Gender Differences in English Syntax

Gender Differences in English Syntax PDF Author: Britta Mondorf
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110943379
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
What factors govern women's and men's use of syntactic alternatives? This is the central issue explored in the present volume, which provides the most comprehensive account so far of gender differences in syntax. By drawing on the theoretical frameworks of functional grammar (cf. Givón 1984, 1990), cognitive semantics and pragmatics, the book is able to show that the underlying characteristic of syntactic constructions that are sensitive to gender lies in their ability to encode epistemic meaning. Paying due attention to the closely intertwined relation between gender and a range of internal and external determinants, the present volume shows how apparently contradictory results in previous research can be reconciled. The internal and external factors investigated are: semantic type, position, intonation, pragmatic function - style, power, surreptitiousness, group composition. The Labovian 'Vanguard of Change' and 'Linguistic Conformity of Women' Principles (Labov 2001) are supplemented by an 'Epistemic Modality Principle' (stating that women are more prolific users of epistemic downtoners than men) and a 'Turn-Allocation Principle' (assessing that women use more completion signals than men in the negotiation of floor-apportionment). These principles are crucial in paving the ground for an explanation of gender differences in language. This volume is essential reading for those interested in language and gender and in how functionalism can be brought to bear in illuminating language structure and use.

Differences in the Usage of Finite Adverbial Concessive Clauses. A Replication Study of "Gender Differences in English Syntax" by Britta Mondorf

Differences in the Usage of Finite Adverbial Concessive Clauses. A Replication Study of Author: Anna Klamann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783668032774
Category :
Languages : de
Pages : 24

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English & Linguistics), course: Syntax, language: English, abstract: This paper is a partial replication of Mondorf's (2004) study on Gender Differences in English Syntax and combines quantitative corpus data and methodology with the framework of functional grammar to analyse gender-differences in finite adverbial concessive clauses headed by although and whereas. The internal factors of semantic-type and position were examined and the result suggests a strong influence of sex onto the usage of finite adverbial concessive clauses, with an overall result of concessive clauses being the marked domain of men. Correlations between sex and language are often taken for granted, but empirical studies on this topic, especially in the area of syntax, are surprisingly rare. One of the main studies of the past two decades, about the correlation between sex and language, which investigates sex-differences in specific syntactic constructions, is Britta Mondorf's work Gender Differences in English Syntax. Using the London-Lund Corpus (LLC), Mondorf empirically explores "two areas of marked gender difference in English syntax," namely tag questions and finite adverbial clauses. For the purpose of this replication study, only finite adverbial concessive clauses will be considered. Mondorf's study demonstrates "the existence of gender differentiated syntactic behaviour in the LLC of spoken British English" and shows that women are "prolific users of those syntactic constructions that signal a low degree of commitment towards the proposition expressed."

Women, Men, and Language

Women, Men, and Language PDF Author: Jennifer Coates
Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Language and languages
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this Second Edition, Jennifer Coates has thoroughly revised and updated the text, incorporating new material in the field of language and gender. She provides an overview both of traditional lore about the linguistic behaviour of women and men, and also of recent research findings in sociolinguistics and related subjects.

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology

The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology PDF Author: Thomas M. Holtgraves
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019983864X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 569

Get Book Here

Book Description
Language pervades everything we do as social beings. It is, in fact, difficult to disentangle language from social life, and hence its importance is often missed. The emergence of new communication technologies makes this even more striking. People come to "know" one another through these interactions without ever having met face-to-face. How? Through the words they use and the way they use them. The Oxford Handbook of Language and Social Psychology is a unique and innovative compilation of research that lies at the intersection of language and social psychology. Language is viewed as a social activity, and to understand this complex human activity requires a consideration of its social psychological underpinnings. Moreover, as a social activity, the use and in fact the existence of language has implications for a host of traditional social psychological processes. Hence, there is a reciprocal relationship between language and social psychology, and it is this reciprocal relationship that defines the essence of this handbook. The handbook is divided into six sections. The first two sections focus on the social underpinnings of language, that is, the social coordination required to use language, as well as the manner in which language and broad social dimensions such as culture mutually constitute one another. The next two sections consider the implications of language for a host of traditional social psychological topics, including both intraindividual (e.g., attribution) and interindividual (e.g., intergroup relations) processes. The fifth section examines the role of language in the creation of meaning, and the final section includes chapters documenting the importance of the language-social psychology interface for a number of applied areas.

Women, Men, and Language

Women, Men, and Language PDF Author: Jennifer Coates
Publisher: Longman Publishing Group
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Get Book Here

Book Description


Language, Gender, and Sex in Comparative Perspective

Language, Gender, and Sex in Comparative Perspective PDF Author: Susan U. Philips
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521338073
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
Most studies of gender differences in language use have been undertaken from exclusively either a sociocultural or a biological perspective. By contrast, this innovative volume places the analysis of language and gender in the context of a biocultural framework, examining both cultural and biological sources of gender differences in language, as well as the interaction between them. The first two parts of the volume on cultural variation in gender-differentiated language use, comparing Western English-speaking societies with societies elsewhere in the world. The essays are distinguished by an emphasis on the syntax, rather than style or strategy, of gender-differentiated forms of discourse but also often carry out the same forms differently through different choices of language form. These gender differences are shown to be socially organized, although the essays in Part I also raise the possibility that some cross-cultural similarities in the ways males and females differentially use language may be related to sex-based differences in physical and emotional makeup. Part III examines the relationship between language and the brain and shows that although there are differences between the ways males and females process language in the brain, these do not yield any differences in linguistic competence or language use. Taken as a whole, the essays reveal a great diversity in the cultural construction of gender through language and explicity show that while there is some evidence of the influence of biologically based sex differences on the language of women and men, the influence of culture is far greater, and gender differences in language use are better accounted for in terms of culture than in terms of biology. The collection will appeal widely to anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, and other concerned with the understanding of gender roles.

Grammatical Gender in English

Grammatical Gender in English PDF Author: Charles Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317419391
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1988, this book explores the grammatical loss of gender in English. It demonstrates that from the end of the Old English period, there was a considerable time period, of about three hundred years, during which there existed "echoes" of the gender classification of nouns. The study records the best known conclusions concerning the behaviour of anaphoric pronouns under grammatical gender "stress" in the late Old English and Middle English periods. It focuses on a discussion of attributive word morphology in the noun phrase.

Language and Woman's Place

Language and Woman's Place PDF Author: Robin Tolmach Lakoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019534717X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 1975 publication of Robin Tolmach Lakoff's Language and Woman's Place, is widely recognized as having inaugurated feminist research on the relationship between language and gender, touching off a remarkable response among language scholars, feminists, and general readers. For the past thirty years, scholars of language and gender have been debating and developing Lakoff's initial observations. Arguing that language is fundamental to gender inequality, Lakoff pointed to two areas in which inequalities can be found: Language used about women, such as the asymmetries between seemingly parallel terms like master and mistress, and language used by women, which places women in a double bind between being appropriately feminine and being fully human. Lakoff's central argument that "women's language" expresses powerlessness triggered a controversy that continues to this day. The revised and expanded edition presents the full text of the original first edition, along with an introduction and annotations by Lakoff in which she reflects on the text a quarter century later and expands on some of the most widely discussed issues it raises. The volume also brings together commentaries from twenty-six leading scholars of language, gender, and sexuality, within linguistics, anthropology, modern languages, education, information sciences, and other disciplines. The commentaries discuss the book's contribution to feminist research on language and explore its ongoing relevance for scholarship in the field. This new edition of Language and Woman's Place not only makes available once again the pioneering text of feminist linguistics; just as important, it places the text in the context of contemporary feminist and gender theory for a new generation of readers.

Differences in the usage of finite adverbial concessive clauses. A replication study of "Gender Differences in English Syntax" by Britta Mondorf

Differences in the usage of finite adverbial concessive clauses. A replication study of Author: Anna Klamann
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668032769
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 22

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English & Linguistics), course: Syntax, language: English, abstract: This paper is a partial replication of Mondorf’s (2004) study on Gender Differences in English Syntax and combines quantitative corpus data and methodology with the framework of functional grammar to analyse gender-differences in finite adverbial concessive clauses headed by although and whereas. The internal factors of semantic-type and position were examined and the result suggests a strong influence of sex onto the usage of finite adverbial concessive clauses, with an overall result of concessive clauses being the marked domain of men. Correlations between sex and language are often taken for granted, but empirical studies on this topic, especially in the area of syntax, are surprisingly rare. One of the main studies of the past two decades, about the correlation between sex and language, which investigates sex-differences in specific syntactic constructions, is Britta Mondorf's work Gender Differences in English Syntax. Using the London-Lund Corpus (LLC), Mondorf empirically explores "two areas of marked gender difference in English syntax", namely tag questions and finite adverbial clauses. For the purpose of this replication study, only finite adverbial concessive clauses will be considered. Mondorf’s study demonstrates "the existence of gender differentiated syntactic behaviour in the LLC of spoken British English" and shows that women are “prolific users of those syntactic constructions that signal a low degree of commitment towards the proposition expressed”.

An Interdisciplinary Bibliography on Language, Gender and Sexuality (2000-2011)

An Interdisciplinary Bibliography on Language, Gender and Sexuality (2000-2011) PDF Author: Heiko Motschenbacher
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027212007
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book Here

Book Description
This comprehensive, state-of-the-art bibliography documents the most recent research activity in the vibrant field of language, gender and sexuality. It provides experts in the field and students in tertiary education with access to language-centred resources on gender and sexuality and is, therefore, an ideal research companion. The main part of the bibliography lists 3,454 relevant publications (monographs, edited volumes, journal articles and contributions to edited volumes) that have been published within the period from 2000 to 2011. It unites work done in linguistics with that of neighbouring disciplines, covering studies dealing with a broad range of languages and cultures around the globe. Alphabetical listing and a keyword index facilitate finding relevant work by author and subject matter. The e-book version additionally enables users to search the entire document for specific terms. Sections on earlier bibliographies and general reference works on language, gender and sexuality complete the compilation.