Gender difference in spoken language

by nightmare2remember (student)

Humans are the communicating organisms. They use a vital tool to communicate, which is called a language. Without language, human might not survive because they will not be able to associate with other. When one human starts to communicate with another and there is a response, that is called a dialect or conversation. Generally, there are two ways of using language since human have two genders. In our everyday conversation with members of the other sex we may or may not be aware of the differences in the dialect between males and females. These differences do not stem from our nature, because at birth we are all the same regarding our cognitive abilities and behavioural patterns, but arise in the process of socialisation, cultural participation and moulding into a gender-conditioned shape. The ways of men and women split to such an extent that we get the 'weaker' and the 'stronger' sexes, of which the latter played a dominant role only some three decades ago. However, overall gender differences have been slowly declining in the meantime, but certain patterns can still be observed in speech, body language, and behaviour. The subjects that this paper is about to discuss are difference between males and females, how they behave and speak in conversations and in other situations, what influences them and why they react in a gender-specific way.

Men and women may also have different semantic goals in mind when they construct sentences. Some researchers: Mulac, Weimann, Widenmann, & Gibson, 1988, found that questions are more common in women’s contributions than men’s, for instance, women would say “Does anyone want to get some food?” but originally meant to say, “Let’s go get some food”, which sounds more like men’s contribution. Men’s contribution usually is a statement, which is direct. Conversely, women

Gender differences have also been investigated at the level of specific phrases. Lakoff identified in women’s language two specific types of phrases—hedges, for instance, “it seems ...

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Gender differences have also been investigated at the level of specific phrases. Lakoff identified in women’s language two specific types of phrases—hedges, for instance, “it seems like,” and tag questions, for instance, “ … aren’t you?” that can be inserted into various different type of sentences. A number of studies have reported greater female use of tag questions, although others have found the opposite. Other researchers have found further evidence that women use phrases that may communicate relative uncertainty. Uncertainty verb phrases, especially those combining first-person singular pronouns with perceptual or cognitive verbs, for instance, “I wonder if”, have been found more often in women’s writing and speech. Consistent with this idea, in the movie called “50 first dates”, when the heroic is in a restaurant with heroine, while the heroine is constructing a pancake but cannot finish it. Heroic then stick a toothpick inside the pancake

Heroine: “ I wonder why I didn’t know that”.

A related interpretation of women’s use of hedge phrases is that women are more reluctant to force their views on another person. They might also use hedges to express uncertainty and softening a stance or opinion. Consistent with this idea, in another scene of the movie called “50 first dates”, while heroine and heroic were talking about a walrus,

Heroine: “ Well, may be just stands there and intimidating the other sea creatures…”

The “ may be” in the dialogue corresponds with the idea of hedging to express uncertainty.

Gender differences have also been examined by studying the actual words people use. Mirroring phrase-level findings of tentativeness in female language, women have been found to use more intensive adverbs, more conjunctions such as but, and more modal auxiliary verbs such as could that place question marks of some kind over a statement. Men have been found to swear more, use longer words, use more articles, and use more references to location.

One striking idea was that women were more likely to use first-person singular. This is consistent with repeated findings that depressed people use more first-person singular, given that depression is more common among women, which is also consistent with philosophic theory, states that women are more sensitive and vulnerable in emotion. However, the word “I” intuitively connotes individualism or selfishness, which fits the male stereotype better than the female stereotype. The idea is still controversial with a review by Mulac, which mentioned findings that men used first-person singular more often.

In conclusion, Language is the significant tool of living of humans. It is necessary to know the difference of language usage between 2 genders. The difference of language usage between men and women is as explicitly different as how do they look. These differences depend on various factors, including how each one had been nursed.