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Generally, the characteristics of males’ and females’ language tend to be quite different. However, the differences are often disputed and the differences in language also vary between different social classes, professions and age, not just genders. Gender, however, certainly has a large influence of language.
There are particular differences in gender use of the features of language, such as the use of expletives, accent and dialect, and lexicon. ... Following much research, there is little doubt that males tend to use more expletives and taboo language than women and this may be a way of asserting superiority. ...
The relationship between gender, social class and speech is also closely linked. ... The different language use seems to show the different way that most males and females wish to be perceived socially by their peers, whether consciously or subconsciously.
William Labov and Peter Trudgill see women using more prestige forms than men of similar social backgrounds due to women’s social positions being less secure and women being more sensitive to the social significance of language. ... Sachs and Tannen have noticed the early developments in children’s language which later supports the gender-related style of speaking. ... ” This problem results in the classic misunderstandings and confusions of each gender for the other leading to the joke that “men are from Mars and women are from Venus”. ... Some evidence for females attempting to appear higher socially which most males do not do includes; superpolite forms of language; tag questions; hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation even when the social class suggests a typically lower standard of speech; apologising more than men; avoiding coarse language and taboo subjects; and using indirect commands and requests to actually ask for something to be done (e. ... Some, like William O’Barr and Bowman Atkins believe such language attributed to women is less to do with gender and more situation-specific, relating to authority and power. ... Males generally use language in a more transactional way than women, being less social over what males see as small matters like arranging a time to meet a friend. ...
Stereotypical gender use seems to be based on fact, with the idea that males are brasher, ruder, dominate conversation, don’t talk about emotions and interrupt more in conversations while women tend to be more polite, more talkative (although not necessarily any more communicative), support each other and appear more friendly.
Determining whether written language was done by males or females is harder to do than listening to or reading spoken text as written language is less affected by gender in the ways spoken language is.
Approximate Word count = 2064
Approximate Pages = 8.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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