淺析男女雙方在語言使用方面的差異

Language using differences between males and females

Abstract: The article mainly discusses the language differences used by male and female， which were reflected in linguistic structure and social relations. There are many reasons to form this situation， from which we may understand some social cases in our daily life deeply.

摘 要：本文主要討論了男女雙方在語言使用方面的不同，主要反映在語言結構和社會關系的差異。其中有諸多原因促成這一情況，通過分析這一情況我們可以深刻理解我們日常生活中的一些社會問題。

Keywords: Language difference， linguistic structure， social relation， social cases

關鍵詞：語言差異、語言結構、社會關系、社會問題

作者簡介：朱健源，重慶師范大學外國語學院2010級碩士研究生，學科教學（英語）專業，教學方向。

Language and gender is a popular issue in the area of sociolinguistics. It didn’t come into being until the end of the 1960s with the rising of feminist movement in America. Robin Lakoff’s Language and Women’s place raised people’s awareness that is deeply related language might be to female and male identities. This question has been raised by the recent changes in our view of women and their place in society. The women’s movement aims at a major shift in culture from the Bad Old Days when women were powerless and generally subordinate to men to a new era where we all have equal rights and status.

1. Sex vs. gender

“Sex” is a biological notion which forms the basis of discussion of gendered behavior. “Gender” is a social notion not necessarily on the basis of biological distinction. The sociolinguists investigate how gender plays a role in sociolinguistic behavior and norms of communication. Gender studies shed much light on how we as a human society communicate and sustain human civilization. According to Ann Oakley， sex refers to the biological division into female and male. Gender refers to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity (1981). As for Jennifer Coates， sex refers to a biological distinction， while gender is a term used to describe socially constructed categories based on sex (1993).

2. Linguistic evidence of gender

In some languages， gender refers to a grammatical distinction that allows words to be divided into categories such as masculine， feminine， or neuter on the basis of inflectional and agreement properties， not limited to nouns with inherent (biological) gender (Penelope Eckert). In English， grammatical gender is limited to the distinction between he， she， and it in pronouns， and a small set of nouns that reflect the gender of the person referred to， for example actor: actress， waiter: waitress， chairman: chairwoman or the gender stereotypically associated with the noun (e.g.， mailman).

3. Men and women speak differently

3.1 Linguistic structure

Perceptually， female and male are said to speak different varieties of language: women are said to use distinctly feminine words， are more meticulous than men in enunciating words and sentences and in the use of intonation patterns， employ marked grammatical features， and tend to be grammatically hypercorrect. In many accents of American English， it has been found that women’s vowels are more peripheral (外圍的) – more front， more back， higher， or lower than men’s. (Trudgill， 84) In conversation， men prefer to use open， non-standard， and difficult to be acceptable phonological variants. On the contrary， women pronounce more correctly， they prefer standard and more refined accents.

3.2 Social Relations

It is common knowledge that lexical terms which are semantically male are traditionally used for general reference， where the gender of the referent is not known and not relevant. Generic pronouns and nouns are said to refer to woman and man， but in linguistic reality these generic pronouns and nouns are often presented by masculine pronouns and nouns. Depending on the range and kinds of field， women and men seem to include different lexical sets. Men are generally supposed to use more slang than women， men’s greater use of slang is interpreted as indication of greater solidarity between males than females. Females always use adverbs or intensifiers to intensify their focus. Females pay more attention to the elegance and implicitness of language. (e.g.: avoid using rude words: shit， damn， hell， etc.)

4. Possible explanations

4.1 Psychological Factor

Females have been struggling for years for their equality. Though women got some achievements during their movements， they still have a long way to go. For instance， they pay more attention to their pronunciation and intonation; they try to speak standard language， and to avoid using words with negative or immoral senses.

4.2 Historical Factor

In the development of society， matriarchal society has changed into a patriarchal society， which has been reflected in language， for instance， “men” was used to refer to all human beings. “He” was used to make a general reference to both men and women. In Chinese， we mostly call female MS， or MISS，male MR， but in some occasion， even address female “先生”， to show respect. Some other examples are quite clear， such as the English distinction between Mrs. and Miss which is not paralleled by a pair of male titles showing whether or not the bearer is married.

References:

1.Trudgill， Peter. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. 4th ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin， 2000.

2.Wardhaugh， R. (1996). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (3rd Edition).Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

3.(英)赫德森（Hudson， R.A.）.《社會語言學教程》. 外語教育與研究出版社，劍橋大學出版社. 2000

4.http://222.90.76.149/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=coursesurl=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_412_1