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Summary Chapter 7 Gender and Age: By: Iva Mulyani A. AG6

1. The document discusses differences in linguistic behavior and speech patterns between gender and age groups. It explains that women and men tend to use different linguistic forms, with women favoring standard forms more often while men use more vernacular forms. 2. In some non-Western communities, certain linguistic features like pronunciations or word shapes are exclusively used in either women's or men's speech. In Western societies, there is more overlap but still differences in frequency of use of standard versus vernacular forms along gender lines. 3. Explanations proposed for women's preference for standard forms include seeking social status, fulfilling expectations of polite behavior, or vernacular forms having masculine connotations, though alternative

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158 views3 pages

Summary Chapter 7 Gender and Age: By: Iva Mulyani A. AG6

1. The document discusses differences in linguistic behavior and speech patterns between gender and age groups. It explains that women and men tend to use different linguistic forms, with women favoring standard forms more often while men use more vernacular forms. 2. In some non-Western communities, certain linguistic features like pronunciations or word shapes are exclusively used in either women's or men's speech. In Western societies, there is more overlap but still differences in frequency of use of standard versus vernacular forms along gender lines. 3. Explanations proposed for women's preference for standard forms include seeking social status, fulfilling expectations of polite behavior, or vernacular forms having masculine connotations, though alternative

Uploaded by

Iva Padma
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SUMMARY CHAPTER 7

GENDER AND AGE

By : Iva Mulyani A.

AG 6

GENDER AND AGE

The linguistics forms used by women and men contrast – to different degrees – in all speech
communities. There are other ways too in which the linguistics behavior of women and men differs. It is
claimed women are more linguistically polite than men, for instance, and that women and men
emphasize different speech function.Women and men from the same speech communities use different
linguistics form. First, a brief comment on the meaning of the meaning of the terms sex and gender in
sociolinguistics. We have used the terms gender rather than sex because sex has come to categorized
distinguished by biological characteristic, while gender is more appropriate for distinguishing people on
basis of their socio-cultural behavior, including speech. The concept of gender allows, however, for
describing masculine and feminine behavior in terms of scales or continua rather than absolute
categorize.

GENDER – EXCLUSIVE SPEECH DIFFERENCES NON WESTERN COMMUNITIES

There are communities where the language is shared by women and men, but, particular
linguistics features occurs only in the women’s speech and men’s speech. These features are usually
small differences in pronunciation or word shape (morphology). In Montana, for instance, there are
pronunciation differences in the Gros Ventre American Indian tribe. Where the women say [kja’tsa]
for‘bread’ and the men say [d a’tsa]. In this community if a person uses the wrong from their gender, the
older members of the community consider them bisexual. Word-shapes in other languages contrast
because women and men use different affixes.

SEX-PREFERENTIAL SPEECH FEATURES-SOCIAL DIALECT RESEARCH

In Western communities where women's and men's social roles overlap, the speech forms they
use also overlap. In other words women and men do not use completely different forms. They use
different quantities or frequencies of the same forms. Women tend to use more of the standard forms
than men do.

GENDER AND SOCIAL CLASS


The linguistic features which differ in the speech of women and men in Western communities
are usually features which also distinguish the speech of people from different social classes. There are
however, some general patterns which can be identified. In every socialclass men use more vernacular
forms than women.In many speech communities, when women use more of a linguistic form than men,
it is generally the standard form – the overtly prestigious form – that women favor. When men use a
form more often than women, it is usually a vernacular form, one which is not cited as the ‘correct ‘form.
This pattern has been found in Western speech communities all over the world.

EXPLANATIONS OF WOMEN'S LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOUR

1. The social status explanation


Some linguists have suggested that women use more standard speech forms than men because
they are more status-conscious than men. The claim is that women are more aware of the fact
that the way they speak signals their social class background or social status in the community.
Standard speech forms are generally associated with high social status, and so, according to this
explanation, women use more standard speech forms as a way of claiming such status.
2. Woman's role as guardian of society's values
A second explanation for the fact that women use more standard forms than men points to the
way society tends to expect better behaviour from women than from men. Women are
designated the role of modelling correct behaviour in the community.
3. Subordinate groups must be polite
Children are expected to be polite to adults. Women as a subordinate group, it is argued, must
avoid offending men and so they must speak carefully and politely. Suggesting that a woman
uses standard forms in order to protect her face is not very different from saying she is claiming
more status than she is entitled to.
4. Vernacular forms express machismo
Men prefer vernacular forms because they carry macho connotations of masculinity and
toughness. Standard forms tend to be associated with female values and femininity.

SOME ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS

1. How are women categorised?


Not all women marry men from the same social class, however. It is perfectly possible for a
woman to be better educated than the man she marries, or even to have a more prestigious job
than him. Women's use of more standard forms would require no explanation at all. They would
simply be using appropiate forms which accurately reflected their social background.
2. The influence of the interviewer and the context
Women tend to be more cooperative conversationalists than men. It seems very likely that one
factor accounting for women's use of more standard forms in social dialect interviews is their
greater accomodation to the middle-class speech of their interviewers. Men, on the other hand,
tend to be less responsive to the speech of others, and to their conversational needs. It is worth
noting that although sex generally interacts with other social factors, such as status, class, the
role of the speaker in an interaction, and the formality of the context, there are cases where the
sex of the speaker seems to be the most influential factor accounting for speech patterns. There
are other features of people's speech which vary at different ages too. Not only pitch, but
vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar can differentiate age groups. Slang is another area of
vocabulary which reflects a person's age. Current slang is the linguistic prerogative of young
people and generally sounds odd in the mouth of an older person. It signals membership of a
particular group - the young.

AGE AND SOCIAL DIALECT DATA

Most social dialectologists have found that adolescents use the higher frequencies of vernacular
forms, especially if they are forms which people clearly recognise or identify as non-standard. On the
other hand some researchers who have interviewed younger children have noted a different pattern.
When people are not particularly aware that forms are vernacular forms, there is no adolescent peak,
but rather a gradual reduction as the child approaches adulthood. As people get older their speech
simply becomes less dialectical and more standard. Patterns for particular linguistic features may vary
between communities, but there is general agreement that in their middle years people are most likely
to recognise the society's speech norms and use the fewest vernacular forms.
AGE GRADING AND LANGUAGE CHANGE

When a linguistic change is spreading through a community, there will usually be a regular
increase or decrease in the use of linguistic form over time. Younger people will use less of the form and
older people more.

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