We are surrounded in our everyday lives by powerful commonsense ideas about speech which tell us that men and women communicate and use language in different ways. Nowadays, a major topic in sociolinguistics is the connection between language and gender. Gender differences in language use are of two types: gender-exclusive and gender-preferential, although some sociolinguists claim that the former is a myth and there are no gender-exclusive differences between the speech of men and women. The aim of this paper is to prove that these differences exist and that they are specific to traditional societies. Phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical differences will be discussed, it will be demonstrated that these gender differences really exist and that they are influenced by social factors.
Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii "Ovidius" Constanţa. Seria Filologie
Volum 1 | Număr 22 | Publicat la 01/09/2011 | ISSN 1223-7248
Gender Exclusive Differences in Language Use
We are surrounded in our everyday lives by powerful commonsense ideas about speech which tell us that men and women communicate and use language in different ways. Nowadays, a major topic in sociolinguistics is the connection between language and gender. Gender differences in language use are of two types: gender-exclusive and gender-preferential, although some sociolinguists claim that the former is a myth and there are no gender-exclusive differences between the speech of men and women. The aim of this paper is to prove that these differences exist and that they are specific to traditional societies. Phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical differences will be discussed, it will be demonstrated that these gender differences really exist and that they are influenced by social factors.