Gender and transitive/intransitive verbs

[Ruth Goldberg]

Dear Linda,

Thank you very much!

As for your last sentence:

"Males were active in acts involving penetrative sex."

Do you mean to say that "active" is "transitive"? (I apologize for my
ignorance, my background is not in linguistics.) can I take it that when men
were described (in the texts you studied) in "acts involving penetrative
sex", more transitive verbs were used? This point is very intriguing, and
important for my present research.

Thanks a lot in advance,
Ruth

-----Original Message-----
From: International Gender and Language Association
[mailto:GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of LINDA MCLOUGHLIN
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 12:55 PM
To: GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Gender and transitive/intransitive verbs


Dear Ruth,
I'm afraid I've only undertaken one comparative analysis of texts where
the focus is on transitivity from a gender point of view.  This is in my
book The Language of Magazines where I try to show the type of language
work students can do with magazine texts.  One text is from the magazine
More and the other is Men's Health.  I used Halliday's (1985) model.
Basically, in accordance with many other researchers, I found that males
were active in acts involving penetrative sex.
Best wishes,
Linda

>>> ruthgo at OPENU.AC.IL 07/25/04 03:54pm >>>
Hi,

I would like to get your help on this matter. Do you have any material
on
the subject? I found a substantial difference in usage of these two
kinds of
verbs - when writing on women and men (more intransitive verbs when
describing men and vice versa), but don't know how to explain it. Can
you
help?

Many thanks!
Ruth Pazy-Goldberg