Research Proposal

Language Use and Gender

By

Language Use and Gender

Introduction

With this contribution to Gender and Postmodern Communication, I want to give some sociohistorical background addressing communicative styles, and how such styles reflect the values of our Western societies with regard to gender. In order to understand gender, research in sociology, sociopsychology, and education offers dependable findings to help us understand how men and women acquire gender-specific schemata conveyed through. The debate between the role of nature and the role of nurture is an old one. My contention is that the socialization process undergone by males and females sets various types of preferential cognitive networks, and those gender-specific psyches ultimately stem from nurture rather than nature. In the light of both anthropological and educational studies, cognitive differences between males and females do not stem exclusively from inherently natural and static neurolinguistic preferential networks: the socialization process undergone by males and females, whether at home or at school, past or present, play a much stronger role on the shaping of cognitive styles than previously admitted. There is every reason to believe, indeed, that nurture affects and shapes nature to the point where males and females end up developing different cognitive styles imposed by society. Studies in sociopshychology provide very thorough and fascinating analyses on how the self is shaped by sociohistorical processes, life history, and social ideology (Sloan, 1996a, 1996b). Research conducted to date in anthropology and education clearly states that gender-specific patterns of behavior remain relevant factors and important social variables to be analyzed through the most common cultural codes of society, that is, its language.

Research Question

What is the relationship between gender and use of language?

Literature Review

The American sociolinguist Labov (1966) and the British anthropologist Trudgill (1972) paved the way to the study of genderlects in Western societies. Their studies consistently indicated that females used a more standard language than did men, regardless of their socioeconomic level, age, or race. Their studies were often interpreted as the result of early childhood socialization processes (Lakoff, 1975; Goodwin, 1980; Maltz & Borker, 1982; Cameron, 1992). Girls are encouraged and rewarded for using "elegant" language whereas boys are allowed more flexibility and roughness in language use: "Rough talk is discouraged in little girls more strongly than in little boys, in whom parents may often find it more amusing than shocking" (Lakoff, 1975, p. 6). Cameron (1992) also points out that children's activities shape various styles of speech: "Boys tend to play in large groups organized hierarchically; thus they learn direct, confrontational speech. Girls play in small groups of 'best friends', where they learn to maximize intimacy and minimize conflict" (Cameron, 1992, p. 73). One research (Lever, 1978) examined activities among fifth-grade children on the basis of playground observations and interviews. The results of this research indicated that boys organized competitive team games with specific rules and goals, whereas girls played games in smaller groups involving repeated rituals and greater cooperation than boys. Lever (1978) also observed that when girls were involved in team games, they ...