chapter 9 language_ culture and__ society文档.ppt

Robin Lakoff’s study of gender differences in American English(1973) Webside for devoiced women: fancy picture Women tend to use: More “fancy” color terms: beige米色 Less powerful curse words More intensifiers: terrible, awful More tag questions: isn’t it? More statement questions More indirect hence more polite terms: would you...? * George Yull’ study of gender differences with the same general social background Female: I did it. It grew. He isn’t. Generally discuss more personal feelings Male: I done it. It growed. He ain’t. Tend to respond to an expression of feelings or problems by giving advice on solutions. See George Yull, The Study of Language 1996: 241-242 * Wardhaugh’s study of Japanese gender differences(1998:313) Female: Use ‘ne’ or ‘wa’ at a sentence ending. Refer to herself as ‘watasi’ or ‘atasi’ Watasi kaeru wa. (I will go back) Male: Refer to himself as ‘boku’ or ‘ore’ Boku kaeru. (I will go back) * Wardhaugh’s study of Thai gender differences(1998:313) Female: In polite conversation, a female speaker of Thai refers to herself as ‘dìch?n’. Male: Whereas a man uses ‘ph?m’. * Why women’s speech is specific? Lakoff suggests: it is not language itself but women’s place in society that makes people linguistically behave in that way. (social status) * ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ ? Wardhaugh thought: ‘sex’ is biologically determined whereas ‘gender’ is a social construct. (See Ronald Wardhaugh, An Introduction to Socialinguistics 1998:309) * Sociolect is caused by Age Elderly people young people icebox fridge wireless boombox Young people: We’re ready, and he’s like(=said), Let’s go, and I’m like(said), No way I’m not ready, and he splits anyway, the creep! * Sociolect is caused by idiolect Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker combining elements of regional, social, gender, and age variations. A person’s dialect can be distinctive from his