Are there any differences between women’s and men’s language? (sociolinguistics)

1.    Are there any differences between women’s and men’s language? Give the evidence!

2.    Why do women and men have different language?

Answer:

1.    Yes, there are. There are many differences between women’s and men’s language in terms of phonology, morphology and diction.

-          Phonology

In America, the use of palatal velar does not aspire by women, like kjatsa word (spoken by a woman) and djatsa (spoken by a male).

In Scotland, the majority of women using the consonant /t/ in the word got, not, water, and so on. Meanwhile, men are more frequently changing consonant /t/ by glottal consonants do not aspire.

-          Morphology

Lakoff states that women often use the words for colors, like mauve, beige, magenta, aquamarine, and lavender are seldom used by men. In addition, women also often use adjectives such as adorable, charming, divine, lovely, and sweet.

In Javanese, women often use ‘asem’ in mocking something than ‘asu’, while men tend to use ‘asu’ than ‘asem’.

-          Diction

Women have their own vocabulary to show a particular effect on them. They tend to use words and expressions such as so good, adorable, darling, and fantastic. Besides, English language makes a difference based on gender specific words such as actor-actress, waiter, waitress, Mr.-mrs. Another word pairs that show a similar difference is boy-girl, man-woman, bachelor-spinter and others. This occurs because of the awareness that different choice of vocabulary is created, describing their respective roles held by men and women.

In socializing, usually men are more often talked about sports, business, politics, formal material, or taxes. Meanwhile, the topics discussed by more women lead to problems of social life, books, food, beverages, and lifestyle.

Janet holmes in “Women, Men and Politeness (1995: 1-2) differentiate women’s and men’s language as follows:

Women’s language	Men’s language
1.      Most women use language to establish, nurture and develop personal relationships.	1.      Men tend to see language more as a tool for obtaining and conveying information.
2.      Women often have to work hard to get them to talk in the privacy of their homes.	2.      Men tend to dominate public talking time.
3.      Women emphasis on how their talk affects the feelings of others.	3.      Men’s reasons for talking often focus on the content of the talk or its outcome.
4.      Women compliment and apologize more often than men.	4.      Men compliment and apologize less than women.

2.    Lakoff’s framework used women’s subordinate social status and relative powerlessness to explain women’s language. Analyses which take account of the function of features of women’s speech often reveal women as facilitative and supportive conversationalist, rather than as unconfident, tentative talkers. Many women also use more standard speech forms. In using standard forms these women could be seen as responding positively to their addressee by accommodating to their speech. Women’s greater use of politeness devices can be regarded as another aspect of their consideration of the addressee. The differences between women’s and men’s speech behavior not only refer to the status or power dimension but also the social distance (or solidarity dimension). Women are solidarity-oriented participants in interaction. Many of the features which characterize women’s language are positive politeness devices expressing solidarity. 

Holmes suggested four different (though not mutually exclusive) explanations; the first appeals to social class and its related status for an explanation, the second refers to women’s role in society, the third to women’s status as a subordinate group, and the fourth to the function of speech in expressing masculinity (2001, 157).