Gender plays a crucial role in shaping lexical variation, as men and women in similar contexts select slightly different words, expressions, and linguistic styles
statistically on average. Linguistic variation is influenced by social norms, cultural expectations, and conversational dynamics. Scholars of language and gender have identified certain typical gender-based variations, detailed below. However, the patterns are not universal. Not all members of a particular gender necessarily conform to
stereotypical gender roles. In particular, individuals within a gender category may exhibit diverse linguistic practices that challenge or deviate from these generalizations.
Minimal responses One of the ways in which the communicative behaviors of men and women differ is in their use of minimal responses, i.e.,
paralinguistic features such as 'mm' and 'yeah', which is behaviour associated with collaborative language use. Men generally use them less frequently than women, and when they do, it is usually to show agreement, as Don Zimmerman and Candace West's study of
turn-taking in conversation indicates. While the above can be true in some contexts and situations, studies that dichotomize the communicative behavior of men and women may run the risk of overgeneralization. For example, "minimal responses appearing "throughout streams of talk", such as "mm" or "yeah", may only function to display active listening and interest and are not always signs of "support work", as Fishman claims. They can—as more detailed analysis of minimal responses show—signal understanding, demonstrate agreement, indicate scepticism or a critical attitude, demand clarification or show surprise. In other words, both male and female participants in a conversation can employ these minimal responses for interactive functions, rather than gender-specific functions.
Questions Some research has argued that men and women differ in their use of questions in conversations. For men, a question is usually a genuine request for information whereas with women it can often be a rhetorical means of engaging the other's conversational contribution or of acquiring attention from others conversationally involved, techniques associated with a collaborative approach to language use. Therefore, women use questions more frequently.
Question tags A study carried out by Alice Freed and Alice Greenwood in 1996 showed that there was no significant difference in the use of question tags, such as "you know?" between genders. Tag questions are frequently used to verify or confirm information, though in women's language they may also be used to avoid making strong statements. This desire for turn-taking gives rise to complex forms of interaction in relation to the more regimented form of turn-taking commonly exhibited by men.
Changing the topic of conversation According to Bruce Dorval in his study of same-sex friend interaction, males tend to change subject more frequently than females. This difference may well be at the root of the conception that women chatter and talk too much. Goodwin observes that girls and women link their utterances to previous speakers and develop each other's topics, rather than introducing new topics. However, a study of young American couples and their interactions reveal that while women raise twice as many topics as men, it is the men's topics that are usually taken up and subsequently elaborated in the conversation. This can look like discussing achievements at work or competitive leisure activities. Researchers discovered that this behavior increases when women are present in the conversation. a reflection of their tendency to discuss past events and information related to people. In the same study, men used numbers in conversation more often than women did. Deborah Tannen's work argues that men and women have different views of self-disclosure, that women have a tendency toward
self-disclosure, i.e., sharing their problems and experiences with others, often to offer sympathy, which contrasts with men's tendencies to non-self disclosure and professing advice or offering a solution when confronted with another's problems. While there are some gendered stereotypes and expectations about self-disclosure, other research shows that people have the ability to still self disclose very clearly regardless of masculine or feminine communication traits. "Sex consistently failed to predict subjects' willingness to self-disclose, both within and across contexts, whereas femininity promoted self-disclosure in the context that was clearly social and expressive in character. Although masculinity failed to exert the expected facilitative impact on self-disclosure within the instrumental context, it nonetheless influenced the results; androgynous subjects, who scored high in both masculinity and femininity, were more self-revealing across contexts than was any other group." Self-disclosure has also been researched within the context of heterosexual couples, as self-disclosure is considered to be a key factor in facilitating intimacy. For example, American heterosexual couples were studied using various measures twice a year. By using the average scores of both partners, they found that self-disclosure was higher in those couples who remained together at the second administration of the surveys than in those who broke up between two administrations. Similarly, researchers asked heterosexual couples who had just begun dating to complete a self-disclosure measure and to answer the same questionnaire four months later. They found that couples who were still dating four months later reported greater self-disclosure at the initial contact than did those who later broke up. This work shows self-disclosure can be beneficial to facilitating a positive relationship.
Verbal aggression Aggression can be defined by its three intersecting counterparts: indirect, relational and social. Indirect aggression occurs when the victim is attacked through covert and concealed attempts to cause social suffering. Examples are gossiping, exclusion or ignoring of the victim. Relational aggression, while similar to indirect, is more resolute in its intentions. It can be a threat to terminate a friendship or spread false rumors. The third type of aggression, social aggression, "is directed toward damaging another's self-esteem, social status, or both, and may take direct forms such as verbal rejection, negative facial expressions or body movements, or more indirect forms such as slanderous rumors or social exclusion." This third type has become more common in adolescent, both male and female, behavior.
Dr. M. K. Underwood, leading researcher in child clinical psychology and developmental psychology, began using the term social aggression in several of her experiments. In one study, Underwood followed 250 third-graders and their families in order to understand how anger is communicated in relationships, especially in face-to-face and behind-the-back situations. It was found that technology and electronic communication has become a key factor in social aggression. This discovery has been termed
cyber-bullying. In another experiment, social aggression was used to see if verbal and nonverbal behaviors contributed to a person's social value. • 76.9% of physical aggression was committed by male characters • 23.1% of physical aggression was committed by female characters • 37.2% of social aggression was committed by male characters • 62.8% of social aggression was committed by female characters
Listening and attentiveness In a conversation, meaning does not reside in the words spoken, but is filled in by the person listening. Each person decides if they think others are speaking in the spirit of differing status or symmetrical connection. The likelihood that individuals will tend to interpret someone else's words as one or the other depends more on the hearer's own focus, concerns, and habits than on the spirit in which the words were intended. – and by their largely increased use of minimal responses in relation to men. One corollary of this is, according to Jennifer Coates, that males are afforded more attention in the context of the classroom and that this can lead to their gaining more attention in scientific and technical subjects, which in turn can lead to their achieving better success in those areas, ultimately leading to their having more power in a technocratic society. Conversation is not the only area where power is an important aspect of the male/female dynamic. Power is reflected in every aspect of communication from what the actual topic of the communication, to the ways in which it is communicated. Women are typically less concerned with power and more concerned with forming and maintaining relationships, whereas men are more concerned with their status. Girls and women feel it is crucial that they be liked by their peers, a form of involvement that focuses on symmetrical connection. Boys and men feel it is crucial that they be respected by their peers, as form of involvement that focuses on asymmetrical status. These differences in priorities are reflected in the ways in which men and women communicate. A woman's communication will tend to be more focused on building and maintaining relationships. Men, on the other hand, will place a higher priority on power, and their communication styles will reflect their desire to maintain their status in the relationship. According to Tannen's research, men tend to tell stories as another way to maintain their status. Primarily, men tell jokes, or stories that focus on themselves. Women on the other hand, are less concerned with their own power, and therefore their stories revolve not around themselves, but around others. By putting themselves on the same level as those around them, women attempt to downplay their part in their own stories, which strengthens their connections to those around them.
Politeness Lakoff identified three forms of politeness: formal, deference, and camaraderie. Women's language is characterized by formal and deference politeness, whereas men's language is exemplified by camaraderie. For example, in the case of negative concord, e.g., I didn't do anything vs. I didn't do nothing, women usually use the standard form. While Bourdieu focuses on the diplomatic corps, it would be true if people want to be accepted in other contexts such as an urban ghetto. The market that one wants to engage with has a profound effect on the value of the variation of language they may use. The relations of each gender to linguistic markets are different. A study on pronunciation of English in Norwich has shown women's usage is considerably more conservative regarding the standard dialect. This research provides some evidence that women's exclusion from the workplace has led to this variation. As women in some cases have not had the same position as men and their opportunities to secure these positions have been fewer, they have tried to use more valued variations of the language. It can be the standard one, or the polite version, or the so-called "right" one. women employ a balance of masculine and feminine behaviors to appear both competent and likable to an audience of male peers. In a study that reviewed speeches given by female members of the United States Congress throughout the 2010s, congresswomen performed masculine verbal behavior (i.e., accusations, attacks on character) similarly to male members of Congress, but congresswomen performed more feminine non-verbal behaviors (i.e., smiling, facial expressions, varied tone of voice) compared to their male counterparts. Male parliamentarians, on the other hand, were found to base their arguments in abstract descriptions of groups or issues. The data gathered by Mulac et al. comes from a two-week period in 1982 from three
Public Broadcasting Service daytime programs and three categories from
commercial network programs (action, comedy/adventure, and commercials) that aired on Saturdays. They analyzed randomly selected interactive dialogue taken once from every ten minutes of their tapes. Mulac et al. collected data for 37 language variables, from which they determined the thirteen that showed significant differences between usage by male and female characters. Mulac et al.'s definitions of these thirteen features are as follows: Aubrey chose shows for the study based on children's responses when asked to name their favorite television program (the top-named show was
Rugrats, followed by
Doug). Some of the stereotypes found in the study pertain to language/communication, but most are stereotypes or attributes of the characters such as assertiveness, aggression, emotionality, and cattiness. In regards to language, the study found that male characters were more likely to ask questions, assert opinions, and direct others than female characters. Female characters, on the other hand, were more likely to "receive or make comments about body or beauty" than their male counterparts. In general, Aubrey found less stereotypical content for female characters than for male, which they ascribe as possibly an effect of either the higher presence of male characters or the difficulty of measuring
passivity. ==Transgender linguistics==