Gender And Language In Men And Women

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Brian Senel's comment "One could never make love to a woman with a glottal stop" opens many questions and discussions connected to gender and language use. In order to discuss this comment I will first focus on explanation of social construction of gender, then I will draw attention to gender and language use and at the end I will mention some of the studies which researched the connection between social status, gender and language use. Finally, to argue Brian Senel’s statement I will focus on pronunciation and the pronunciation feature called glottalization.

In order to discuss gender I have to explain the difference between the sex and gender. Talbot (1998) claims that sex is biological term and it depends on "genes, gonads and hormones" whereas gender is "socially constructed" and as she points out gender is learned (Talbot 1998, 7). Social constructionist theory "defines gender as in a light of social contexts in which interactions occur" (Bell, McCarthy and McNamara 2006, 1009). Bell et al. state that males and females choose different "gender roles" and "gender identities" (ibid., 1009). For instance, girls prefer and choose dolls over cars when they play and that affects their "gender role" and language use. When playing with dolls a girl has to overtake a role of a caretaker, so the "game" is usually quiet and calm and not as aggressive and loud as in playing with cars. Thus she uses different words and vocabulary then boys and this affects her language use. However gender is not the only factor which affects language use. Bell et al. (2006) claim that males and females do not stick with just one language style but "exchange their styles based on their social context of their interactions" (ibid., 1009). For instance, men and women choose different vocabulary, different accent, use whether Standard English or non-standard forms not only depending upon gender but situation they are in as well: they use different language in their home, school, job, etc.

Many authors claim that gender affects language use, thus that men and women use language "differently" (Newman et al. 2008). What is more, some researchers even divide language into "woman" and "man" language (ibid.). They claim that women tend to use more questions, hedges (maybe) and tag questions (isn’t it?), whereas men tend to use imperatives and "directives" (ibid., 212). Some authors even researched specific word classes that men and women use: they came to a conclusion that women use more "intensive adverbs", "conjunctions" and "modal auxiliary verbs" and that men use more articles, longer words and curse words (ibid., 213). More up to date research of analysis of 14, 000 text samples based on gender and language use confirmed that words, phrases, sentences and messages vary between men and women (Newman et al. 2008). All these survey results and findings takes me back to the fact that men and women "play" different gender roles and use the vocabulary that is expected from them based on their gender. Ever since I was a little girl my parents scolded me if I used swear words and they still do. Somehow they did not pay so much attention on my brothers swearing. That does not mean that I do not swear, but I swear less in comparison with my brother. This means that my parents (and society) influenced on my choice of words and basically formulated my vocabulary in a way.

Trungil (1998) takes the studies about gender and language use to another level: he researched the pronunciation differences in gender in Norwich. Trungil claims that there are differences in man and women language because it is expected from different gender to act whether as woman or man (Talbot 1998, 22). He states that women are more likely to use Standard English and "prestige variants" then men (ibid., 22). Trungil explains this "phenomena" by the fact that women have to prove themselves to the society and they have to put much more effort in their "appearances" compared to men (ibid., 23). Also Penelope Eckert states that "women" language use "is considerably more standard, or conservative, than men’s" (Eckert 1998, 66). She states that "women" jobs always demanded the use of Standard English since women always had to "represent" different organisations whether as teachers, hostesses or receptionists (ibid., 67). Therefore, the use of more formal language was always present in "women’ jobs" and it affected their language use. Therefore, language use is not only determined by gender, but it is also dependent upon social situation, social class, age, social context and many other variables.

When I first read Brian Senel’s comment I totally agreed with it. However, I misread it. I read it in a way that men can’t make love to a woman without a glottal stop meaning men and women are different: especially their way of thinking. However, Oxford English Dictionary defines glottal stop or "glottal catch" as "a sound produced by the sudden opening or shutting of the glottis with an emission of breath or voice". According to Wells (1982) glottal stop is a pronunciation feature and "the voiceless plosives /p, t, k/, and also the affricate /tS/, are in England often proceeded in certain syllable-final environments by a glottal stop" (Wells 1982, 260). Wells states that /t/ glottalling can be find in "local accents of London, Glasgow, Edinburgh" and in rural areas around England (Wells 1982, 261). T-glottaling is a pronunciation feature of Estuary English as well, which is spoken around river Thames and its estuary among working class (Haenni 2006). This accent is profoundly stereotyped and stigmatised (Haenni 2006 and Wells 1982). Thus, does Senel want to suggest that men who are "glottaling" do not attract women? Or that a certain accent can result in women’ disinterest? Our society cherishes material values and more and more women earn their own money and thus want a man who is close or higher on the social scale. Use of language, pronunciation and accent are vital features of an image that people get of a certain person. Language has the power of representing someone in a good or bad way. We could say that glottal stop or glottaling can reveal that a particular man is part of working class in South-East of England; because "modern" woman values intelligence and power she may repel a man, based on stereotypes or also facts that his choice of words or accent conveys.

Another example of how language use can determine its speaker is a bilingual Hungarian-German community in Austria (Gal 1998, 147-158). In that town Hungarian language is not respected and represents peasant kind of a life and German represents "prestigious" language (ibid., 150). The survey has shown that women are more likely to use German because they do not want to be associated or live a "peasant" life. Thus, young women refuse to marry farmers and live as farmer’s wife. Most of the women refuse to speak Hungarian, whereas a lot of men have to take over farms and they still speak Hungarian. Language became a symbol of status in that town. The example shows how a particular language choice as well as language use can determine someone’s life. The women’ use of German in the mentioned example can be compared to use of question tags or Standard English which sound polite and it is more respected then non-standard English; in both examples women are aware of the fact that language represents them; who they are and how they want to appear to the rest of the world. This takes me back to the comment by Brian Senel; the choice of words and language is important, because language and the use of it represents one as person, his or her background, social status, etc. We live in a world when first impression is important and language use is important part of it. Women have to struggle and make much more effort to prove themselves to the society they live in: they have to be smart, intelligent, well-dressed, etc. and yet they have to be careful with what they say or how they express themselves. Women had to struggle through the history to prove that they are equal to men. In order to do that they had to be intelligent, well-read and they had to talk smart, because their words and different language use was their only power. This is why we can talk about gender and different language use, because all these different factors affected the choice of language use.

To sum up, in my essay I have stated many reasons for gender and different language use. I tried to argue that different language use is not only subject of gender but others variables like social status and social situation as well. Language is an important part and indicator of a person’s identity. Language is probably one of the most powerful things in the world.