AnalysisonGenderDifferencesinEnglishLanguage-最新文档

1、Analysis on Gender Differences in English Language 【】Sex differences are a fundamental fact of human life and it is not surprising to find them reflected in language. To better study the feminist language, we must contrast it with male language to protrude its specialty. Gender difference is a popul

2、ar research topic for many disciplines, and linguistics is no exception. Within the field of linguistics, the relation between gender and language has been studied by different subfields with the main focus on differences between the language of male and female, and this has led to many problems in

3、both research methodology and research findings. Thus this paper proposes that efforts be made in finding the differences between the language of both genders by placing gender into specific contexts. Gender differences in language forms A syntactic feature that Lakoff believes is more freely usable

4、 by women than by men is the tag question form. Tag questions are appended to statements by taking the tense-bearing element of the verb phrase, reversing its negativity, selecting the pronoun appropriate to the subject of the statement and making a question out of these elements, as in “This is bet

5、ter, dont you think so? ”. These constructions ask hearers to confirm explicitly that they agree with the statement. One reason speakers might use a tag question is to state a claim, when they are not fully confident that the person they are talking to will agree with that claim. Greater use of this

6、 form by women could mean that women, more often than men, are presenting themselves as unsure of their opinions and thereby as not really having opinions that count very much. Tag question usage, then, represents another example of the sub mersion of women s individualities. The use of question int

7、onation with assertion syntax is quite similar. 2Gender differences in language use There is a set of adjectives in English which express approval and admiration in addition to their strictly liberal meanings. Some of these, like great and terrific, are neutral in the sense that they are readily and

8、 appropriately used by either men or women. Others of this set, such as adorable, charming, and divine, are expected s. in womens speech, but not generally in men It might seem that women have the advantage over men since they are free to use either neutral or womens adjectives whereas men can only

9、use the neutral ones but this. The existence of the womens words used only for trivial expression suggests, in a way, that what men have to say is de facto important, because a man says it. Linguistic provision is made for women-and only women-to express opinions that are seen immediately to be of n

10、o general consequence. 3Certainty in gender difference There is one intriguing pattern by gender that is commonly reported. Male speakers are often found to use socially disfavored variants of sociolinguistic variables while women tend to avoid these in favor of socially more favored variants. Male

11、speakers tend to use forms that are generally considered correct less frequently than women speakers do the sociolinguistic gender pattern. A commonly reported version of the gender pattern shows female speakers avoiding socially disfavored linguistic features only in formal styles. In less formal s

12、tyles, there is no substantial difference in the use of socially disfavored forms based on the speakers sex. 4Features of women s language Lakoff brought forward some of women s linguistic characters as follows: （ 1）Specialized language. Comparedw ith men, woment end to use more specialized color wo

13、rds than men, like mauve, azure, beige. （ 2）Milder expletives. Womente nd to use milder similar expletives than men, e.g. women may use“Darn! ” instead of mens “Damni t! ” or “Shit! ”. This might be affected by the social rules. （3）Empty adjectives. This usually contains emotion expression instead o

14、f information, like divine, adorable, cute, or charming, etc. （4）Tag questions. Though mena nd womenw ould both use tag questions in some occasions, womenh ave a special way, i.e. they may use them when expressing their opinions. （5）Difference in intonation. Women tend to use the rising tone after a

15、 statement, revealing womens uncertainty indecision. （6）Super-polite forms. Womente nd to use more complex means in requesting, e.g. “I was wondering whether it was possible for you to hand me that book? （7）Hypercorrect grammar. Whether in grammar or in phonetics, women usually use formal ways. They

16、 wouldnt take aint instead of aren t, and goin instead of going, either. （8）Joke-telling and humor. Women have the innate deficiency in both creating and understanding humor. 5Summary On the research of language and gender, we should comprehensively notice the communicators differences in social gender, especially in their personality, style, gender tendency. Fo