女性语言文体特征femalelanguage(英文)

1 Contents ………………...…………………………………...……………Abstract ………………………………………..……….….……….… 1. Introduction………………………………….…...…………….…..1 2.The Characteristics of Female Language……….………….………..

2 2.1 Pronunciation and Intonation ………….….……..……...2 2.2 V ocabulary …………………………….……..……..…..4 2.

3 Grammar……………………………………………….6 2.

4 Conversation Topics………………………….……..……8 3. The Interpretation of the Female Language Characteristics…………………………………...10 3.1 Physiological and Psychological Factors ………....……10 3.2 Cultural Factors………………………………….…....11 3.3 Social Factors……………………….…………..….....12 3.4 Educational Factors……………………………….…..12 4. The Developments and Changes of Female Language………………………………..………...…1

5 4.1 Degradation of Sexual Discrimination

in Language...... 15 4.2 Social Effect of Female Language (16)

4.3 Changes in Women's Style of Speech………………..…

19

5. The Reasons for the Changes in Female Language (24)

6. Conclusion………………………………………….………………..27 o men. Through )

2 Bibliography …………………………………………………………....28 Acknowledgements

3 1

Introduction The existence and development of language are intended to meet the

needs of communication in society. People in different social groups have

their own special languages. In the English-speaking countries, we can

discover that female language always shows some interesting and

external features of the language consciously or unconsciously in the

course of language communication. With the rise of feminism and the continuous improvement of female social status, a great of changes have

taken place in female language. These changes are closely linked with the development of society. So the research of female language is a subject

very worthy to be studied. This paper attempts to discuss the

characteristics and some new changes of female language and analyzes

the reason of this phenomenon from the social, cultural and educational,

etc. aspects. 15 4.1 DegradationP

4 2

The Characteristics of Female Language Female language has its own features. The following part will focus

on pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, grammar and topics to make a

brief analysis. 2.1 Pronunciation and Intonation

2.1.1 Pronunciation Phonological differences between men and women have been noticed in varieties of languages. Women’s pronunciation sounds more

accurate than men’s. In English-speaking countries, women’s

pronunciation is closer to Standard English Pronunciation than men's.

When we read ―-ing‖, generally women can pronounce the accurate back

nasal consonant /iη/. But a considerable number of men become more

accustomed to pronounce front nasal consonant /in/. In Australia, the

English with Australian-accented is not usually considered Standard

English. After investigation, researchers come to the conclusion that

women are far less often than men when they speak the nonstandard

English. The reason is that more women pay attention to the accuracy of pronunciation than men, which is an important mark of their identity and

culture for women. In the northeast Asian language, Yukaghir, women ot of changes and

5 have /ts/ and /dz/ where men have /tj/ and /dj/. In Bengali men often

substitute /l/ for /n/ but women do not do this. Likewise, in a Siberian language, Chukchi, men, but not women, often drop /n/ and /t/ when they

occur between vowels, e.g. female nitvaqenat and male nitvaqeat. 2.1.2

Intonation Generally speaking, women’s intonation is higher than men’s, which is caused by physiological factors in fact. Women’s vocal cords are

longer than men, so their pronunciation frequency is higher. However,

people often consider the high pitch is connected with women's

cowardice and unsteady emotion. The range of intonation variety is large,

which is another distinctive feature. Women are good at using the various intonations to express their feelings. Lakoff says that women may answer

a question with a statement that employs the rising intonation pattern

usually associated with a question rather than the falling intonation

associated with making a firm statement. And women are usually inclined

to be tactful and gentle and often use low rising intonation at the end of sentences, which seems to show that they lack of confidence and seek the opinions of the others. In contrast, men usually like using high falling

intonation at the end of the sentences, so their intonation sounds resolute

and affirmative. For example, when speaking the following sentence, men

and women may use different intonations. I wish you’d try it. be further discussed a`

6 Men: . - .

﹨. Women: . - . / . Men usually speak ending with a high falling intonation and their tones

are strongly firm. However, women will use the low rising intonation to

end their speech and their tone is more moderate than men’s. Besides,

women used to answer questions with rising intonation to express that

their views is not a verdict and they are willing to listen to other's views.

Such as: Husband: ―when will dinner be ready?‖

Wife: ―oh …around six o’clock?‖ The wife is the only one to know the answer. But she used an intonation

with consulting meaning — "Will that do?‖ Of course, we can not get rid

of her uncertain possibility. 2.2 Vocabulary Special feminine vocabulary in English that man may not, dare not

and will not use. Women like talking about things exaggeratedly, so they

like using the exaggerated adjectives and adverbs and other words to

emphasize the point. 2.2.1 Extravagant Adjectives Women in United States and Britain like using some exaggerated

adjectives frequently, like ―adorable, divine, gorgeous, charming, and r identity and

cul

7 lovely‖

and so on. But men seldom use these words. ―What a divine

idea!‖ It’s manifestly out of a female’s mouth. But men will say ―what a

terrific idea!‖2.2.2 Intensified Adverbs Such as

―so, much, quite, terribly‖, etc. women use these words

more frequently than men. For example, women would say, ―It was so interesting!‖, ―It was terribly cold!‖ But men often use ―very, really‖ to

intensify their tones. 2.2.3 Accurate Colour Words Women are good at portraying color accurately in comparison with

the men. Furthermore, they can use some unusual color vocabulary such

as ―mauve, magenta, beige, and lavender‖ and so on. When facing a light

purple skirt, woman cannot help speaking, ―It’s a beautiful lavender

skirt!‖2.2.4 Interjection Interjections used by women are more cautious and implicit than

men. When using cursing words, women are usually more cautious and

implicit. Some filthy words or phrases such as ―God damn it!‖, ―Damn‖,

―Fuck you!‖, ―Fuck you Charley!‖, ―Shit‖etc. often appear in men’s

speech. In contrast, women often use ―Oh, dear!‖, ―Oh, God!‖, ―God

bless me!‖, ―My God!‖, ―Great God!‖, ―God‖ etc. to express their anger sing high

8 or surprise. For instance, men and women have different reactions when

they face the scene of putting peanut butter in a wrong place. Female: ―oh dear. You’ve put the peanut but

ter in the refrigerator again. ‖

Male: ―shit, you’ve put the peanut butter in the refrigerator again.‖ From these two sentences we can see that men and women also felt unhappy about putting peanut butter in the refrigerator again, but the

expressions they used are different. The men used the rude word ―shit‖,

but the woman used ―oh dear‖ to express her dissatisfaction. This just

shows the graceful feature of female language.

2.2.5 Diminutives English women will sometimes say ―birdie‖ instead of "bird" and

―bookie‖ instead of ―book‖. Otherwise, they use ―dearie, sweetie, auntie‖

and other words to express affection frequently. But men rarely use these

words.

2.3 Grammar So far, there is not a rule that some specific grammar structures belong to women used only. But some analyses of language materials

showed that women often use the following structures:

2.3.1 Tag Question Women prefer to express their views or ideas by using tag questions,

because it contains some intense consulting meanings and can avoid too t the end of the sez

9 direct and absolute. For instance, when facing an article, husband would

say, ―This is better!‖ but wife will say, ―This is better, isn’t it?‖ or ―This

is better, don’t you think so?‖ Tag questions have three functions. First, it

can testify the reliability of information. For example, ―She is coming,

isn’t she?‖ Second, it can weaken the speech stone such as ―That was

pretty silly, wasn’t it?‖ or ―Open the door for me, could you?‖ Maybe, the

speaker doesn’t want to prove something but considers listener’s dignity.

And women think this way can ease their own tones and requires. Third,

neither the first nor the second, they only give a signal to listeners in

order to promote conversations. It is equal to ―It’s your turn to speak‖.

For example, ―Quiet a nice room to sit in actually, isn’t it?‖ Holmse 1984

made an investigation of using the tag questions. The result showed that

the total of men and women using tag questions are roughly equal.

However, about the second and third expressions, women used them

considerably more than men. It suggested that women pay attention to

uphold the listener’s dignity and their tones are more euphemistic. This

embodies ―cooperativeness‖ of communication. 2.3.2 Modulation Modulation is a very polite and courteous sentence structure such as

―I like, I suppose, well, you know‖, etc. women often use such uncertain

structure to express their opinions. This suggested that they do not want

10 to impose their views on others person, only a tentative views or

suggestions. 2.3.3 Past Tense Women prefer to use past tense when they ask for help. They would say, ―I was wondering if you could possibly do me a favor.‖This because

people are accustomed to put the present tense together with the things of expressing present. But using the past tense, sometimes, can confuse the

times and express the euphemistic and polite tones. 2.3.4 Embedded Imperatives When using imperative sentences, men like using more clear and

simple imperative sentences to express orders or make decisions. But

women prefer to use embedded imperative sentence and other

euphemistic sentence structures to request somebody do something. Such

as

Male: ―Bring that here!‖

Female: ―Could you bring that here?‖

2.4 Conversation Topics People always tend to choose the interesting topics they like. Due

to different division of work in society, the scope of activities of men and

women are different. Generally speaking, when men talk to men, the

content categories of their topics often focus on politics, sports, he listener’s dignit 11 automobiles, business, legal matters, taxes, stocks, aggression,

competition, teasing and so on. On the other hand, when women talk to

women, their topics are about home, families, social life, life-style, life

trouble, feelings, books, clothes, food and drink, cooking, sewing,

affiliation with other etc. (Spolsky,2000) The above, the author discusses the characteristics of female language

which are different from men’s. But different languages mirror different societies, so these characteristics of female language should be related to

not only physiological factor but also the contemporary social and cultural,

etc. factors.

er

euphemiY

12 3

The Interpretation of the Female Language Characteristics Language is a product of human history, but also a social

phenomenon. It is a real reflection of different social cultures, customs,

human sense and cultural consciousness. There are many reasons of

forming these characteristics of female language. As follows: 3.1

Physiological and Psychological Factors Some features of female language are related to their physiological

characteristics. For example, women’s intonation is higher than men and

they are easy to understand the exact form of the language and so on. To

obtain the same right as men, women are struggling with the traditional discriminations. A sense of social roles leads to a language consciousness inevitably, so they do their best to use more of the standard and

prestigious speech patterns in their own community. Comparing men,

women are closer to the standard style and refined accent of language and

their language must influence their children, so women are the pioneers in

the community of using standard style language. Otherwise, the

psychological tendency of improving their status makes them apt to

master the standard language. In addition, the language style used by

women is more euphemistic, restrained, and hesitant than men. From this

13 point, we can believe that it is not only a reflection of lacking confidence,

but also a symbol of feminine politeness and kindness.

3.2 Cultural Factors From the points of society and culture, girls are taught to be gentle

and quiet from children. Women’s role identity and their role behavior

were formed in the process of socialization. The so-called socialization

process is a progress in which everyone should study their cultures

around their community groups to keep pace with the developing society. Growing up in this culture, girls accept the behavior and the

communication styles consciously or unconsciously, which has become a

part of their personality characteristics. In western cultural traditions, women are

unable to escape the same

fate as oriental woman. In ―Bible‖, there are some depictions of women.

Eve derived from a rib of Adam. There are two purposes of creating Eve

for God. The first is to accompany with Adam in case of loneliness; the

second is to give birth to the children of Adam. This also suggested that

women are the appendage of men since Genesis. As a tool for giving birth

to children, women have to be controlled and be in a subordinate status. Traditional culture suppressed the development of women's

self-consciousness. As a result, their capabilities of independence and

self-awareness became weaker and weaker. Women must take advantage ertain structure to ex

14 of the communication network if they want to achieve the purpose of

physical and mental needs. So, psychologically speaking, they are

sensitive and their independent capabilities are very weak. And in their

speech, their languages are very polite, indirect, modest and veiled.

3.3 Social Factors On the one hand, the social position of women has been less secured

than men’s since class society came into being. Women were often

regarded as an appendage of men. For instance, girls are taught to be

gentle and cultivated from children. In order not to be looked down upon,

women do their best to use very standard language. On the other hand,

men’s and women’s different social roles and fields of activities are the

major containing factors in performance. In many countries men are rated

socially by their occupation, income and other abilities while women’s capacities are underrated or denied. It seems natural that women’s duty is

to be the wife and mother who supports and nurtures others. In getting

along with people and being educated, more and more women are aware

of their importance and strive to make their own language approximate to standard language.

Traditional culture su

15 3.4 Educational Factors

Educational factor is also an important reason of forming these characteristics. The following will focus on composition of membership

in educational field, way of education and educated level and majors to

make a brief analysis. 3.4.1 Composition of Membership in Educational Field Some linguists believed the differences of language between men

and women derived from the influence of more and more female teachers

in schools. Whatever in kindergartens, primary schools and secondary

schools, female teachers has an absolute advantage. Therefore, female teachers’ words and deeds will have a direct impact on the public. Female students will take teachers as their models and inherit the characteristics

of the language, whether intentionally or not.

3.4.2 Way of Education Boys contact with guns, automobiles, and other toys symbolizing

strength and power from children. But girls were related to some dolls

and other toys symbolizing gentle and kind features. From shooting game,

boys were implied to be a brave and strong man. It is his role in society;

girls in the game were implied to receive the traditional female role. Thus,

these deep-rooted concepts influence women and their language

generation by generation. 3.4.3 Educated Level and Majors now‖, etc. women oftenW

16 Educated level is an important influence of the different language

between men and women. For example, in the traditional Jewish

community of United States, men accept longer Jewish education than

women. So their Jewish and Hebrew languages are superior to women.

But women were asked to accept some secular education. (张爱玲,1995)

In Arab countries, the different languages between men and women are

due to the differences of accepting education. In our previous traditional education, the phenomenon of son preference is particularly serious. So

the different language between men and women is also obvious.

Wherever in the world, men learning science are more than women

obviously. This is also a reason of differences in language between men

and women. Otherwise, there are many other explanations need us to discover. With the rise of the feminist movement and the continuous improvement

of women’s social status, the characteristics of female language will also

have a great of changes.

ing game,

boys w

17 4

The Changes and Developments of Female Language With the changes of times and the rapid development of modern

society, some tremendous changes have taken place in every aspect of

women such as social status, outlook on life and values, etc. Of course,

their language should change also. Now, the author will analyzes some

changes and developments briefly from women’s speech style,

degradation of sexual discrimination and social effects of female

language and so on. 4.1 Degradation of Sexual Discrimination With the advanc ement of women’s status and the rise of women's

liberation movement, the vocabulary and grammar of English have

emerged.

4.1.1 The Word ―man‖ Women want to change people's minds about the role of women in

society by change language such as, the concentration of the word ―men‖.

Now, ―humankind‖ is instead of ―man‖ and ―mankind‖ gradually. What’s more, there is a rule in British law: in the advertisement of recruiting

workers, people are not allowed to speak ―salesman‖ or ―draftsman‖. The

same as ―guard‖ is instead of ―watchman‖ and ―firefighter‖ is instead of

18 ―fireman‖. In addition, there are many similar words, such as

―chairperson, spokesperson, businessperson‖, etc. 4.1.2 The Disappearance of Some Negative Suffix Negative suffix is often regarded as a discrimination against women. This is a discourtesy calling black women Negress or calling Jewish women Jewess. Female writers like to be called ―author‖ or ―poet‖ and

now ―authoress, poetess‖ tend to disappear gradually. The word ―actress‖

which has been used for a long times is replaced by ―actor‖ some times.

E.g. ―She is an actor.‖ Of course, it’s difficult to abandon the negative

suffix—―-ess‖, but we need work hard. 4.1.3 Grammar The contemporary feminist movement has affected grammar. At the

past time, the person pronoun ―he, him, his‖ may be used to refer to men

and women. So people can say ―Everyone must do his best.‖ But now we

can say, ―Everyone must do one’s best.‖ too and even ―Everyone must do

their best.‖ though it doesn’t meet the standard of syntax.

4.2 Social Effect of Female Language In recent years, it's amazing that more and more people have done

the research of the female language. Many scholars studying the language consider that the feature of female language is the symbol, which denotes

that women are lack of social rights. However, there are some other women oftenW 19 surveys concerning communication are contrary to the right's opinion.

This is testified through making observations on the effect of female

language and its social adaptability. It has once made a study showed that compared to men, who are

using their dominating language, women using the female language are

able to better take on the assignment of persuading others. Some

researchers chosen a number of students, divided into groups of two. The

first group is a girl versus three boys who have different views, and the

other group is one boy versus three girls also holding different minds. By observing and studying, it’s found that during debating, the first group is

easier to reverse their views than the second one. Girls attributed their

success to take the attitude of accepting and understanding when they

tried to persuade boys who were in defensive state. And when girls

discussed in a group, they paid attention to listen and put questions,

which can form an atmosphere of friendly consulting. At the same time,

girls were good at listening and accepting other’s views. In the field of

communication, participants who are more capable in

interpersonal communication all have their own specific some skills, such

as:

a. Sending information through contact by eyes, realization and definite

hints of body language and other ways can show your interest and

reply when you are listening to other person. of times and the rapid d

20 b. Positive insight is a good method to judge others' communication hints. c. Self-exchange, personal sharing, understanding and acceptance of other

people's feeling are effectual ways to success. d. You should avoid snap judgment or negative evaluations. e. Putting forward your views explicitly can prevent other person from making various possible explanations on your opinions. Comparing the characteristics of the female language with the

concepts and techniques of successful social intercourse, we will find

female language had oceans of unique features of establishing excellent relationship. When inspecting some important communication field in

social life, we will find unexpectedly that the female language is used for

a long time not by women but by men, such as in labor negotiations,

diplomatic and legislative activities even in campus and so on.

Researchers also found that using female language ingeniously is an

effective avenue of gaining success in communication. Even in dealing

with ethnic, national and inter-regional issues, approach often taken by

the government is through regulation and compromise to seek a solution

of these problems. This language problem-solving mode is very close to

the female language communication mode. Some said,

―Women are diplomats by nature.‖ From this we can see

women’s ability of providing a comfortable environment for conversation.

They are good at promoting a harmonious speaking situation. In recent the differences of accep

21 years, in the fields of public relations and foreign affairs, the female

language's skills have been widely and rapidly popularized.

4.3 Changes in Style of Speech Women will take into account their identities, social status and their

speech patterns being gifted by society unconsciously when using

language. Gradually, they formed their own speech style. But with the

rapid advance of society, women’s speech styles have a lot of changes.

The following, the author will take the Chinese women for examples to

discuss some changes of women’s speech style. 4.3.1 Amount of Speech The application of language is related to the occasion of

conversation, which influences the amounts and forms of language. In the

occasion of informal communication, the most contents of female speech

are chat or gossip, in order to keep social relationship. Besides, the

amounts of their speech are more than men’s and the form is casual or

arbitrary such as discussion and argument, etc. On the contrary, in the

formal occasion, the amounts of women’s speech are fewer than usual. At

this time, they usually use standard language and their speech style is

short and brief. What’s more, they very pay attention to their speech and

dignity but in the informal occasion they don’t. 4.3.2 Topics and Speech Style n see

women’s ability