gender and language

[Emma Moore]

I just wanted to add that I'm currently researching the grammar of a group
of British high school girls and, for several variables (e.g. multiple
negation, singular _were_, demonstrative _them_) some girls use equal
amounts, if not more, of the nonstandard than some boys. As Penny Eckert
outlined, the issue is really what groups you are looking at and what
factors influence their social activity and interaction. Generalisations
about what 'men do' and what 'women do' don't really tell us anything about
the reality of different communities.

Also, research methodology plays a big part in how the language of women is
portrayed. The results of a survey are only reliable if its analysis of
women's behaviour is truly representative. See:

Wodak, Ruth and Gertraud Benke (1997) "Gender as a sociolinguistic variable:
New perspectives on variation studies." In: Florian Coulmas (ed.), _The
Handbook of Sociolinguistics_, 127-150. Oxford: Blackwell.

and

Cameron, Deborah ([1989]1990) "Introduction". In: Jennifer Coates and
Deborah Cameron (eds.), _Women in their Speech Communities: New Perspectives
on Language and Sex_, 3-12. New York/London: Longman.

who examine some of the ways that some sociolinguistic methodology could be
perceived as sexist.

**********************************************
Emma Moore
University of Manchester
E-mail: e.f.moore at stud.man.ac.uk
**********************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Penny Eckert <eckert at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
To: <GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: gender and language


> I don't disagree with the explanations that have been offered so far for
> women's greater use of standard speech. But I wouldn't go too far down
> this road without considering the many cases in which women's speech is
> not more standard than men's. Trudgill's data were unusual in the
> consistent male lead in sound change; other studies have found women to
> lead in many changes. The question of how non-standard these sound changes
> are is another problem - we've developed pretty monolithic models of
> "standard" and "vernacular". Nonetheless, the generalization that women
> use more standard erases the considerable differences among women - and
> indeed, these differences are greater than those among men. The real
> generalization is that there is greater linguistic differentiation among
> women than among men. So the question is not "do women use more standard
> language?" but "which women use more standard?" Labov and I have both
> found evidence of a crossover in a variety of variables, with women who
> function in the standard language market using more standard language than
> men in the standard market, and women who function in the vernacular
> market using more vernacular than men in the vernacular market.
>
> See:
>
> ECKERT, PENELOPE. 1990. The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in
> variation. Language Variation and Change, 1.245-67.
>
> LABOV, WILLIAM. 1991. The intersection of sex and social class in the
> course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change, 2.205-51.
>
> The examples are phonological, but I have found the same pattern in the
> use of negative concord among adolescents.  One hypothesis that Sally
> McConnell-Ginet and I proposed is that women have to work harder to
> construct themselves as "authentic" participants in any market.
>
> ECKERT, PENELOPE and MCCONNELL-GINET, SALLY. 1995. Constructing meaning,
> constructing selves: Snapshots of language, gender and class from Belten
> High. Gender articulated: Language and the culturally constructed self,
> ed. by Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, 469-507. London: Routledge.
>
> This is not to deny that statistically, women's grammar (if not their
> phonology) is more standard than men's, and I think the explanation is
> complex. I agree that depending on the situation, nonstandard grammar can
> be associated with toughness or defiance, both of which are tolerated or
> valued more in males than females. It also is associated with lack of
> education and, once again depending on the situation, with ignorance,
> which is more face threatening to females. A nice account of this is in:
>
> DEUCHAR, MARGARET. 1989. A pragmatic account of women's use of standard
> speech. Women in Their Speech Communities, ed. by Jennifer Coates and
> Deborah Cameron, 27-32. London and New York: Longman.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Penelope Eckert                              phone: (650)725-1564
> Professor, Department of Linguistics         fax:   (650)723-5666
> Director, Program in Feminist Studies
> Stanford University
> Stanford CA 94305-2150
>