性别因素对英语使用的影响.doc

B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics Gender Effects on the Use of English byUnder the Supervision ofSubmitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsSchool of Foreign StudiesShandong University of Finance and EconomicsMay 2013 AcknowledgementsIt would not be possible for me to complete this thesis without the generous help of many people.First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Prof. Mo Zhenyin, under whose supervision I have obtained valuable ideas and precious suggestions. He is very intelligent on thesis instruction and also shows his great patience and earnestness to me during my writing. My thanks are also extended to other beloved teachers in the School of Foreign Studies of Shandong University of Finance and Economics, for their valuable and informative courses which have benefited me a lot during my four-year college life. In the last place, I owe my deep thanks to my roommates who have been encouraging me all the time. ABSTRACT Gender Effects on the Use of EnglishLanguage plays an important role in our society. As a social phenomenon, language reflects almost all aspects of our human society in a natural way, including the effects of gender difference on the use of language. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces an overview of Gender Schema Theory. Chapter two is intended to analyze the representations and features of gender effects on the use of English language mainly in terms of phonetic differences, intonation differences, vocabulary differences, grammatical differences and communicational differences before discussing the reasons why gender influences the use of language in chapter three, mainly involving historical, social and psychological factors. Key words: gender factor; the use of English; effect; gender difference 摘要 性别因素对英语使用的影响 语言在社会中的地位非常重要。语言作为一种社会现象，必然会反映出人类社会的各种社会观念，包括男女性别差异对语言使用的影响。本文共分三章。第一章介绍了性别图示理论的概述。第二章旨在分析性别因素在英语使用中的表现及特征，主要探讨语音差异、语调差异、词汇差异、语法差异和交际差异等几个方面的表现，同时还在第三章中探讨了造成性别因素影响语言使用的原因，其中包括历史、社会和心理等几个方面。关键词：性别因素；英语使用；影响；性别差异CONTENTSAcknowledgements.iiiAbstract.ivAbstract in Chinese.vIntroduction.1Chapter One An Overview of Gender Schema Theory.3Chapter Two Gender Effects on the Use of English Language.5 I. Effects on Phonetics.5 II. Effects on Intonation.6 III. Effects on Vocabulary.6 IV. Effects on Grammar.7 V. Effects on Communicational Behaviors.8Chapter Three Reasons for Gender Effects on English Language.9 I. Historical Factors.9 II. Social Factors.9 III. Psychological Factors.11Conclusion.12Works Cited.134Introduction Language is a human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, and language is any specific example of such a system. Language is a social phenomenon, and it has a close relationship with social life, language is used in a specific social group. It is not only the carrier of the ideological content, but a mirror of social life. Whats more, it reveals peoples traditional thoughts such as sex discrimination against women in the society, so gender plays a great role in the use of language. “Metaphorically, language is regarded as a mirror of society, through which we can understand social activities of a certain society better.” (Hu 157) All of the languages in the world express different uses by different genders. From the development and the change of language, people can conclude that men and women could use language in a different way. The English countries which always claim that all men are born equal also have a lot of inequalities. The inequality between men and women is the one. And this inequality is also reflected in the use of languages. The differences of language use have existed since language came into being. Therefore, how does English language reflect social phenomenon? The first person who did research on the relation between gender and language is the Denmark linguist Otto Jespersen, he regards English as the most masculine language that is familiar to him, and it is a man-centered language. The domestic scholars and experts, such as Yang Yonglin, Bai Jiehong et al, have done thorough research about sexist element in the English language, and also have introduced some feasible strategies to erase the sexism of English use. These studies are all concerned with the role of gender in language use.Sexism, in the Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese dictionary, it means that disapproving action based on the ideas or beliefs that the members of one sex are less intelligent, able, and skillful, etc, than the members of the other sex, especially that women are less able than men and those particular jobs and actions are suitable for women and others are suitable for men. “Sexist attitudes may stem from traditional stereotypes of gender roles.” (Nakdimen 499-503) Sexism in English refers to English expresses sexist assumptions about differences between men and women as in the prejudicial use of female or male words. Sexism in English provides an important access to the study of gender differences in English language use. According to the investigation of sexism in English language, we can easily know more about the disparities between the language of different genders. In the thesis, the author does researches from the combination of social reforms and language reforms, and shows that it is essential and important to understand the different uses of English language by different genders, and to erase the sexism from peoples minds. English, as one of the most widespread languages, and the sexist elements of it shall not be suitable to the intercultural communications, but there is massive discrimination in it. Therefore, people should pay much more attention to the sex equality and the improvement of womens social positions. Understanding the sexist phenomenon in English language helps people study language culture and correctly treat the changes of language in its historical development. Chapter One An Overview of Gender Schema Theory Gender schema theory was formally introduced by Sandra Bem in 1981 as a cognitive theory to explain how individuals become gendered in society, and how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture. Gender-associated information is predominantly transmuted through society by way of schemata, or networks of information that allow for some information to be more easily assimilated than others. Bem argues that there are individual differences in the degree to which people hold these gender schemata. These differences are manifested via the degree to which individuals are sex-typed. “Some of the early tests of gender schema theory came in the form of memory and other cognitive tasks designed to assess facilitated processing of sex-typed information. Much of this early research found that participants who were sex-typed remembered more traits associated with their sex, as well as processed sex-type congruent information more efficiently, suggesting that the gender schemata possessed by sex-type individuals help to assimilate sex-associated information into ones self-concept” (Bem 354-364)Core gender identity is tied up in the sex typing that an individual undergoes. This typing can be heavily influenced by child rearing, media, school, and other forms of cultural transmission. Bem offered four categories in which an individual may fall: sex-typed, cross-sex-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated. Sex-typed individuals process and integrate information that is in line with the opposite gender. Androgynous individuals process and integrate traits and information from both genders. Finally, undifferentiated individuals do not show efficient processing of sex-typed information.A strong source of sex-typing comes from the rearing practices of parents. Bem offers “strong suggestions for preventing the sex-typing of children, including the prevention of access to media that promotes sex-typing, altering media and stories to eliminate sex-typing information, and modeling equal roles for mothers and fathers in the household.” (Bem, S.L.) For instance, Bem edited books that her children can create a more androgynous view after reading these books. This includes, for example, drawing long hair and feminine body characteristics on male figures. Ultimately, however, this is somewhat limited because children will become being exposed to some of this sex-typing information, particularly when they begin attending school. Therefore, Bem suggests teaching alternative schemata to children so that they are less likely to build and maintain a gender schema. Some examples include an individual differences schema, where children learn to process information on a person-by-person basis rather than make wide assumptions about groups based on information from individuals. Also, providing children with a sexism schema, where children learn to process sex-typed information through a filter that promotes moral outrage when sexist information is being promoted, which can assist in providing children with the resources not only to be kept from becoming sex-typed but also promote positive social change.B. A. Thesis of Shandong University of Finance and Economics Chapter TwoGender Effects on the Use of English Language Besides the fact that male and female use language differently, there are also differences in the process of speech development. Speech acts are different for men and women at different ages, and speech acts in the same mental age between men and women are also varied. In English, these differences are manifested in the following aspects.Robin Lakoff studied gender differences in American English in the early 1970s, and put forward “women register”. Lakoff gave an elaborate and systematic explanation of womens language features. As far as I am concerned, men talk more concise, straightforward, without any modifiers and do not ask things in a roundabout way. Womens pronunciations are more standard than mens. Women always choose to use some exaggerated adjectives and ambiguous words.I. Effects on PhoneticsStudy shows that men and women have differences in sound quality, tone and pronunciation. Womens average sound quality is higher than mens. The clarity of womens sound is higher, sound penetrating further and timbre are more distinct. When people use a same language variety, men and women would be different in phonetics, and this is the commonest type of gender differences in language use. For instance, in the United States where in the many variations of geographical dialect of English exist, women use vowels often more extreme than men. In other words, the tongue position of their high vowels is higher than mens, but the low vowels which they produced are lower than mens. To give a concrete example to illustrate it:often / ftn/library /laibrri/ In the above two words, women are more likely to pronounce /t/ and /l/ respectively. Consequently, as can be seen from this instance above, accurate and pure pronunciation has become a social marker of women.II. Effects on Intonation Generally speaking, women usually use a rising intonation when they are talking, and the intonation changes much and is full of expressive forces, while men often use a falling intonation in their speech and the intonation have less change. Robin Lakoff put forward “women register”, and he illustrates some features of it, one of which has relation to intonation. “Women use more statement questions like Dinner will be ready at seven oclock? (With a rising intonation at the end)” (Hu 159) For example, Husband: When will dinner be ready?Housewife: Oh. around six oclock?Generally, the housewifes response “Oh. around six oclock” is a basic sentence and should carry a falling intonation. Yet, when the women use this kind of words, they frequently employ a rising intonation just as an interrogative sentence in order to show politeness or consultation.III. Effects on Vocabulary In English, allegations of some color words are of womens property, such as aquamarine (蓝绿色), ecru (淡褐色), mauve (紫红色). If a man who is not a professional and use these words will receive ridicule. There exists a women register in English that takes several features concerned with vocabulary use:“1. Women use more fancy color terms such as mauve and beige. 2. Women use less powerful curse words. 3. Women use more intensifiers such as terrible and awful.” (Hu 159)There are some interjections used by men and women separately in English. For example, “Dame” always used by men, while women often use “Oh, dear”, “goodness” and something like that.Women will say, “He is a wonderful friend. / What an adorable curtain.”But men will only use such words like “good/very/utterly” to strengthen sound effects.These two examples show that women and men use quite different vocabulary to express their idea.Whats more, women are good at using euphemism. No matter in what situation, women use more euphemism than men. IV. Effects on Grammar An English-speaking women use more tag questions than men. They do not say directly “Tom is ten years old.” But they would say “Tom is ten years old, isnt he?” However, men are more likely to use declarative sentences or omit special questions.As for the use of passive voice, women and men use “be” and “get” with different frequency. Almost all Americans have learned these two forms: a. It was eaten by the children. b. It got eaten by the children. Men use the latter one more, that is to say, men use “get” more than women. In general, womens language seems more polite and elegant. Women often use the most politeness sentence patterncompound request. For example, if a speaker wants the listener to close the window, he or she can use one of the following sentences: a. “Close the window.” b. “Please close the window.” c. “Would you close the window?” d. “Would you please close the window?” e. “Wont you close the window?” From the investigation and statistics, we can see that women use c and d more than men, especially sentences like e. That is to say, womens language performance is more polite than mens.V. Effects on Communicational BehaviorsIn verbal communication, women are more implicit than men, and with more clear emotional components. Women are adept in listening rather than speaking, in asking questions and expressing positive and affirmative attitudes. In language communication between men and women, men are generally situated in dominant position. Men can control conversation topics easily, and express their opinions straightforward. Their themes are much more creative. For instance,Boy: How do you think of this PE class?Girl: Um.Its OK.During a conversation, women often use interjections as um, hmm, huh, yeah to indicate that they are listening to the opposite side person earnestly. So women lay particular stress on emotional exchange.Chapter Three Reasons for Gender Effects on English Language There are several casual factors that cause the differences in English language use by different genders. These reasons more or less influenced the way of using language. Some main reasons that account for this phenomenon can be listed as follows.I. Historical FactorsSince 1960s, with the movement of western womens liberation and the rise of feminism, as well as the birth and flourish of sociolinguistics, language and gender became one of the research projects to some linguistics and they got much interest in it. From perspectives of western feminists, the current world is a world centers around mens values to construct. Then men are always in the center of human society, they stand for power, rights and rationality, while women are in a subordinate position of the society, receiving repression and degeneration. Consequently, feminists try to improve the political status of women by social movements in practice and to achieve the purpose of social improvement, and to optimize the survival status of women. In consequence, we can easily draw the conclusion that historical matters are one of the reasons that caused the differences of English language uses by different genders.II. Social FactorsGender effects on the use of English have existed for a long time, which is a reflection of the traditional ethics that men are superior to women, and it influenced their way of using English. “Language is used in social contexts; used to construct and maintain social relationships between and among women and men. So our inquiries need to be extended, to include explicit discussion of social structure and the social organization of gender.” (Kramarae vii) Gender difference in language use is to a large ext