Social factors, e.g. social backgrounds, influence their linguistic forms. Grammatical level E.g. I did it yesterday. I done it yesterday. Phonetic level E.g. [n] Accent E.g. RP

Language and Gender (1)
Gender differences in language
phonetic level intonation lexicon grammatical level (language structure) more status-conscious more ‗correct‘, more polite
Cause asymmetrical situation, resulting in some arguments.
(You Just Don’t Understand by D. Tannen, 1990.)

Language and Gender (4)
Sexism in language: prejudice against women
Regional dialect
Regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region (e.g. Br.E. & Am.E.). Reasons Geographical barriers (major) Loyalty to one‘s native speech Physical and psychological resistance to change Trend Less stable than before E.g. Young people are less likely to speak their local dialect all the time and are more likely to be influenced by the language spoken in town and on radio and TV.
Chapter 8
Language and society

LOGO
Things we’ll cover today
Definition
Varieties of language Pidgin and Creole Bilingualism and Diglossia

Speech community and speech variety
Speech community- the social group that is singled ---out for any special sociolinguistic study is called the speech community. Speech variety or language variety---- any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. In sociolinguistic study three types of speech variety are of special interest, i.e. regional dialects, sociolects and registers.


Language and Gender (3)
Conclusion:


Women: “Rapport talk” (“trouble talk”)—recount their trouble, and expect sympathy, understanding, affirmation, but not a solution. Men: “Report talk” (“solution talk”)—exhibiting knowledge and skill, holding center stage thus storytelling, joking, or imparting information.

Varieties of language
Dialectal varieties Register Degree of formality >>

Dialectal vxism in language (Examples)
Settlers moved west taking their wives and children with them. Alternatives: Use "families" for "wives and children" Farmers found their drought conditions difficult, and so did their wives. Alternatives: Use "spouses" for "wives" It has been falsely said that the Greeks mistreated their wives. Alternatives: Use "Greek males" <<

Varieties of language
No
two speakers speak exactly the same way. No one speaks exactly the same way every single time. People have different ways to express the same thing.
Male terms precede female terms
E.g. man and woman; his or her; boys and girls
Male terms used to refer to people in general Feminine words formed from masculine words Negative meaning in feminine words

Male terms --- people in general
Sexist language excludes women or renders them invisible. The use of the generic masculine subsuming all humanity in the terms man, father, brother, master. E.g. mankind – human race; forefather – ancestor chairman – chairperson; man-made – artificial E.g. Each student should bring his notebook to class every day.

The relatedness between language and society
There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society. 1. Language is often used to establish and maintain social relationships. (e.g. greeting) 2. The use of language is in part determined by the user‘s social background. (social class, age, sex, education level, etc.)

3. Language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. (―snow‖ for Eskimo) 4. As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social (the postvocalic [r] ).
Men: focus on “status” ( so “independence”, the key) Although different norms, neither is wrong or worse, or etc. But, it means women and men often talk at cross-purposes (without realizing it). 话不投机

Exercise The function of the sentence ‗A nice day, isn‘t it?‘ is _____. A. informative B. phatic C. directive D. performative

Language and Gender (2)
Different norms for the conversational styles: Women: focus on “connection” (solidarity), so