Discussion of Significant Differences Between Men's and Women's Talking Manners

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Discussion of Significant Differences Between Men's and Women's Talking Manners

Beginning with the role of compliments in female-male interaction by

Janet Holmes in Reading B of Chapter 1 of your textbook Using English:

from conversation to canon, discuss the significant differences

between men’s and women’s talk – the way they interact, their choice

of words and phrases and the topics they like to discuss.

The linguist Halliday (1978) suggests that language has a dual

function; it communicates ideational meaning, in terms of the

information and ideas expressed, and it also communicates

interpersonal meaning, expressing the degree of friendliness, or

status difference between speakers. Since women and men occupy

different subcultures, and subcultures are also differentiated

according to how language is used, it is reasonable to say that the

genders would exhibit distinctive language patterns. ( Maybin, Mercer,

p5 )

Beginning with the work of Lakoff (1975), which documented that women

and men communicate on the basis of languages which are differentiated

according to gender. She suggests that women use more tag questions

(eg. Isn’t it? Don’t you think? ) more indirect polite forms (eg.

Could you please? ) more intensifiers (eg. Really ) and what she sees

as generally weaker vocabulary ( eg. Words like lovely and Oh dear ).

Linguists use the term female register to indicate a particular set

of grammatical constructions that are used primarily by women. (

Crosby and Nyquist, 1977).

Usage of Qualifiers

First, women use more qualifiers than men. These words hedge or

soften statements that are mostly evaluative in na...

... middle of paper ...

... conversation’,

Language, vol. 50, no. 4 pp 696-735

34. Tannen, D. (1984) Conversational Style: analyzing talk among

friends, Norwood, N.J., Ablex.

35.Tannen, D. (1989) Talking voices: repetition, dialogue and imagery

in conversational discourse, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

36. Wolfson, N. (1982) CHP: the conversational historical present in

American English narrative, Cinnaminson, USA. Foris.

Robin Lakoff (1975) also suggests that women use more tag questions

like ( isn’t it? Don’t you think?) more indirect polite forms (eg.

Could you possibly? ) more intensifiers (eg. Really) ; and weaker

vocabulary (eg. Words like lovely and Oh dear ) She also observed that

men tend to dominate the topics and the management of mixed gender

conversation, interrupting more and giving less feedback and support.

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