Holmes also found that men are more likely to convey facts and figures in the text rather than their feelings. Women are more likely to do the opposite and convey their feeling over the information in the text.
Are women more polite than men?
According to an extract from a book by Nanci Bonvillain
“Women typically use more polite speech than do men, characterised by a high frequency of honorific, and softening devices such as hedges and questions”
HONOURIFICS – linguistic markers that signal respect to the person you are speaking to.
A lot of dialect is used when addressing in a non – honourific way as opposed to an honourific way.
Non – honourific – Hey ma, fix my jacket
As opposed to a honourific - Mum could you please do me a favour and fix my jacket?
Women are also found to use more hedges in their speech than men do.
HEDGES - give a sense of fuzziness to a statement and take away any assertiveness. The impact of words and phrases are softened by the use of
- I was sort of wondering
- Maybe if
- I think that
An example of this in context would be
David is so mean
Opposed to the hedged phrase
I sort of think that David is a bit of a mean person.
Women are also found to use more tag questions in their speech than men which is another politeness strategy.
Tag questions come in two forms. MODAL and AFFECTIVE.
MODAL tags REQUEST or act to CONFIRM information which the speaker is UNSURE of.
Eg. But you’ve been in St. Helens longer than that haven’t you?
AFFECTIVE tags are NOT used to signal UNCERTAINTY of the SPEAKER but to show CONCERN for the ADRESSEE.
Eg. Open this door for me could you?
Women use 15% more AFFECTIVE tags than men. (75% compared to 60%)
As these tags show concern for the addressee it shows that the females have more concern for their addressee, which shows greater politeness.
Another question asked about womens role in language is does language oppress women?
STRATEGIES OF THE POWERLESS
A possible explanation for the increased amount of politeness strategies used by women over men is their oppressed role in society.
From a historical recurrence, it appears that women have a secondary role in society compared to the male. This makes them the less dominant party.
When women adopt an assertive speech pattern it is not seen as valuable as when the same pattern is used by a man. It is expected for the woman to act like a lady, as is traditional in society. Women are also taught to respect those around them more than the men have to. This reflects the idea of respecting the dominant status.
The phrase ‘boys will be boys’ reflects the status difference between the sexes because it gives them an excuse to break the norms of correct speech.
It is very rarely found that the phrase ‘girls will be girls’ is given as an excuse for girls breaking conversational rules.
The fact of this is becoming more of a stereotype now although this view of women still remains in society.
ANOTHER example of how women are oppressed in language is through the use of forms of address.
YOUNG BOYS – MASTER YOUNG GIRLS – MISS
MEN - MR WOMEN –MISS
MARRIED – MR MARRIED- MRS
A woman’s form of address only changes when she gets married. Strictly speaking, she has the same title that she did when she was just a child wheras mens titles change with age.
There has been an introduction by some groups of the word MS. This represents neither a married nor single adult female. This title allows the females more respect by distinguishing between a child and an adult, as happens with the men’s form of address.
This has been dismissed by many people as feminism and is looked down on by many groups.
