Language and Gender

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Language and Gender
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Linguistic Anthropology and Gender some
research qs

• How are cultural notions of gender tied up with
  ideas about language? (ideologies)
• Are there male and female speech communities?
  (norms and rules)
• If so, how do men and women speak or use
  language similarly or differently? (collusion)

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Gender vs. Sex

• Generally speaking, sex traits refer to the
  biological elements of maleness and femaleness,
  for example voice pitch.
• Generally speaking, gender refers to the
  culturally determined ways in which we perform
  our maleness or femaleness. Examples include
  dress language occupation, role in the family,
  etc.

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Gendered behavior

• gendered behavior refers to behavior that has
  notably different male and female versions.
• What are some examples of gendered behavior in
  the US?

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Purely biological? Purely cultural?

• Language is a learned behavior.
• We begin learning language AND culture as soon as
  we are born.
• For children, peer learning is as important, and
  often more important, in the development of an
  understanding of linguistic norms. Who are a
  childs peers?
• The same linguistic behaviors mean different
  things cross-culturally.

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How is language linked to gender?

• Obligatory lexical/grammatical forms
• Cultural associations with lexical/grammatical
  forms
• Social associations between dialect forms and
  gendered identities

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An important distinction

• objectively observable behavior gender-linked
  use of particular forms, intonation patterns,
  etc.
• VS
• language attitudes ideas about mens vs.
  womens language (e.g. the idea that women tend
  to have larger vocabularies than men).

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Lexicon and gender

• Languages differ in how they lexicalize gender
  differences by having lexical items (words) that
  reflect sex differences
• English has a semantic gender system
• He-class boy, man, waiter
• She-class girl, woman, waitress
• He/she class doctor, teacher, cousin
• He/she/it class dog, horse, baby
• She/it-class ship, car

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In contrast

• French has a two-gender system where gender is
  marked by pronunciation differences between
  masculine and feminine Il est grand. He is
  big.
• Elle est grande. She is big.
• Russian often has both semantic and lexical
  differences
• drug (male friend) podruga (female friend)

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Grammar and gender

• Languages also grammaticalize gender to
  different extents.
• Examples
• Hungarian third person singular (ö) is not marked
  for gender.
• Spanish marks gender in plural pronouns ellas
  nosotras
• Slavic languages mark gender in singular past
  verbs
• Vin pishov (He left.) Vona poshla (She left.)

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Noun classes and gender

• Many languages divide nouns into classes that are
  often labeled masculine feminine and
  neuter. These noun classes may not be related
  to ideas about human gender at all.
• e.g. French Russian
• la table (f) stol
  (m)
• le mur (m) stena
  (f)
• 
  dno (n)
• Other languages, like Swahili, have noun classes,
  but they are not divided along gender lines

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Non-obligatory gendered usage

• Non-obligatory gendered usages result from
  cultural, not grammatical distinctions between
  genders in terms of expected linguistic
  behaviors, or gendered semantic associations
• What are your cultural associations with
• puce, celery, mauve, ecru, cornflower
• Nurse
• Mechanic

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Semantic Asymmetries

• Master/Mistress
• Hes recognized as a master.
• Shes recognized as a mistress.
• Man/Woman
• Hes only 14 but hes already a man.
• Shes only 14 but shes already a woman.
• Boy/Girl
• How many FBI agents does it take to handle a 24
  year old girl?
• How many FBI agents does it take to handle a
  24-year old boy?

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Linguistic behaviors are not naturally gendered

• In Tannens article How to give orders like a
  man, she shows that in the US, direct orders are
  associated with male power.
• However, in other cultures, use of indirectness
  is associated with male power.

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Directness and Indirectness

• Directness in language is associated with
  straightforward statements and commands that are
  NOT softened or implied
• Put it over there. Will you pick the visitor
  up at the airport? Open a window, please.
• Indirectness in involves softening or implying
  meanings rather than stating them directly.
• It would be great if you could put that over
  there. The visitor needs to be picked up at
  the airport. Its hot in here.

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Hierarchy and directness (Tannen)

• Studied transcripts from airplane crashes in
  which the co-pilot pointed out problems using
  indirectness and the pilot didnt get the point
• BUT mitigated (indirect) speech is considered an
  element of a crew that works well together.
• Secret to better communication lies in bosses
  being more attuned to indirect meanings

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Indirectness in Japanese

• Tannen gives another example of a Japanese boss
  who gave the following order
• A place must be found, the negative brought to
  it, the picture developed. pg. 48
• The Japanese ideology of language places
  importance on protecting the face of
  subordinates by not telling them directly what to
  do. At the same time, being able to interpret
  indirect meanings (sasshi) is considered a sign
  of maturity.

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Language Ideology and Gender

• Tannen article
• In the US, dominant language ideology says
• Directness is assertive and is associated with
  power.
• Indirectness is submissive and is associated with
  being a subordinate.

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Gendered Linguistic Behavior

• In studies of English, women have been found to
  speak a more prestigious variety than men in most
  communities.
• Womens speech in English has been found to be
  conservative where the dialect is moving away
  from the standard, and innovative where the
  dialect is moving toward the standard.

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Why?

• women are more invested in social advancement and
  are less invested in negative prestige
  identities, such as street tough (have lower
  vernacular loyalty)
• Negative prestige identities (e.g. local working
  class) may be gendered as masculine, or
  feminine promiscuous
• appearances/ good behavior and politeness are
  more important for women than men

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Kulick Article

• What are the gender stereotypes about male and
  female speech in Gapun?
• What attributes are associated with men, and male
  speech?
• What attributes are associated with women, and
  female speech?

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Gapun

• 2 languages spoken Taiap and Tok Pisin
• Shift from Taiap to Tok Pisin
• Why is Taiap associated with women, and with
  dangerous emotional displays?

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Taiap and Tok Pisin

• Tok Pisin is the official language of Papua New
  Guinea
• Tok Pisin is a creole language associated with
  development projects and Christianization
• Tok Pisin is used in public oratory that is
  associated with male prominence.

• Taiap is the native language
• When women use kros speech, they speak in Taiap
• In Gapun, there is a shift away from using Taiap
  to using Tok Pisin

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Emotion and danger

• Why are emotions dangerous in Gapun?
• If you dont express anger, it will rot in your
  stomach and cause sickness
• If you do express anger, it may enrage the
  ancestral spirits of that person or the attacked
  person may seek out a sorcerer

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hed

• Every person has volatile free will ego,
  selfishness, maverick individualism
• Hed is associated with children, and by
  extension, women, who are seen as being angry by
  nature and lacking self control.

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The kros

• For an example, see pg. 93
• Kros is a speech genre, that is, it is a way of
  speaking that is appropriate to a certain kind of
  interaction, what we might call a fight
• Typically shouting from inside houses, insults,
  vulgarity, accusations of wrongdoing. Associated
  with women.

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Anger in the Mens house

• Men also deal with anger and disputes in their
  arena, the mens house
• Calm, encouraging men to reveal their anger, and
  cool their anger so that it will cease to make
  someone sick.
• Typically anger is exposed, but made out to be
  small, perhaps not to be anger at all, it is
  downplayed.

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Motivations for language shift

• The new language is associated with positive
  ideals, like development and making money, and
  Christian values
• The old language is associated with the ways of
  ancestors, which are increasingly negatively
  perceived
• This community is undergoing a shift from
  speaking Taiap, to speaking Tok Pisin.

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Three theories of gender and language

• Social Power Model (Lakoff 70s/80s)
• Two Cultures Model (Maltz and Borker Tannen
  80s/90s)
• Performance model (Eckert and McConnell-Ginet
  90s - )

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Social power vs. 2 cultures

• Two cultures different but overlapping speech
  communities

• Social Power
• One speech community, with men setting the
  standard for powerful language

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Social Power Model

• Associated with Robin Lakoff
• Focuses on why men and women in the US speak
  differently
• Lakoff says that mens speech is powerful
  speech, that is, men use speech typical of
  powerful people, and women use speech typical of
  powerless people.
• Women have been taught to act inferior when they
  act inferior, they feel inferior.

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Examples of powerless speech

• hedge Well, I was sorta thinking that maybe
  that we could kind of look at that tomorrow-ish.
• deference I know that youre very busy, but I
  was hoping we could have some coffee, if you
  have the time.

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• self-denigration This is probably a stupid idea,
  but what about if we each write one section of
  the report?
• I really dont know anything about this at all,
  but maybe people just dont want to pay more for
  a muffler.
• marks of uncertainty um rising intonation at
  the end of a statement hesitant or slow speech
  quiet voice

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Why are women more polite?

• Studies have shown, that in general, women tend
  to be more polite across cultures.
• Politeness is offered from inferiors to superiors
• Politeness is typical of formality and distance
• In cultures where women are LESS polite than men,
  it is because politeness is associated with
  acquisition of status by men.

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Whats wrong with the power model?

• The power model says that there is something
  wrong with the way women speak, but doesnt
  address WHY men and women speak differently.

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Another approach 2 Cultures

• In the Power model, men and women belong to ONE
  SPEECH COMMUNITY, where they speak more or less
  powerful varieties of the language
• In the Two Cultures model, men and women belong
  to two different, but overlapping speech
  communities

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Interethnic Communication

• Sociolinguists like Gumperz and Tannen have
  studied communication and miscommunication
  between groups that have different norms for
  interaction.
• Example high vs. low involvement conversational
  styles (NY vs. California)
• The Bailey article on Korean store owners and
  African American customers used this approach

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Two Cultures Model

• Argued by Deborah Tannen, and Maltz and Borker,
  among others
• Men and Women in the US are socialized into two
  different but overlapping cultural groups during
  same-sex peer socialization in childhood.
• These groups have different ideas about the
  purpose of language, as well as different
  understandings of pragmatic cues

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The basic Two Cultures idea

• We argue that American men and women come from
  different sociolinguistic subcultures, having
  learned to do different things with words in a
  conversation, so that when they attempt to carry
  on conversations with one another, even if both
  parties are attempting to treat one another as
  equals, cultural miscommunication occurs. Maltz
  and Borker

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The two cultures

• Girls and boys socialized separately in
  single-sex peer groups, esp. in formative years
• Different groups have different norms of
  interaction and goals for conversation
• Miscommunication occurs across groups

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The two cultures

• Girls play in small groups or pairs emphasis is
  on emotional closeness, not hierarchy. Emphasis
  on alliance formation, betrayal, loyalty.
• Boys play in large groups with a range of ages.
  Emphasis is on hierarchy, on moving up in the
  hierarchy, in stealing attention away from people
  who are threatening your place in the hierarchy.

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Pickle Fights

• Amy Sheldons work on 3-4 year olds in pre-school
  play group of 3 children. How do they resolve
  fights over a plastic pickle?
• Boys resolved conflict by changing play themes
• Girls resolved conflict within same play theme,
  but rearranged roles to dissolve the hierarchy.

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Two cultures says

• Childhood socialization translates into
  differences in the way that adult men and women
  speak with each other, and differences in how
  they interpret the same linguistic behaviors.

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Miscommunication

• When men and women talk to each other, it is a
  form of cross-cultural miscommunication. Men
  and womens goals for conversation may be very
  different due to different worldviews

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Male/female worldviews in Two cultures model

• Male Emphasis on social hierarchy, personal
  position within hierarchy, emphasis on individual
  accomplishments, independence

• Female Emphasis on social harmony, equality,
  concern for feelings of others, de-emphasis of
  self and selfs accomplishments emphasis on
  collaboration avoidance of hierarchy

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For example

• According to 2 cultures
• Women tend to use questions to maintain
  conversation, show interest and respect for the
  speakers story
• Men tend to see questions as requests for
  information, or even as challenges to their
  authority to speak.

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according to 2 cultures

• Women share experiences to promote solidarity and
  intimacy.
• Men discuss problems in order to solve them.

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Behavior and worldview

• Men have more strategies for dominating
  conversation
• Interrupt frequently
• Often dont acknowledge or link their statement
  to a previous statement from an interlocutor
• Make many declarations of fact
• Often dispute claims of their interlocutor

• Women do the shitwork of conversation
• ask a lot of questions
• use the pronouns you and we frequently
• If women are interrupted, they tend to stop
  speaking
• Say yes, right and uhuh frequently

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Social Power vs. Two Cultures differing
analysis of key features

• Positive Minimal Responses (PMRs)
• mmhm, yeah, right, uhuh
• In the US, men use far fewer than women on
  average
• Social power says
• Men withhold PMRs as a way of showing their
  power
• Women offer a lot of PMRs to puff up the person
  they are talking to
• Two cultures says
• For men, PMRs signal agreement
• For women, PMRs signal Im listening
• How does this lead to miscommunication?

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• Questions
• Social Power model argues that the less powerful
  ask questions the more powerful answer questions
• Two cultures says that men and women see
  different reasons to ask questions
• Men see questions as requests for information
• Women see questions as a way of maintaining
  smooth conversational flow (men will just
  introduce a new topic to keep a conversation
  going)

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• Aggressiveness (e.g. disagreement)
• Social power says that men are displaying their
  power by cutting down women
• Two cultures says that men are taught to organize
  conversations through oppositions. Women view
  opposition as negative and a personal attack.

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The new model Performance

• Performance theory focuses on community standards
  for judging the genderedness of linguistic
  behavior in a given instance.
• Gets away from men do this women do that BUT
  acknowledges that there are power differentials
  in society that may be performed as part of
  performing gender identity.

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Example

• Article by Deborah Cameron on Performing Gender
  Identity
• focused on how young, heterosexual men performed
  their gender identity in all-male conversations
• the conversations focused on other men, their
  actions, and their dress. In this context,
  performance of male, heterosexual identity
  focused on referring to other men as gay
• Clearly, in another context, linguistic
  performance of male, heterosexual identity would
  not depend on the same use of features.