Analysis of Sex Differences in Representatives in Business Context.docx

analysis of sex differences in representatives in business contextabstract：this thesis is a study of sex differences in representatives in business context. based on the analysis of some episodes in business communication, the author finds that males and females perform differently in observing cooperative principle (cp) and politeness principle (pp) when making representatives. psychological and social factors are the main causes. this thesis presents two suggestions to eliminate the negative effects of sex differences in business communication: (1) females should be more confident, and try to use more positive language styles; (2) males should be more concerned about females inferior status in business communication and show their respect to women. this research can help eliminate misunderstanding in business communication and improve the efficiency of business negotiation.key words: sex differences representatives business context商务语境下示意语言的性别差异分析摘要：本文主要研究商务语境下示意语言文的性别差异。通过对商务谈判中具体语料的分析，作者指出，男性和女性在使用示意言语行为时，对语言的合作原则和礼貌原则的遵守存在性别差异。心理和社会因素是引起差异的主要原因。文章提出消除其对商务交流负面影响的两个建议：（1）女性应更加自信, 多采用积极的语言风格；（2）男性应注意女性的弱势地位，尊重女性。 这项研究对如何消除商务交流中的误解，提高商务谈判的效率有一定的帮助。关键字：性别差异 示意语言 商务语境1. introduction1.1 sex differences in language studysex differences exist in different languages of different cultures. it is one of the eternal topics in linguistic study, which can date back to 1664. although linguists have examined the relationship between gender and language for many years, there is little consensus about this relationship from the pragmatic perspective, which needs to be studied further.1.2 speech act theory speech act theory refers to utterances in the uttering of which, in appropriate circumstances, one performs particular actions. it is initiated by austin (1962), and includes five types of speech acts: (1) declaration; (2) representatives; (3) expressives；(4) directives; (5) commisives. representatives refer to the speech act in which the speaker states what is believed or known. for example, i state the earth is a globe. representatives commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition.speech acts vary in gender and setting, which causes great difficulties in our daily communication. it is very important for foreign language learners to understand the differences between men and women when they make speech acts in business setting. these differences may lead to pragmatic failure in communication. how to help learners to develop this communicative ability in business setting? is it possible to conduct an effective pedagogical approach in efl teaching in nonnative background? this is a challenge to traditional way of business english teaching. 1.3 rationale of the study many speech acts studies have been conducted and valuable data have been obtained. however, few studies have paid attention to the differences when men and women make representatives in business context. therefore, it is of necessity to make the present study. the results would be useful for students in understanding how to properly make representatives when doing business.2. literature review2.1 studies on sex differences generally speaking, the study of sex differences in language is divided into two periods: the period before the 1960s and the period after the 1960s (zhao 1999). the study on gender differences before the 1960s is scattered and the study after the 1960s is systematic. it is until the beginning of the 20th century that the issue of sex differences has really attracted linguists attention and has been studied in the field of linguistics. the first linguist who studied gender differences is danish linguist jespersen, who discussed the characteristics of womens language and pointed out sex differences in vocabulary and syntax. jespersen found out that vocabulary used by females was quite different from that used by males: females used more euphemistic expressions and less swears than males. he also pointed out that it was easier for males to accept innovations of language than for females, and females were more conservative than males in language use. jespersen also thought that in the aspect of syntax, males used more compound sentences than females. anyway, the study on sex differences in this period was just scattered and didnt come to the central point of linguistics. most theories regarded the language used by males as the standard language, while the language used by females as the one deviating from the males standard language. obviously, it was a point of view which discriminated females in language use. a systematic study on gender differences has begun since the 1960s because of the growth of sociolinguistics and the development of feminist social movement in the west. sex, emerging as an important variable in sociolinguistics, together with language, has attracted much more attention and been widely discussed by more and more scholars. in the 1970s, many sociolinguists, such as lakoff, thorne and henley, trudgill, zimmerman, pushed the research of language and sex a big step forward. the early 1970s empirical studies on sex and language commonly focused on sex differences in phonetics, intonation, vocabulary and grammar, with the sentences as the highest unit of the structure. it is becoming more and more apparent that this view of language is too narrow. the sociolinguists have to work on real language data from a wide variety of situations. the new trend in the study of sex differences shows an interest in shifting its focus from phonetics, morphology and syntax to a broader sense which is concerned with communicative competence in conversations: the knowledge of when to speak or to be silent, how to speak on different occasions, how to communicate and interpret the meaning of respect, seriousness, humor, politeness or intimacy and how to understand the social meaning of different linguistic varieties and different linguistic forms. furthermore, they try to account for sex differences from different aspects.2.2 problems in the previous studiesthough the study of sex differences has covered a wide range, little consideration has been given to the pragmatic perspective of sex differences. the number of empirical studies in business context is even less, especially in china.in china, the study of gender differences in language starts later than the west, and most of the studies are just the introduction of western theories and relevant researches about this issue. in addition, the application of western theories and findings to the actual conditions in china is rare and unsystematic. although recently more and more chinese scholars have begun to apply the theories of philosophy, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, intercultural communication to study sex differences, there is still little attention paid to this study in the business context.3. sex differences in representatives in business context3.1 sex differences in observing the cooperative principles (cp)according to grices cp (1975), participants should be cooperative in communication, i.e., they should observe the maxims and sub-maxims of the cp; otherwise the communication will be difficult to proceed. in the following part, the author will mainly probe into the problem according to the maxims of manner and quality. the maxim of manner requires participants to express their ideas clearly, briefly and orderly. it is found that usually females dont like to perspicuously speak out their ideas in conversations. their speech is generally equivocal or indecisive. they often use questions to express their idea indirectly. for example, a businessman and a businesswoman are negotiating about the discount of the deal. the man says, “thatsabigchangefrom25!10isbeyondmynegotiatinglimit.(pause)anyotherideas?”the woman just answers, “idontthinkicanchangeitrightnow.why dont wetalkagaintomorrow?”obviously the businesswomans speech doesnt clearly answer what is her proposal. so according to the first sub-maxim of the maxim of manner which requires participants to avoid obscurity of expression in the conversation, the businesswoman flouts the maxim of manner. the maxim of quality requires participants to tell what they believe to be true or have adequate evidence, that is, to be responsible for what they say in conversations. males tend to flout the maxim of quality by boasting in communication, that is, by saying what is beyond the truth or fact or saying what they have not enough evidence. for example, in a presentation about a new material, the businessman says: “our product is the result of high technology. im sure this will increase our market share. youll encounter a big loss, if you dont order now.” he doesnt show us adequate evidence of feedback from the market. high technology doesnt guarantee market share. the businessman flouts the maxim of quality in communication.therefore, when making representatives in business context, males tend to be less cooperative than females. females tend to flout the maxim of quality to keep the communication going on smoothly, but males tend to flout maxim of quantity to prevent the communication from going on smoothly. 3.2 sex differences in observing the politeness principles (pp)leechs pp is an important conversational principle for people to communicate successfully with each other. leechs pp has six maxims. some maxims and their sub-maxims play an important role in business communication, but some are not very relevant. i will analyze the phenomenon from the following three aspects.3.2.1 sex differences in observing approbation maxim and modesty maximapprobation maxim and modesty maxim manifest sex differences in politeness best and most directly. since both approbation maxim and modesty maxim refer to praise and dispraise of other or self, they can also be discussed together. i will analyze the act of compliment to show the sex differences when making representatives.females are good at using compliments to express positive evaluation, admiration, encouragement, appreciation, gratitude, and so on. at the same time, females also frequently get compliments from others. they are likely to be complimented by both females and males, especially on their clothes and appearance. males relatively receive less compliments, if they do, they are usually compliments on their work, but seldom on their appearance. for example, a businessman and a businesswoman are getting to know each other before a business negotiation. the businesswoman starts the conversation by praising his son. “your boy is very clever. i hear that he is always in top 5 in his class.” she is trying to get good impression by praising the mans family.compared with approbation maxim, modesty maxim discusses the issue of praise from the perspective of self. it requires people to minimize the praise and maximize dispraise of self in conversations. females can observe this maxim well because they are usually shy and pessimistic and lack enough confidence. they seldom boast before others, but often praise others but dispraise themselves in conversations. different from females, males often show that they are optimistic, confident and brave. they seldom say they are worse than others. sometimes they like to show off and even boast in the conversation.1) (f and m are in the corridor of the company.) f: how about your sales promotion in wuxi? m: no result. f: why? is your market investigation not insufficient? m: but i prepared quite well. f: then, why didnt they buy your product? m: dont know. maybe they didnt have the sincerity to adopt new product at all. f: mm.2) (f and m are in the corridor of the company.) f: how many people are there in your company? m: 23. and i am the only newly employed one. f: so you must be the youngest in your company. m: of course. the others are too old and have no much knowledge, including my manager. give me two years and i sure to get promotion.3.2.2 sex differences in observing agreement maximagreement maxim includes two submaxims: minimizing disagreement between self and others, and maximizing agreement between self and others. females are expected to be patient, tender and friendly. they pay more attention to the construction of good relationship with others in communication. they try their best to avoid hostility. so in conversations, females tend to echo or approve the other party in order to set up a relationship of solidarity. even if they sometimes hold different opinions with the other party in conversations, they also run around the topic and try to avoid the embarrassment and to maintain the good relationship with the other party. in contrast, males are independent, competitive, and self-confident. they seek power and prestige in conversations. they criticize or show different opinions directly. so it is not surprising to find that females are inclined to observe agreement maxim, while males tend to flout this maxim.consider the following example:3) (f and m are in a trade fair. f: female; m: male) f: here is our new product, model z23.its intelligent. m: yes, it is. but it is too expensive, too. its nearly 2000 yuan f: i know. but good things are always expensive.m; but thats too much.f: mm. what do you think of this one? its price was reduced.m: no, i dont like it. and its still so expensive.f: i dont like it either. how do you like this one?m: just so so.each time when f makes a choice, m shows his disagreement. but on the contrary, f agrees with whatever m says. so in this conversation, according to sub-maxims of agreement maxim which requires people to maximize agreement and minimize disagreement with others in conversations, f observes agreement maxim but m flouts this maxim in conversation.therefore, females tend to actively observe the pp in communication. they respect others and try their best to avoid producing conflicts or refuting others in communication. however, males tend to flout the pp and seldom use polite language in daily conversations. they frequently criticize or refute others in to show their confidence, to set up their prestige and so on. 4. causes of sex differences in representatives psychological factors contribute a lot to gender differences. whats more, different social statuses between females and males also play an important role in the formation of these differences. in this section, i will analyze the social factors and psychological factors in sex differences in representatives in business setting.4. 1 social factorssex differences in representatives are the result of power differences between females and males (zhang 1998). the general consensus seems to be that males are more concerned with power and females with solidarity. for males, conversations are negotiations in which they try to achieve and maintain the upper power if they can, and protect themselves from others attempts to put them down. life, then for males, is a contest or a struggle to preserve independence and avoid failure. in contrast, for females, conversations are negotiations for close relationship in which they try to seek and give confirmation and support, and to reach any consensus if possible. they try to protect themselves from others attempts to push them away. life, then for females, is a communication, a struggle to preserve intimacy and avoid isolation. hierarchies of relationship, compared with power and accomplishment, means more to females (tannen 1990). due to their different social statuses, when making representatives, women want to gain collaboration, intimacy, equality, understanding, support and approval. men, on the other hand, place a greater emphasis on status and independence, and are less concerned about overt disagreement and inequality in their relationships.4.2 psychological factorssex differences in representatives can be accounted for from the psychological perspective too. in the childhood, boys learn to think abstractly and they are activity oriented, while girls learn to think concretely and they are relation oriented. so most females have rich emotions and they are dependent, passive, silent in the public, fragile, patient, diffident, timid, and so on; while males have a good control of emotions and they are independent, active, ambitious, confident, competitive, brave, and so on. besides, females are more emotional and artistic, whereas males are seen as much more rational. all of these different psychological characteristics of females and males lead to sex differences in representatives. therefore, females usually use more euphemistic expressions in their representatives due to their timidity. females have greater use of standard speech, politeness, obedience, cooperation and supportiveness. due to the psychological factor, womens and mens representatives appear to vary in the topics they choose to discuss. women select more personal topics: their family, their emotions and their friendships. men, on the other hand, prefer more impersonal topics, which are often based on factual or technical knowledge, such as football, cars, or home improvements. these require fewer intimate revelations. to sum up, social factors, as well as psychological factors, play an important role in gender differences in representatives. these factors function together to form different sex styles in the business setting. 5. negative effects of sex differences in representativesit is very clear that, in business context, females experience considerable difficulties in earning promotions to management positions, in receiving equal pay for performing the same work as males, and possibly even in expressing their ideas and gaining recognition for their w