FW: And we thought it was because of socialization!

[Richard J. Senghas]

[NOTE: This message is being forwarded; please do reply to me. -RJS]

Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 16:51:28 +0200
To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
From: Don Kulick <kulick at socant.su.se>
Subject: And we thought it was because of socialization!

Making a vital contribution to popular science -- and reinforcing a few
stereotypes along the way -- Pravda sought to explain why "women are too
loquacious". The answer has apparently been found by a German psychologist,
Constanze Fakih, who claims that a woman's vocabulary, at 23,000 words, is
twice as big as a man's. The doc has also found a solution to the age-old
question of why husbands don't talk to their wives after work. Fakih claims
that men turn off the left side of their brains after work and revert to a
sort of "standby mode". Pravda explained: "After a hard working day, [men]
are capable of reflex actions only: have supper, watch TV, brush teeth and
go to bed. Their poor vocabulary and blockage of the dialogue zone result
only in short answers and indistinct mumbling, not nice dialogue"

 From The Guardian 14 September 2002, The Editor, p. 3