CHAPTER 12 : GENDER, POLITENESS AND STEREOTYPES

slide1. CHAPTER 12 :GENDER, POLITENESS AND STEREOTYPES LUQMAN HAKIM BIN SHAMSUDIN
2015259154

MUHAMMAD SYAHID AIMAN BIN MUHAMMAD BAZLAN
2015259244<br>
slide2. Introduction To examine claims that women and men use language differently.
What language reveals about the way society categorize women.<br>
slide3. Women’s language and confidence Gossip Interaction Sexist language The linguistic construction of sexuality The linguistic construction of gender OVERVIEW<br>
slide4. 1. Women’s language and confidence Example 1

“… a girl is damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t. If she refuses to talk like a lady, she is ridiculed and subjected to criticism as unfeminine; if she does learn, she is ridiculed as unable to think clearly, unable to take part in a serious discussion: in some sense, as less than fully human. These two choices which a woman has – to be less than a woman or less than a person – are highly painful.”<br>
slide5. Some social dialectologists suggested that women were status concern (thus they use standard speech)
However, Robin Lakoff thinks otherwise.
She argued that women were using language which reinforced their subordinate status, by the way they spoke.
She also shifted the focus of research on gender difference to syntax, semantics and style. ( other social dialect research focuses on differences between women’s and men’s speech in the area of pronunciation.<br>
slide6. Example 2 Lawyer: What was the nature of your acquaintance with the late Mrs E.D?
Witness A: Well, we were, uh, very close friends. Uh she was even sort of like a mother to me.

Lawyer: And had the heart not been functioning, in other words, had the heart been stopped, there would have been no blood to have come from that region?
Witness B: It may leak down depending on the position of the body after death. But the presence of blood in the alveoli indicates that some active respiratory action had to take place.<br>
slide7. EXERCISE 1

Consider the following sentences. Put F beside those you those you think were said by a woman, M beside those you think were said by a man and F/M beside those you think could have been said by either.

Close the door. M
That’s and adorable door. F
Oh dear, the TV set’s broken. F
I’ll be damned there’s a friend of mine! M
I was very tired. M
Won’t you please get me that pencil? F
They did the right thing didn’t they? F
You’re damn right? M
I was just exhausted. F
My goodness, there’s the Prime Minister! F
I was so mad. F
Damn it, I’ve lost my keys! M<br>
slide8. 1.1 FEATURES OF ‘WOMEN’S LANGUAGE’ Lexical hedges or fillers – you know, sort of, well, you see.
Tag questions – she’s very nice, isn’t she?
Rising intonation on declaratives – it’s really good
‘Empty’ adjectives – divine, charming, cute.
Precise color terms – magenta, aquamarine
Intensifiers (just & so) – I like him so much.
’Hypercorrect’ grammar – consistent use of standard verb forms.
’Superpolite’ forms – indirect request, euphemisms.
Avoidance of strong swear words – fudge, my goodness.
Emphatic stress – “it was a BRILLIANT performance”<br>
slide9. HEDGING DEVICES & BOOSTING DEVICES Hedging signals lack of confidence (lexical hedges, tag questions, question intonation, superpolite forms)
Boosting signals speakers’ anticipation (intensifiers, emphatic stress)

Lakoff suggested that women use hedging to signal uncertainty, boosting to signal other people to take them seriously.
Women boost the force of their utterances thinking that they might not be heard or paid attention to.

THEREFORE, Lakoff suggested that boosting and hedging devices are used to express their lack of confidence.<br>
slide10. Example 4, Page 304 Witness C is a male
He uses a lot of hedges and boosters.
The researches said that he uses an abnormal amount of hedges and boosters.
Because the researchers suggested that the forms are “powerless forms” or the witness is just being cautious about his claims.<br>
slide11. 1.2 Lakoff’s linguistic features as politeness devices Example 5

[/ indicates rising intonation]
Susan is a university student. She is telling her friend and flatmate about her experiences at school.
I did my exams in sixty-three was it.

the tag question is a syntactic device listed by Lakoff that expresses uncertainty.
Susan is uncertain about the date, and she indicates it with a tag.<br>
slide12. Example 6

[\ indicates falling intonation]
Margaret is holding a small party to introduce a new neighbour, Frank, to other people in the street. She introduces Frank to an old friend, Andrew.

Margaret : Andrew this is our neighbour, Frank. Andrew has just changed jobs, haven’t you.
Andrew : Yes I am now a well-paid computer programmer instead of a poorly paid administrative assistant.

- The tag question functions as fascilitative or positive politeness devices, providing an addressee with and easy entrée intro a conversation.<br>
slide13. Example 7 [\ falling intonation]
Mrs Short is a primary school teacher working with a group of 5-year-olds. They are preparing for a nature walk by looking at pictures of birds, flowers and leaves that they hope to see on their walk.

Mrs Short : Here’s a pretty one what’s this one called Simon?
Simon : Mm,. Erm [pause]
Mrs. Short : See its tail, look at its tail. It’s fantail, isn’t it?
Simon : Mm a fantail. I seen one of them. Teachers, interviewers, hosts at parties or those in leadership roles tend to use tags in failitative way(for success of interaction)
The host will provide guest with topic of conversation.<br>
slide14. Example 8 [ \ falling intonation]
Zoe and her mother Claire have just come home from the supermarket. Zoe empties the shopping basket all over the kitchen floor.

Claire : That was a bit of daft thing to do wasn’t it? This tag is to soften a directive or criticism. The tag is not to soften the critical comment, indicating concern for Zoe’s feelings.<br>
slide15. Example 9
A police superintendent is interviewing a detective constable and is criticising the constable’s performance:
A:  . . . you’ll probably find yourself um before the Chief Constable, okay?
B:  Yes, Sir, yes, understood.
A:  Now you er fully understand that, don’t you?
B:  Yes, Sir, indeed, yeah. This tag is to force feedback from uncooperative addressee<br>
slide16. Women use more tags than men.
However, women and men used them more often for different funtions
Women use tags to show politeness or affectiveness.
Men use tags to show uncertainty.
Similars results are found for ‘hedges’ ( you know, I think) - to show politeness rather than uncertainty.
Women are facilitatitive and supportive conversationalist, rather than uncofident talkers.<br>
slide17. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE SPEECHES. (Mayan community, Mexico)
Women use more politeness rather than the men
Resembling western pattern.
BUT, men use far fewer politeness forms among them.
Male to male talks are plain and unmodified. In Malagasy, men use less direct language and modify&qualify their utteranes.
The men are more polite speakers.<br>
slide18. INTERACTION WOMAN.
ARE THEY REALLY THE TALKATIVE SEX?<br>
slide19. Despite the widespread stereotype of women as the talkative sex,
Most research evidence points the other way around
In wide contexts, particularly non-private one such as staff meetings and conference discussions where talking may increase your status, men dominate the talking time.
There are many features of interaction which have been shown to differentiate men and women talk in particular contexts which will be discussed more.<br>
slide20. INTERRUPTIONS The pattern holds regardless the settings In same gender interactions, interruptions are evenly distributed
In cross-gender interactions, most interruptions were from males<br>
slide21. In family, father did most of the interruptions while daughters were interrupted the most
A study of preschoolers found that some boys start practicing this strategy for dominating the talk at a very early age.
Read example 12 on page 313<br>
slide22. FEEDBACK EXAMPLE 13

Mary : I worked in that hotel for – ah eleven years and I found the patrons were really really good you know.
Jill : Mm.
Mary : You had the odd one or the two ruffian’d come in and cause a
fight but they were soon dealt with.
Jill : Right, really just takes one eh? To start trouble.
Mary : Yeah, and it was mostly the younger ones
Jill : Mm.
Mary : that would start you know.
Jill : Yeah.
Mary : The younger – younger one couldn’t handle their booze.
Jill : Mm. Most studies reveal :
Women as cooperative conversationalist
Whereas men tend to be more competitive and less supportive of others.
But WHY?<br>
slide23. EXPLANATIONS After vast number of researches, it seems to be gender rather than occupational status, social class or other social factors.
Women’s subordinate position in male-dominated society seems to be the most obvious explanatory factor.
Context and patterns of socialization affects women’s cooperative conversational strategies where the goals of interaction are solidarity stressing and maintaining good social relations.
By contrast, male interaction seem to be those of public referentially-oriented interaction<br>
slide24. GOSSIP Serve to relieve feelings and reinforce shared values to affirm solidarity and maintain social relationship between those involved. Focuses predominantly on personal experiences and personal relationships, on personal problems and feelings. May include criticism of others but it is because women tend to avoid discomfort when they say it directly. Provide sympathetic response using affective message Talk about speaker’s feelings and relationship instead of referential content Characteristics:
Proposition which express feelings
Facilitative tags
Encouragement
Complete each other utterances
Agree frequently
Provide supportive feedback<br>
slide25. Its hard to identify male equivalent to gossip.
In parallel situations, men’s ‘gossip’ tend to focus on things and activities rather than personal experiences. The focus is on information and facts.
Men also argued a lot, criticize each other constantly and change topics abruptly
Their strategy of amusing each other is to top or out-do others.
It is also possible that for men mock-insults and abuse serve the same function as gossiping for women- expressing solidarity and maintaining social relationships.
This explains why men and women always miscommunicate.
Of course all of these are socially defined as there are society where women are take more confrontational roles in conversing HOW ABOUT MEN?<br>
slide26. 4. The linguistic construction of gender. Example 19
Ed : He’s I mean he’s like a real artsy fartsy fag he’s like [indecipherable] he’s so gay he’s got this like really high voice and wire rim glasses. He criticises a man who fails to fit the established masculine norm.
However, he is using a lot of features associated with a more feminine speech styles.
Frequent use of particles like, hedges (I mean), and intesifiers (real, so, really). - This example challenges the generalisation being made.<br>
slide27. In this context, gender identity is more as a construction rather than a fixed category.
Gender identity as a construction : women can adapt to masculinity contexts while men can also adapt to the femininity.

Women : A police woman are sometimes advised to portray a masculine image to suggest they are use to hard work. They don’t smile much and talk ‘tough’.

Men : A hairdresser,use feminine fetures for instance affectionate terms of address, gossip, avoiding strong swear words,responsive and faclititative conversationalist in order to encourage the addressee to talk.<br>
slide28. Example 20
Helen describes her daughter’s attempt to learn to swim.Helen: she looked like a gold sh you (laughs) know there’s a little head a – a rolling in the water (laughs) and legs sort of sagging in the water and breaststroking away you know This is called narrative of personal experiences. It is an obvious ways in which people construct particular kinds of social identity.
Helen is definitely a female in which she narrates her personal experience.
From her story, Helen constructs not only her own gender identity but presents ”very gendered identities” for her daughter.<br>
slide29. (Example 21, page 321)

What message Ian is getting about his behaviour? Ian is being described as terrible, bad, and cause of chaos.
However, the word bad is collocated with lad, implying that he is bad but in a good way.
Real monkey & little rascal shows that Ian is regarded affectionately and tolerantly.
Ian so called ‘lad’ clearly is the source of amusement for the parents, as they are laughing while describing about Ian.
His father also invites him to agree with him about being a real bad lad using a softening laugh and friendly tag ‘eh’. To conclude, Ian is presented as the hero despite the description of being ‘a naugthy boy’<br>
slide30. LINGUISTIC CONSTRUCTION OF SEXUALITY The relationship between language and sexuality
How people construct their sexual identity<br>
slide31. Area of interest for language and sexuality.
How people use language to learn about sex, talk about sex and desire and engage in sexual activities?
How people indicate to others that they are interested in them?
Who tells dirty jokes to whom?
How is the discourse of sex education is managed in schools? - Heterosexual people typically use normal choice of language to construct themselves as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.
- Homosexual people always use double meaning and they may draw on additional linguistic resources to indicate their sexual orientation.
- For example, gay would use vocabulary often used by women, alter their pronunciation and have wavy intonation and pitch. They might also refer to male as she.<br>
slide32. INTIMATE TALK
Often breaks taboos in expressing sexuality and sexual desire
Couples may address each other as animals, use baby talks to intimacy and desire. Example 25

Gorgeous, Blonde, Female 22, seeks smart, rich, generous male for fun and friendship
Male, IT Programmer, 26, honest and caring, seeks curvy blond female 23-28, fun to be with, for lasting relationship Heterosexual woman tend to describe their look and desire of man with economic security
While heterosexual men inform readers on their occupations and desire of woman with physical attractiveness<br>
slide33. 6.0 Sexist Language Can a language be sexist?<br>
slide34. Animal imagery is an example where women’s images seems to be less positive than men.
Animals imagery to men has positive components (williness/sexual powress)
The women are called : bitch, old biddy and cow
The men are called : stud / wolf ANIMAL IMAGERY<br>
slide35. FOOD IMAGERY Women are also described to food imagery, equally insulting as animal imagery.
Called by saccharine terms : sugar, sweetie, honey
This terms are usually affectionate eventually acquire negative connotations. (referred as sexual objects)

Men, less food imagery referring to them.
Insulting terms such as cabbage and veg.<br>
slide36. ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY Many words reinforce a view of women as a deviant, abnormal or subordinate.
Taking male form as the base forms and adds a suffix to signal a female:
Lion/lioness
Count/countess
Actor/actress
Usher/usherette
Hero/heroin Adding suffix to signal a female conveys that women are deviant and abnormal.
Also connotates a lack of seriousness for example, for occupation (authoress / poetess)<br>
slide37. GENERIC STRUCTURE This structure he & man can be said to make women invisible.

In the excerpt, it conveys meaning of “third person human being”, ”human being” or simply “humanity”.

(man, his great boots, his son): there is possibility that women also venture the mountain, not just men.

The generic use is no longer acceptable to many English speakers, overshadowed by the meaning of masculinity.

Avoid using generic structure as it can be ambiguous for some reasons. (man loves to hunt)<br>
slide38. The word ‘man’ is associated with male images when use generically.

In an experiment, college students evoked male images to chapters from textbook (Social Man, Political Man & Indutrial Man).

To conclude, those who claim man can still be used generically doesn’t know the fact that is firmly establisde as meaning ”male”. GENERIC STURCTURE, (cont…)<br>
slide39. SOLUTIONS OF THE GENERIC STRUCTURE 1. Introducing a new epicene (gender-neutral) pronoun were used because of gender confusions and grammatical inefficiencies.
- More than 80 bisexual pronouns were proposed: tey, thon, et, ip, ou, co, per, ne and hiser.

2. Some countries are aware of the generic usage, through articles in magazines, newspapers and journals.

3. Some writers use ‘he’ and ‘she’ in chapters alternately or even alternate paragraphs.

4. Generic ‘they’ is by far the most widespread solution
- Well established authors (Shakespeare, Doris Lessing)<br>