Project # 3 The Relationship Between Gender and Language Use

The Relationship Between Gender and Language Use

How men and women use language differently have long been an interesting topic. As we all know individuals vary from each other, due to cultural difference, family background, and so on. However, there are still significant differences between men and women. 鄒佩珊410710651 Stella

Genders’ Linguistic Behaviors and General Behaviors 廖曉芊 Sharon 410852194

In the late 19^th century, two American scholars, Deborah Tannen and Climate. found out that females and males have different linguistic and general behaviors. Some studies have shown that women tend to use the standard language more than men do. Climate believed that women often use speech to keep and develop close relationships. And women use linguistic behaviors to show intimacy between their friends.

As for Tannen, she identified that woman and man have different linguistic behaviors when they were hearing or speaking. For example, women speech and hear a language of connection and rapport talk. And it means that women would show their feelings directly in order to build a strong relationship. On the contrary, men speech and hear a language of status and hard topics. And it means that men would focus on report talk in order to show their social status. In addition, men would show their knowledge which was related to sports and politics instead of their personal feelings.

Thinking for Speaking 陳怡彤 410825456 Vivian

We can’t ignore the fact that our thoughts influenced our behaviors. In the process of language learning, a person obtains a special kind of thought, what he calls "thinking-for-speaking". This is based on ways and patterns of thinking that make the difference in verbal expression. This also creates a difference in the way men and women express them, because males and females have very different ways of thinking. We can find many similar examples in our daily life. When couples are quarrelling, we'll find that males focus on solving problems, finding the root cause of quarrels, and resolving conflicts by reasoning and explaining the reasons. On the contrary, females tend to focus on emotional appeasement. They don't want to study in depth that what they're fighting for, they just want some comfort and nice words. This will cause the quarrel to become more and more intense, and then conclude without concrete result. It is because men and women think differently that they often talk about transposition thinking. It means, since the thinking can’t be unified, we need some mutual understanding and use emotion to resolve contradictions. All in all, differences in thinking are natural, so differences in expression are natural too, resulting in two genders that attract each other.

Differences in Language Use Between Men and Women 紀沛君410811855 Kelly

According to the aforementioned context, there is a huge difference in language use between men and women. Gaston argued that men tend to talk more in public than women. Men prefer to use humorous and direct ways to communicate. On the contrary, women use more tactful and indirect ways to communicate. For example, when a man meets a friend on the road, they will greet generously even though that person may not be a very familiar friend. In contrast, when a woman meets an unfamiliar friend, she may not greet to that person because it may make them feel embarrassed.

In terms of language, women generally give the impression of good expressive skills and more vocabulary. When women talk to others, they usually use more polite words, such as please, sorry, etc. When a woman speaks, she may not only want to express one meaning, like when a woman says: I am in a bad mood, and what she wants to express is not only in a bad mood there may be other thoughts contained in it. However, these results are not entirely correct, it still depends on the situation and not all men or all women show a tendency to use more polite or direct words.

In addition to all factors, our way of thinking affects the way we communicate the most. We can’t rule out individual exceptions. However, men and women are different in certain values. With more and more scholars providing evidence and data, we can better understand gender differences and thus promote communication skills between men and women. 鄒佩珊410710651 Stella

References:

Genders’ Linguistic Behaviors and General Behaviors

Author: Alvi, Urooj Fatima Rasool, Shafqat

Reference: Language In India. June, 2013, Vol. 13 Issue 6, p656, 20 p

Pictures:

https://health.businessweekly.com.tw/AArticle.aspx?id=ARTL000017868

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Differences in Language Use Between Men and Women

Author: Deborah Cameron Mon 1 Oct 2007 23.58 BST

https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books

https://opinion.cw.com.tw/blog/profile/390/article/9205

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