, polite is in general sense. according to the dictionary, polite refers to “having or showing that one has good manners and consideration for other people”. politeness means “quality of being polite”. from the literature and the daily performances, and depend on some gender language research, both chinese and western women are more polite than men. now we analyze the politeness mainly in two aspects: interruption; minimal response.2.1.1 interruptioninterruption, from the literal sense, thats refers to one break off another conversation. it is the violation of the turningtaking rules of conversation. speaker begins to speak while current speaker is still speaking, at a point in current speakers turn which could not be defined as the last word. interruption break the symmetry of the conversational model: the interrupter prevents the speakers from finishing their turn, at the same time gaining a turn for themselves. interruption in mostly peoples mind is regarded as an impolite action. this opinion has been inheritance from our foremen. the degree of interruption is different from different situations. now we discuss the interruption in the two aspects, thats the singlesex conversations and crossconversations.in singlesex conversation; girls had interruption but not as many as that in the singleconversations among boys. as we know that most girls do not willing to interruption the conversation, because they think that ones qualities are represented by their manner and action. they are paying more attention to their own appearance. however, boys think that if they are too disciplinary, they are considered as so-called weak men, and will not have dignity among their friends. therefore, they consider that if they take with other at any time, they think they will be regarded as vigor, personality, and aspiration.in crosssex conversation, we know that boys are more serious than their manners in the single-sex conversations. we also know that boys are more daring in communication with girls. this manner represents they do not respect the girls fully. however, girls in the cross-sex conversations are more conventional, more polite. this is consistent with the research concerning interruptions by zimmerman and west.32.1.2 minimal responsesminimal responses are the ways of indicating the listeners positive attention to the speaker. whether you are polite and respect others, one can judge from your attitudes and your responses. when you listen to someone whoever they are, you must listen to them carefully, so that they will regard you as an educational and polite man. the fact that the listener shows politeness in conversation can be signaled by minimal responses as well as those paralinguistic features such as smiling, nodding and so on. minimal responses demonstrate active attention on the part of the listener and his support of the speakers topic or his encouraging speaking to let the conversation move on quickly, even if you do not interest in the topic which the listener talk about. many people think that they have no responsibility and duty to listen to someone who has no relationship with us and what he talks about is not aspiring. even thought we are in this situation, according to chinese traditional virtues, we should endure and accept humbly. in this aspect, girls are paying more attention to minimal responses than boys. in the single-sex group, girls provide more supportive feedback or positive minimal responses because they have not considered so many other things. and in the cross-sex group, the girls did more than boys did. this indicates that girls in the conversation whether in single or cross are more polite, and give more minimal responses than boys. in fact, minimal responses, from its literal sense, it refers to when one listen to a speaker, one just give some simple actions or manners, or give some simple verbal symbols, like “mum”, ”yeah,” ”hmm” and so on. and they are common features of conversational interaction. unfortunately, as the linguists daniel maltz and ruth borker pointed out, men often interpret such responses as indications of agreement. the result is that they are often surprised when women subsequently act in ways that are inconsistent with such agreement. such perceived inconsistently leads to conclude that one can never tell what women really think. in contrast, men are more likely to sit quietly as they listen, making no response at all. and it is very easy for everyone to give minimal responses in conversations, using the minimal responses will bring a newly reorganization from others. on the whole, girls are more likely to give responses and good at giving responses whether in cross-sex talks or in single-sex talks and therefore are more polite. one point i want to mention again is that girls here refer to girls as a group. individualistic traits are not taken into consideration. 2.2 topicseveryone wants to talk to someone, they must talk about something, or they need to find some topics which they interested to chat. to communicate with others we should select the topic and should know how long we need, so we should know the two aspects of topic: topic choice and topic control.2.2.1 topic choicein daily communication, we always like to talk about everything, but there are some different topics in different gender. girls and boys have different views about their daily topics. girls often talk about style of clothes, cosmetics, colors, fashion, boys, teachers, films, and songs, short messages, job-hunting, exams while boys talks were more about current affairs, sports, girls, teachers, short messages, job-hunting, computer, teasing and exams. many people take their casual in dining hall and during rest time shows, when they got together, girls seldom talked about dressing etc. and boys seldom talked about sports, girls. in different places people may choice different topics to talk and to discuss. in the single-sex conversations, maybe people do not consider much more things than in the cross-sex conversations. if you talk with your friends, perhaps you can talk anything. but when you talk with dissimilar person, you should choice the topics carefully, so that the conversation will move on fluently. in different situations we should choice the suitable topics to talk, good choice of the topics will make your conversation successfully and there will have many friends around you. in chinese culture “principle of politeness” is a very important element under which people tend to choose topics that are of interest to all of them even on surface. 2.2.2 topic controlwhen you start to make a conversation, you should prepare your topics and you need to estimate how long you will keep the conversation, especially in some business affairs, interviews, lectures, and so on. in single-sex conversations, girls observed the conversational rules especially were concerned not to violate turn-taking principle. boys in single-sex conversations were competitive and tried to grab the floor, that is, they tried to control the topic being discussed. it was boys in cross-sex conversations, who interrupted more, challenged, disputed, ignored and therefore controlled what topics were being discussed.2.3 swearing and taboo languagewe have discussed in previous sections that girls language is more polite than boys, in a word, more ladylike. boys and girls also differ in the use of swear words and other taboo expressions. generally speaking, boys more frequently use stronger expletives whereas girls are expected to use weaker profanity words. moreover both boys and girls swear more in single-sex groups and boys swear much less in crossed-sex conversations than in single-sex groups. whether in single-sex group or cross-sex group girls used much less swear or taboo language. due to different cultural factors, many languages may consider as the taboo in different places. in different places the taboo language may use differently. most cultures, and thus most languages, have words which are considered taboo. in english-speaking western cultures, swearing involves taboo reference to