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LANGUAGE AND GENDER

INTRODUCTION

Language and gender is an area of study within sociolinguistics that investigates varieties of speech associated with a particular gender, or social norms for such gendered language use. A variety of speech associated with a particular gender is sometimes called genderlect. There is difference between the terms “sex” and “gender” as sex is the biological difference between male and female whereas gender is a social construct involving genetic, psychological, social and cultural differences between male and female thus making them man and woman. The gender is defined as “Gender is not determined biologically, as a result of sexual characteristics of either women or men, but is constructed socially. It is a central organizing principle of societies.” Ruth Wodak, a distinguished Professor of Discourse study defined gender as “it is not … a pool of attributes „possessed‟ by a person, but … something a person „does‟.” She also adds that the socially constructed roles of men and women changes with time.

The study of gender and language in sociolinguistics have begun with Robin Lakoff„s Language and Woman's Place in 1975. The prominent scholars of language and gender studies are Deborah Cameron, Penelope Eckert, Janet Holmes, and Deborah Tannen.

THEORIES ABOUT GENDER DIFFERENCE

One researcher named Deborah Cameron has given three theories to explain the gender difference in the language. These three theories are: deficit, dominance and difference. In „Deficit‟ theory, there is a conviction about female‟s lack in language and one famous early supporter of this conviction is a Danish professor of English language, Otto Jespersen. The „Dominance‟ theory is about a belief in men‟s power and dominance over women and this power is reflected through language. The women‟s submissive role in society is being reflected in

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language. In „Difference” theory it is believed that men and women are social beings who have learned to act in certain ways. The society subjects them to different life experiences and those experiences affect their language. DIFFERNCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN‟S LANGUAGE

The men and women did not speak different languages rather they spoke different varieties of language. John Bradley, a linguist, researched on an aboriginal Australian language, Yanyuwa spoken in Borroloola, Northern state of Australia. He found out that it has gender differentiated dialects. The men use men‟s dialect to speak to women and women speak women‟s dialect to speak to men. He wrote in “Yanyuwa: Men speak in one way, Women speak in other” that “If individuals wish to speak Yanyuwa then they are expected to speak the dialect which is associated with their sex – there is no other alternative.” For example, Male

Female

Grizzly bear

t‟en‟na

t‟et

See me

diwai-dja

diwa-tch

Old man

malbu

nya-malbu

PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES

There are phonological differences in the gender based language as in Gros Ventre, an Amerindian language of the northeast United States; women have palatalized velar stops where men have palatalized dental stops e.g. male says “djasta” and female says “kjasta” meaning bread. In Montreal, a city in Canada, many more men than women do not pronounce the “l” in the pronouns “il” and “elle”. In Koasati, an Amerindian language spoken in Southwestern Louisiana, men often pronounced “s” at the end of verbs but women did not, e.g. male says “lakaws” and female says “lakaw” meaning „he is lifting it.”

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MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES

In gender based language the morphological differences are the choices of different words of men and women. Robin Tolmach Lakoff, a professor of linguistics, claims that in English language women use color words like mauve, beige, aquamarine, lavender and magenta but most men do not. She also maintains that adjectives such as adorable, charming, divine, lovely and sweet are commonly used by women but only very rarely by men. English language makes certain distinctions of a gender based kind e.g. actor-actress, waiter-waitress etc. but with the time these differences of gender in language became neutral as in describing occupations e.g. chairperson, letter carrier and actor. In Japanese language woman show that she is woman when as she uses the words “watasi” and “atasi” while many uses “boku” to refer him. For example, a man says “boku kaeru” while woman says “watasi kaeru wa” meaning “I will go back.” In English language, gender is differentiated in third person pronoun as he-she. In English language, men use slang language more than women. And women are not supposed to use slang language as women are supposed to be more polite and humble. The men use words like damn in their speech more than women.

SYNTACTIC VARIATION

There are grammatical variations in the language of men and women. The intonation patterns of men and women vary somewhat, women use certain patterns associated with surprise and politeness more often than men. Robin Lakoff says that women may answer a question with a statement that employs the rising intonation pattern usually associated with a question rather than the falling intonation pattern associated with making a firm statement. According to Lakoff, women do this because they are less sure about themselves and their opinions than are men. For the same reason, she says that women often add tag questions to statements, e.g., „They caught the robber last week, didn‟t they?” Such statements with tag questions show uncertainty of women‟s speech. On the other hand, men tend to utter direct and declarative sentences.

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TOPIC OF CONVERSATIONS

The topic of conversation of men and women are different. The men while talking to men the content of their conversation is sports, business, politics and competition. The conversation between women is about the self, feeling, affiliations with others, home and family. The women tend to talk about personal things while men‟s conversation is about impersonal issues. According to the research of James and Clarke, in cross gender conversation women ask more questions than men, encourage others to speak, use more instances of “you” and “we” and do not protest as much as men when they are interrupted. On the other hand, men interrupt more, challenge, dispute and ignore more, try to control what topics are discussed, and are inclined to make categorical statements. Cherish Kramer describes women‟s speech in comparison to men‟s speech, “English speakers believe- and linguists appear to be no exception- that men’s speech is forceful, efficient, blunt, authoritative, serious, effective, sparing and masterful; they believe that women’s speech is weak, trivial, ineffectual, tentative, hesitant, hyperpolite, euphemistic and is often marked by gossip and gibberish.” The women use hedges more than men which are linguistic forms as “I think, you know, I‟m sure, sort of, perhaps”. Robin Lakoff explains that it is because “Women are socialized to believe that asserting themselves strongly is not nice or ladylike, or even feminine.”

Thus the linguistic difference is based on different genders that are man and woman. Some linguists say that language is sexist that is it differentiates between man‟s and woman‟s language. But there are several attempts to make the language neutral e.g. early humans (from early man), salesperson (from salesman) and woman (from fair sex). But still there are many differences like he-she which cannot be eliminated. It can be concluded that language may not be sexist but the people who use it are sexist. And the linguistic difference in the gender will be present as long as there is a struggle of power and influence in the society.

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REFERENCES:

 An Introduction to Sociolinguistics by Ronald Wardhaugh.  Gender-related Differences in Language Use by Susanne Karlsson.  On Gender Difference in English Language and Its Causes.

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