This document discusses gender differences in language use. It begins by defining sex as biological differences between male and female, while gender describes masculine and feminine social and cultural characteristics. Several studies and linguists are cited that suggest women generally talk more, are more polite and cooperative, while men swear more, talk about sports and machines, and try to dominate conversations. Differences are also noted in topics discussed, use of questions versus statements, eye contact, and intent to connect versus gain status. In conclusion, literature shows clear differences between how men and women communicate, which may be influenced by their differing social roles and upbringings.

1. LANGUAGE AND GENDER
Prepared By:
HOURIA Afafe

2. CONTENT:
 Introduction
 Sex and Gender
 Gender differences in language use
 Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION:
Who is possibly talking ?
 1-a) oh dear, you’ve put the ice-cream into the fridge,
again?
 1-b)damn ! You’ve put the ice-cream into the fridge,
again?
 2-a) what a divine idea!
 2-b) what a terrific idea!
It is obvious that the men and women who speak a
language use it in different ways; it can be claimed
that there are differences in men’s and women’s
speech since boys and girls are brought up in
different ways and they generally fill different roles in
society.

4. SEX AND GENDER:
 Sex = male and female
 Gender = masculine and feminine
So
 Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes,
hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.
 Gender describes the characteristics that a society
or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.

5. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE USE:
 George Keith and John Shuttleworth (2008) in
‘Living Language’ (p.222) suggest that:
women - talk more than men, talk too much, are
more polite, are indecisive/hesitant, complain and
nag, ask more questions, support each other, are
more co-operative while men - swear more, don't
talk about emotions, talk about sport more, talk
about women and machines in the same way, insult
each other frequently, are competitive in
conversation, dominate conversation, speak with
more authority, give more commands, interrupt
more.

6.  Jennifer Coates (1993) claims that:
Men will often reject a topic of conversation
introduced by women while women will accept the
topics introduced by men, they discuss ‘male’ topics
e.g. business, sport, politics, economics
Women are more likely to initiate conversation than
men, but less likely to make the conversation
succeed .

7.  Deborah Tannen’s views:
• Physical orientation: male avoid eye contact while
female use eye contact.
• Status and connection: male talks for status and
female talks for solidarity.
• Directness and indirectness: male generally moves
from decision to discussion in contrast female
moves from discussion to decision.
• Male is talkative in public and quite in private while
female is quite in public and talkative in private.

8.  Robin Lakoff in his book ‘Language and Woman’s Place (1975) and in
a related article published some claims that women;
 Speak less frequently
 Show they are listening by using minimal responses mm, yeah
 Speak more quietly than men and tend to use the higher pitch range of their
voices
 Use hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Standard English
 Use a greater range of intonation and ‘speak in italics’: so, very, quite.
 Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative
statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a
statement, expressing uncertainty.
 Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I think that...”)
 Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”.
 Use super-polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't
mind”.
 Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)
 Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?”
 Have a special lexicon: e.g. women use more words for colours, men for sports

9. CONCLUSION:
 As the literature shows, there is obviously a
difference between men and women and the way, the
style they hold their conversations. Men’s language is
clearly different than women’s. Women are frequently
asked why they are not direct, why they seem to be
hesitating a lot which makes them look uncertain. On
the other hand, men tend to raise topics more
frequently than women do; men tend to use
conversation to swap information, instead of building
up intimacy or community, unlike women. A possible
explanation for this might be laying in the evolution
we had and the different tasks assigned to men and
women.