17.115, Review: Socioling/Psycholing: Coates (2004)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-115. Sat Jan 14 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.115, Review: Socioling/Psycholing: Coates (2004)

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1)
Date: 12-Jan-2006
From: Isabelle Lemée < isabelle.lemee at ucd.ie >
Subject: Women, Men and Language, 3rd Edition 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:08:36
From: Isabelle Lemée < isabelle.lemee at ucd.ie >
Subject: Women, Men and Language, 3rd Edition 
 

AUTHOR: Coates, Jennifer
TITLE: Women, Men and Language
SUBTITLE: 3rd edition
PUBLISHER: Pearson Longman
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2691.html 

Isabelle Lemée, School of Applied Languages and Intercultural 
Studies, Dublin City University.

OVERVIEW

As the title suggests, Coates' book introduces the reader to the study 
of Language and Gender. This is the third edition, and the subtitle of 
this book informs the reader that it is a sociolinguistic account of 
gender differences in language.

'Women, Men and Language' is organised around four main parts and 
comprises a total of twelve chapters. Part 1 (Introductory) has three 
chapters and gives an introduction to the key area of language and 
gender. Coates focuses on linguistic variation related to the gender of 
the speaker and relates these linguistic differences to the social roles 
assigned to women and men in our culture. She exposes our society's 
preconceptions about gender differences in language through 
historical background.

In Part 2 (The sociolinguistic evidence), five chapters introduce 
sociolinguistic evidence of gender differences in language in the 
chronological order in which sociolinguistic research on gender 
developed. The chapters focus respectively on quantitative studies, 
the concept of social networks, women's and men's linguistic 
behaviour while communicating, as well as the way certain 
conversational strategies can be used to achieve dominance in talk, to 
conclude with single-sex talk.

Part 3 (Causes and consequences) examines three related areas: the 
development of gender-differentiated language in children, the nature 
of linguistic change and the role of gender differences in promoting 
changes, and finally the consequences of gender differences in 
language, looking especially at the use of language in school and the 
workplace. Coates attempts to understand to what extent women are 
disadvantaged in these two contexts.

Part 4 (Looking to the future) is the final part of this book and contains 
only one short chapter which provides an overview of recent 
developments in language and gender research, as well as an overall 
conclusion about the shape of language and gender research in the 
future.

In structural terms, the book is very consistent and all chapters are 
generally organised in similar ways. Thus each chapter starts out with 
a general introduction, very clear definition of terms, followed by 
general discussion of the studies presented. At the end of each 
chapter, Coates provides an overall conclusion and voices her opinion 
about the chapter. The author presents the studies conducted on 
language and gender in details and does not presuppose any 
previous knowledge of the field. Therefore this book is intended for 
readers with little or no background in this field and for experts alike. 
Students can read about early language and gender work at the same 
time as developing an understanding of new approaches to gender.

SUMMARY OF INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS

Chapter 1 (Language and gender) opens with a general introduction 
where Coates expresses her intention to provide a coherent 
sociolinguistic account of the co-variation of language and gender. In 
this introductory chapter, she gives an overview of the way language 
and gender studies have developed within sociolinguistics, and also 
provides a brief account of the main approaches by linguists to the 
question of gender differences in language. The last section 
discusses the organisation of the book.

In Chapter 2 (The historical background (1) - Folklinguistics and the 
early grammarians) Coates looks at the cultural mythology associated 
with gender differences in language. The chapter concentrates on 
vocabulary, swearing and taboo language, grammar, literacy, 
pronunciation and verbosity. She presents her definition of the 
Androcentric Rule which states that 'men will be seen to behave 
linguistically in a way that fits the writer's view of what is desirable or 
admirable; women on the other hand will be blamed for any linguistic 
state or development which is regarded by the writer as negative or 
reprehensible' (p.10). This chapter reflects ideas of scholars from the 
Middle-Ages up to the beginning of the century. For example silence 
was synonymous of obedience for a woman in the 18th century.

Chapter 3 (The historical background (2) - Anthropologists and 
dialectologists) features a detailed survey of works done by 
anthropologists and dialectologists to illustrate respectively the kind of 
male/female variation in language that anthropologists commented on, 
and the weakness of traditional dialectology in its selection of 
informants which lead to the claim that women's speech was more 
standard than men's and therefore less worthy of researching on. 
Coates describes how women were often supplementing the 
dialectologist with information rather than being full members of the 
speech community.

Chapter 4 (Quantitative studies) presents classic sociolinguistic 
studies, with their analysis of linguistic variation in relation to social 
class of speakers and speech style. Sociolinguistic studies revealed 
clear social stratification and gave rise to the related concept of 
prestige and stigma. The studies presented have found that gender 
differences in language often cut across social class variation. For 
some community studied, use of non-standard, non-prestige forms 
seems to be associated not only with working-class speakers, but also 
with male speakers. This is contradicted though by Eckert's study 
(1988; 1990) where her high school (burnout) girls lead the boys in 
the use of vernacular forms. Women are found to use fewer 
stigmatised forms and more prestige forms than men in each social 
class.

In Chapter 5 (Social Networks), Coates presents work exploring the 
hypothesis that the level of integration of speakers in a community 
directly reflects in their language. She stresses the importance to 
accept vernacular norms as features marking a speaker's loyalty to a 
particular network. Milroy (1980) and Cheshire (1982) demonstrate 
that female speakers are less closely integrated into vernacular 
culture, that women use vernacular norms less consistently than male 
speakers. Cheshire's work clearly shows that women's loyalty to 
vernacular norms is not always marked with the same linguistic 
features that mark men's identification with vernacular culture. Women 
are generally thought to belong to less dense and multiplex networks 
than men, even though some research present counter-examples of 
this belief.

In Chapter 6 (Gender differences in conversational practice) Coates 
presents evidence from a range of studies which suggest that women 
and men differ in terms of their communicative competence. She 
describes how women and men pursue different interactive styles: 
women use hedges more frequently and pay more compliments to 
other speakers, they also appear to be more polite, while men talk and 
swear more and use aggravated directives to get things done. The 
evidence presented shows that both women and men accommodate 
to the perceived norms of the other gender. This chapter also 
describes misconceptions, showing for example that although gossip 
is part of female subculture, some aspects of men's talk can also be 
labelled ''gossip''.

Chapter 7 (Conversational dominance in mixed talk) focuses on how 
some conversational strategies are used to achieve dominance in 
talk. ''Sociolinguistic research into mixed talk exposes the fact that 
women and men do not have equal rights to the conversational floor'' 
(p. 124). In mixed talk, interruptions, talking too much or being silent 
are strategies mainly used by men to undermine the current speaker 
and consequently to reinforce male dominance. Studies suggest that 
gender overrides status.

In chapter 8 (Same-sex talk) Coates focuses on women's and men's 
talk in same-sex groups. Research suggests that linguistic 
characteristics of all female-talk and all-male talk differ. ''This 
difference has been labelled all-female talk 'cooperative' and all-male 
talk 'competitive''' (p. 143). This chapter stresses two important facts: 
firstly these different ways of talking may share the goal of creating 
group solidarity; secondly language is a way of DOING gender rather 
than just being women or men. In any case, this is constrained by 
dominant norms which are always open to challenge.

Chapter 9 (Children and gender-differentiated language) explains how 
differences in linguistic usage are mainly linked to the linguistic 
environment of girls and boys. Language is an important part of the 
socialisation process and children not only learn gender appropriate 
behaviour, but they also acquire a knowledge of culturally approved 
gender roles. Children adopt particular linguistic behaviour as part 'of 
their performance of masculinity/femininity, [thus perpetuating] the 
social order which creates gender distinctions' (p. 148).

In Chapter 10 (The role of gender differences in linguistic change) 
Coates tries to demonstrate the existing link between gender 
differences in language and linguistic change. To do so, she re-
examines Labov's (1972), Trudgill's (1974), Milroy's (1980) and 
Eckert's (1990) studies, and also looks at Nichols' (1983) and Britain's 
(1998) studies. Coates finds it impossible to claim that linguistic 
change is associated with one gender or another. Women are 
sometimes innovative - as shown by Trudgill's, Milroy's and Nichols' 
studies - and sometimes conservative. All these studies underline the 
fact that women, like men, respond to local circumstances. They make 
linguistic choices in the context of particular speech communities.

Chapter 11 (The social consequences of gender differences in 
language) Coates examines the social, as opposed to the linguistic 
consequences of linguistic differentiation based on gender. She 
mainly focuses on the classroom and the workplace. The studies show 
that in school, boys' dominance is co-constructed by all participants - 
teacher and pupils included. Cooperative conversational skills brought 
to the classroom by female speakers are not valued. In the case of the 
workplace, this remains a decidedly unequal arena. However a 
growing body of research shows that the interpersonal skills that 
women bring into the workplace are beginning to be valued. What 
these studies demonstrate is that ''gender relations are changing and 
that we are living through a period of transition with changes going on 
in the everyday worlds of school and work'' (p. 210). These changes 
have an impact on cultural notions of masculinity and femininity.

In Chapter 12 (New developments in language and gender research) 
Coates gives an ''overview of some of the key changes that have 
taken place and some of the new ideas that currently hold sway in the 
academic community'' (p. 215), such as communities of practice, queer 
linguistics. Coates claims that ''the spread of language and gender 
research to non-English-speaking communities and the adoption of 
the communities of practice approach have led to more studies which 
emphasize the importance of looking locally'' (p 221). However she 
warns that by looking too locally it is very easy to lose sight of the big 
picture.

EVALUATION

This revised edition takes the reader from an initial 'men talk like this; 
women talk like that' approach to a more nuanced idea of women and 
men performing gender in their everyday interactions. It covers a 
range of sociolinguistic research, looking at grammatical and 
phonological features a well as at aspects of conversation such as 
compliments or swearing. This book presents studies that contradict 
common beliefs like women talk more than men. It is written clearly 
and in a very accessible manner.

This is a very useful volume in which terms are very well presented 
and explained in relation to concrete studies. The small number of 
typos is further evidence of the author's attention to formal accuracy.

My only minor criticism concerns the fact that since this book is 
intended to students as well as teachers, it would have been useful to 
see in addition to author and subject indices a definition index.

Taken together this is a very well-structured informative book that 
fulfils all the objectives that the author set out to achieve. This book 
explores the idea that gender is socially and culturally constructed.

REFERENCES

Britain, D. (1998). Linguistic change in intonation: the use of high-
rising terminals in New Zealand English. In Trudgill, P. and Cheshire, 
J. (eds) The Sociolinguistic Reader. Vol I: Multilingualism and 
Variation, 213-239. Arnold: London.

Cheshire, J. (1982). Variation in an English Dialect. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press.

Eckert, P. (1988). Adolescent social structure and the spread of 
linguistic change. Language in Society, 17: 245-267

Eckert, P. (1990). The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in 
variation. Language Variation and Change, 1: 245-68

Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of 
Pennsylvania Press.

Milroy, L. (1980). Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Oxford 
University Press.

Nichols, P. (1983). Linguistic options and choices for Black women in 
the rural South. In Thorne, B., Kramarae, C. ad Henley, N. (eds) 
Language, Gender and Society 54-68. Newbury House, Rowley, MA.

Trudgill, P. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Isabelle Lemée is a Lecturer in Dublin City University and currently 
teaches Spoken French, French for Specific Purposes as well as 
Psycholinguistics. Her research interests include Second Language 
Acquisition, Sociolinguistics and Language Variation.





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