Gender characteristics of men's speech. The speech of a man is characteristic. Different speech styles in men and women
AMERICAN STUDIES
Male and female speech patterns in the Yana language
As is known, some languages have next feature: In them, the forms used by men are different from the forms used by women. Of course, this feature has nothing to do with grammatical gender. In this article, I propose to address gender differences in Yana, a Northern California language that is (or has been) divided into four dialects: Northern, Central, Southern, and Yahi. Only data from the first two dialects will be used here, although the basic facts apply to all four^. Apparently, the number of languages in which the opposition of male and female forms is as developed as in Yana is small. Therefore, the facts presented in this article will, I hope, be of general interest to researchers of language and linguistic psychology.
To clarify the point, it can be noted that in Yana there is no category of gender. On the other hand, there are a small number of verb stems that exclusively denote activities performed by either a man or a woman, e.g. ni-, ni- “man walks”, but “a- “woman walks”, bu-ri-, bu-ri- “man dances”, but dja-ri, dja-rT- “woman dances”1^. In the latter case the difference in the verb probably reflects the actual difference in the nature of the dance. appearance, receive the suffix -yai- if they refer to a woman, e.g. lulmai-"a "to be blind" (about a male person), but lulmai-yai-"a "to be blind". This -yai- is the incorporated form of the suffixal element -ua "female person", often found in nouns, e.g. k!ñwi "witch doctor", but k!uwi-ya "witch doctor", bai-djü-si "hunter", but bai-djú-ya "huntress".
Male and female forms of speech in Yana. - In: "Teeuwen St.W.J., ed., Donum Natalicium Schrijnen." Nijmegen - Utrecht, 1929, pp. 79-85.
1 For information about the Yana language, see: S a r i g E. Yana Texts. - “Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch, and Ethn>, 1910, 9, pp. 1-235; The position of Yana in the Hokan stock, ibid., 1917, 13, pp. 1-34; Yana terms of relationship, ibid., 1918, 13, pp. 153-173; The fundamental elements of Northern Yana, ibid., 1922, 13, pp. 215 - 234; Text analyzes of three Yana dialects, ibid., 1923, 20, pp. 263 - 294. The Yan orthography used here is explained in these works.
The vast majority of words in Yana have two variants: the full, or masculine, form, and the reduced, or feminine, form.
form. The terms "male" and "female form" are not entirely adequate, since the masculine form is used only by men when addressing men, while the feminine form is used by women when addressing men or by women and by men when addressing women. In other words, female forms are used approximately three times more often than male forms. There is certainly no question that the male form is taboo for women, since a woman does not hesitate to use the male form when quoting a man's speech to a man, for example, in telling a myth in which one male character addresses another.
There appear to be two different methods of contrasting masculine and feminine variants, depending on phonetic and grammatical factors. The masculine variant may coincide with the absolute, or theoretically basic, form of the word, in which case the feminine variant is formed from the masculine by phonetic reduction of the final syllable; or the feminine version coincides with the theoretically basic form of the word, in which case the masculine version is formed from the feminine by adding a certain syllable, the choice of which depends on the category of the given form. In both cases, the male version is longer than the female. As we will see below, very specific oppositions based on gender appear in interrogative. It must be made clear that formal differences by gender apply only to complete words and not to stems or suffixal elements as such. Thus, the male forms "ai-pa "fire", "ai-"shs^a "my fire" correspond to the female forms "ai" "fire", "ai-"shgh" "my fire"; the contrast between "ai-pa and "ai disappears as soon as a suffixal element (e.g., "my") is added to the absolute or thematic form "ai-". Similarly, the masculine forms k!yich "witch doctor", k!y\*awa “healer” correspond to the feminine forms k\uge^ (-\\a here turned into a voiceless yes plus a voiceless g, or voiceless xyu with an 1-shaped timbre), k\n^\-uya (-ua turned into a voiceless u with i -shaped timbre); the contrast between k!i\U1 and k!ida* is not realized in forms meaning “healer”, since the suffix -ua protects the element k!y\*a- from reduction.
Of course, in this work it is impossible to fully describe all the rules for the formation of forms that distinguish gender, since this would require too much large number grammatical details. We can only illustrate the main phonetic and morphological contrasts.
One large class unites all non-monosyllabic nominal and many verb forms, in which the absolute form, coinciding with the masculine version, ends with a short vowel (a, (, and; but not e, o). In the corresponding feminine version, the final vowel is deafened, as well as and the preceding consonant, if it is not voiceless in itself. “Intermediate”, or “voiceless weak” stops (b, gL, g, o\y> become aspirated voiceless (p?, g/, ks, gxc). Consequently, the feminine variant in -g,"* may be the result of a reduction of the forms -gL and -si;
eg V male version t-za-gL, in the feminine p1-za-g/1, “they say that he is leaving”; in the masculine r"asN, in the feminine r"agL "place".
The following table of masculine and feminine endings covers the available examples (-a replaces -a, -1 or -i here):
There are very rare examples of a final glottal stop with a preceding vowel in the absolute - masculine - form. The best example is the ending of the soft imperative, -gn^aga", which gives -gn^ag"a in the feminine version, for example. gLtt^aga" "please tell him", in the feminine version gLtp^ag"a.
A special subtype of the first main class of forms - second person singular na-pita (male version), e.g. g/TvGpita “you say”, tfimsiwa,numa “it was told to you, he tells you”, “ai”pshpa “your fire”. The parallel feminine form does not end in *-pit"a, as one might expect, but simply in -pi. However, the masculine form should not be considered as a combination of the absolute -pi with the masculine element -ta, which would be consistent with the second class of forms, but as a form identical to the absolute form of na-pita. This becomes clear from the fact that the element -pita must be postulated for both the masculine and feminine forms in the interrogative, for example, in the masculine version of "are you speaking?" in the feminine g/GvGpita. Moreover, the final -ta occurs without a preceding one -pi- in such forms as the masculine gLpshhua"ta "I tell you", the feminine ^shsh\ua"ta.
The second class of forms includes all nominal forms whose subjects do not end in a short vowel, all monosyllabic nominal subjects, demonstrative words, and many verb forms. All these forms are characterized by an additional masculine syllable. All names whose themes end in long vowels (a, g, й, ё, о), diphthongs (ш, ай, іг) or consonants, as well as all monosyllabic nominal themes, are suffixed with -pa in the masculine version, but remain unchanged in the feminine option, with the exception of excursion (-g). Examples:
The above rule in some cases is somewhat obscured by the effect of phonetic laws: for example, in the northern dialect, final syllabic pits, if they are not protected by the immediately following nasal, turn into g. and p; in addition, g/ and p" before nasal consonants turn into voiceless nasals with a glottal stop. If the topic ends in 1 or voiceless G, the suffix -pa is assimilated into -1a, for example, in the masculine version dal-la “hand”, in female dal*". In the Yahi dialect, the suffix -pa (-1a) is used in some cases
(for example, in the masculine version "au-na "fire"), in some - hi (for example, in the masculine version ya-hi "man").
To demonstrative words ending in -e, to form masculine forms, add -"e. So, in the masculine version aidje"e "that", in the feminine aidje; in the masculine aiye"e "that one", in the feminine aiye; in the masculine aige"e "over (to) that", in the feminine aige.
A significant number of forms, mostly verbal, are obtained by adding -"a or -"i to the absolute forms used by women. These forms include:
The third person of futuruma is -si-"i, for example in the masculine version trûsi"i "he will do", in the feminine t/tisi. Wed. masculine form t/ûsi "he does", feminine fus1.
The first person of the futurum is -sik!ô-"a, for example in the masculine version t"usiklô"a "I will do", in the feminine t"usikîô.
The third person usitative on -ta- "a, for example, in the masculine version trûma"a "he used to do", in the feminine t"ùma.
Third person dubitative with -k!u- "i, for example in the masculine version nisaklu"i "perhaps he will leave", in the feminine nisâklu.
Third person passive in -wa-"a, for example in the masculine version ap"djîsiwa"a "he was killed", in the feminine ap"djîsiwa.
Some third-person causative forms subject to contraction, for example:
Thus, from mô- “there is” the following are formed: the masculine form môt"i “they say that he eats,” the feminine mot/1, the masculine môtrê"a “they say that he feeds,” the feminine môt"ê.
7. Possessive verbal and nominal forms, as well as adverbial combinations ending in -k"i-"a, for example. in the masculine version lautrkfi"a "they say that his X is strong"* (the result of the contraction of the quotative -tfi and the possessive -kfi"a), in the feminine lautfk"i, in the masculine rnômauk"i"a "[he eats] him (t .e. other) food", in the feminine mômaukfi, in the masculine bâwisakVa "in the evening", in the feminine bawisak "i.
“The English translation of the possessive form of yana is difficult to translate into Russian: it looks like “his is said to be strong; in absence best option The English substantivized his is translated into Russian as “his X”. - Approx. translation
A special group of verb forms are imperatives. The male variants with -"V and -"a" correspond to the female ones with -"* and -"a, i.e. the final glottal stop disappears in the female variants, for example, in the male variant nisa"i" “go away!”, in the female nisa"1. The absence of a final glottal stop is also characteristic of feminine imperatives with the first person of the object, for example. in the masculine version diwai-dja" "look at me!", in the feminine diwai-tc*a, in the masculine diwai-krigi "look at us!", in the feminine diwaik"ik"".
Interrogative forms differ from the two classes of forms we have already considered in that the suffixes or enclitics used by men and women are different. In the usual interrogative in masculine forms there is an element -n, requiring dynamic stress and a falling (not rising) tone on the preceding vowel, for example. "au"asfn "is there fire?" In the corresponding feminine form, the final vowel is lengthened, usually retains its original quality and receives a strong stress and falling tone, e.g. "au"asT "is there fire?" However, some forms in -a correspond to the feminine interrogative in -"(, for example, in the masculine version (ts!ewal"awa-ranjan "did I make a noise?", in the feminine ts!ewal"awarandjT; in addition, forms ending in a diphthong or consonant, get -уГ in the feminine version, for example, in the masculine version ga"layau-nan "cry", in the feminine version ga"layau-yT. The feminine interrogative from the demonstrative word lengthens the masculine ending -"e, for example. in the masculine version aidje"en "that one?", in the feminine aidje"e.
Another interrogative, more emphatic than the previous one, is actually expressed by an enclitic - pa in the masculine version and gi in the feminine - attached to the corresponding form with the meaning of gender, for example, in the masculine version tsllwal"asi"nuga pa "are you making noise?" , in women's ts!ewal"asi"nukfga.
As we have already seen, most words in Yana have distinct masculine and feminine variants. There are, however, some words that are the same in the speech of both sexes. These include: 1. syntactic particles (ai, indicator of the third person of the subject; aitc", article; dji, article in possessive forms of the first person; dju, article in possessive forms of the second person; k*", indicator of third person possessiveness; gi, object particle);
substantive verbs and “it is” and be “it is... which...”:
some passive forms ending in a long vowel (e.g. ap"djTwara "he was killed", tlml "to be the addressee of speech").
Further, final short vowels are dropped before words beginning with smooth vowels, so that in a sentence or phrase the gender distinction sometimes disappears. In such cases, the original form of the consonant appears, for example, the masculine pfadi "place" and the feminine pfatri appear as part of the masculine form aitcf pfad aidja "place there" and the feminine form aitc" p*ad aitcf, respectively. There are also morphological processes that require information absolute forms within a word to forms that coincide with
female variants, for example, the male version dalüwi "both hands" and the female daluoj1 take the form dalua?1 in some cases, for example. in the masculine version daluWkVa "his hands", in the feminine dalüojikri.
To summarize, we can conclude that female and male speech variants in the Yana language originate from two psychologically distinct sources. In a minority of cases we are dealing with gender-distinguishing particles. In the vast majority of cases, female variants can best be explained as abbreviated forms, which, from the point of view of their origin, have nothing to do with gender, but are isolated female variants or reduced forms motivated by the phonetic and morphological economy of the language. Perhaps the reduced female forms are conventional symbols of the less central or less ritually significant status of women in society. Men, when communicating with men, speak more fully and leisurely; When women are involved in communication, the shortened way of pronunciation is preferable! This explanation is plausible, but the female forms in Yana now represent a complex and completely formalized system, in many respects opposed to the parallel system of forms used when addressing men to men.
- GENDER
- SOCIO-SEXUAL COMMUNICATION
- DIFFERENCES IN MALE AND FEMALE SPEECH
- SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Gender differences manifest themselves not only in physiological characteristics human, but also in speech communication. This article presents the research data obtained at the phonetic and lexical level of the language.
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Target of this work– determination of speech features that distinguish men and women at the studied levels of language. Identification of the speech characteristics of men and women complements and clarifies the results of research in the field of genderology. The relevance of the topic is dictated by the interest of modern linguistics in the problems of gender differences in language variants in the studies of such scientists as Khaleeva, I.I., Zemskaya E.A., Kitaigorodskaya M.A. ., Rozanova N.N., Gorodnikova M.D., who pay attention to the features of male and female speech communication. Achieving the goal involves solving the following tasks:
Based on a review of scientific literature, study the history of the emergence of the concept of “gender”.
Carry out a sociolinguistic study at the level of phonetics and vocabulary using methods of participant observation and a survey of university students aged 18-25 years.
Establish the types of differences between male and female communication at the phonetic and lexical levels of language.
The concept of “gender” refers to the set of social and cultural norms that society requires people to follow based on their biological sex. The category of gender was introduced into the conceptual apparatus of science in the late 60s - early 70s of the 20th century and was first used in history, historiography, sociology and psychology, and then was adopted in linguistics. Initial work on studying gender characteristics speeches arose in the West and the first systematic descriptions of male and female characteristics speeches were made on the basis of languages from the Germanic and Romance language groups. As for domestic linguistics, the first regular research on this topic began to be carried out only in the late 80s and early 90s. And already from the mid-90s they began to develop at a rapid pace. Term gender, thus, was used to describe social, cultural, psychological aspects“feminine” in comparison with “male”, that is, “when highlighting everything that forms the traits, norms, stereotypes, roles, typical and desirable for those whom society defines as women and men” [N. L. Pushkareva 1999: 16 ]. At the same time, it is noted that in science to this day there is no single view on the nature of gender, since some scientists attribute this concept to models developed with the aim of more clearly scientific description problems of gender and the distinction between its biological and sociocultural functions. Other scholars view gender as a social construct created by society, including through language. A person's gender can be reflected in their language and speech. “Men and women speak differently, and these options do not depend on the situation: there are almost no “female situations” and “male situations” when the same person would choose one or another option at will. A woman speaks differently than a man, and the listener knows how to distinguish the speech of women from the speech of men not only by the timbre of their voice.” [N. B. Vakhtin, E. V. Golovko 2004:76]. Of course, the speech of men and women differs, but this can only be said about certain trends in speech, since gender oppositions manifest themselves in different areas of language.
Researchers claim that in the field of phonetics, the features of speech are manifested as follows: women are characterized by a predominance of vowel sounds over consonants, men are characterized by a predominance of consonants over vowel sounds. Women's emotional speech is characterized by the use of melodic modulations, while men are characterized by a special use of lexical and grammatical means.
In the sphere of vocabulary, a clear difference is found in the topics of conversations; this is explained by the fact that men and women have different areas of activity, which influence the choice of one or another topic of conversation. In the field of grammar, women's greater tendency to use interjections is clearly expressed. Among the features in the field of syntax, the use of introductory constructions with the meaning of a high degree of confidence by men stands out, while women use these constructions with the meaning of uncertainty. Researchers of gender differences in speech have come to the conclusion that our communicative behavior in men is aimed at self-affirmation, fulfilling social tasks, concentration and purposefulness. And the communicative behavior of women, on the contrary, is aimed at inner world, comfort of communication, carefreeness and expression of one’s own feelings and emotions. A woman strives to adapt to the conditions dictated by the speech situation, and men actively influence environment and try to change certain circumstances exactly as they plan. It is undeniably obvious that men and women speak different languages, since they perceive the world around them completely differently and structure their speech behavior in accordance with this perception.
In the course of this work, a study was conducted of the characteristics of male and female speech at two levels of the modern Russian language - phonetic and lexical. Our goal was to establish the types of differences that prevail in socio-gender communication at the studied levels of language. The number of respondents was 40 people: 20 men and 20 women. The experiment involved men and women aged 18 to 25 years, students of Siberian universities federal district. They were presented with pictures depicting modern kitchen utensils, used in almost every family (mixer, blender, garlic press, colander). Also, for a certain time, the method of participant observation was used to identify speech features at the phonetic level. The linguistic material of the study included etiquette words often used in verbal communication. These are words such as: thank you, please, hello, goodbye. After analyzing the data obtained, we obtained the following results presented in Table 1:
There is a tendency to stretch vowel sounds in women [SpΛs'i:b], while men try to briefly pronounce the stressed sound I [SpΛsibʹ].
There is a loss of vowel sounds in the use of the word by men [pzhalst] in comparison with women’s [PΛzhalust].
The increase in the length of the pronunciation of consonant sounds is clearly expressed in men’s use of the word [Дъ с’в’и е диан’:ja], while among women there is a noticeable assimilation in softness [Дъ с’в’и е дн’ь].
For research at the lexical level, respondents had to give names to the items of kitchen utensils presented to them, in accordance with how they use them in everyday life. The obtained data are presented in table 2:
The study allows us to draw a number of conclusions:
There is a difference in the correctness and accuracy of the name of the object. (Male respondents name the items most accurately; women confuse items such as a mixer and a blender).
In the word colander, both women and men are characterized by metathesis, that is, the replacement of letters in the syllable –DUR with –DRU.
Researchers of the gender factor in speech note that it is impossible to identify typical features of male and female speech, since there are no sharp boundaries between them; at the same time, it is possible to identify certain trends that are characteristic of female and male speech. Comparing representatives of the two gender groups, we identified the following trends:
Women are characterized by the phenomenon of vocalism with subsequent stretching of vowels [SpΛs'i:b], and men try to briefly pronounce the stressed sound [SpΛsibʹ].
In women, assimilation in softness is noticeable
[Дъ с'в'и е дн'ь], and among men the longitude of consonant sounds predominates
[D sv’i e dan’:ja].
The loss of vowel sounds in the syllable by men [Pzhalst] is observed in comparison with the female one [PΛzhalust].
There is a greater variety of options for the names of objects among women, for example, the word blender was designated as a mixer, juicer, coffee grinder.
There is a difference in the correctness and accuracy of the name of the object: the most accurate name is given by men.
Studying the connection of language in a gender aspect requires taking into account other factors influencing the communicative behavior of men and women, such as age, education, profession, and there is also the possibility further development research at other levels of language.
Bibliography
- Belyanin V.P. Psycholinguistics / V.P. Belyanin - M.: Flinta, 2004.-420 p.
- Burvikova E.V. My language is my gender / E.V. Burvikova // Russian speech. - 2012.- No. 3. -WITH. 72-75.
- Vakhtin N. B. Sociolinguistics and sociology of language. / N. B. Vakhtin, E. V. Golovko - St. Petersburg. : EU, 2004. - 336 p.
- Zemskaya E. A., Kitaigorodskaya M. A., Rozanova N. N. Features of male and female speech // Russian language in its functioning / Ed. E. A. Zemskoy and D. N. Shmeleva. M., 1993. P. 90-136.
- Kirilina, A.V. Gender studies in linguistic disciplines [Text] //Gender and language / Ed. A. V. Kirilina. - M., 2005. - 155 p.
- Pushkareva N.L. Gender studies: birth, formation, methods and prospects in the system of historical sciences // Woman. Gender. Culture.- M., 1999.- P. 15-34.
- Fight for justice
- How about talking?...
In Japan, for more than a thousand years, men and women spoke different languages. Amazingly, until today, the Japanese language was officially divided into masculine and feminine. Once upon a time, women did not have the right to speak a man's language; if their vocabulary was used by a representative of the stronger sex, he was considered a person of unconventional orientation. In addition to the Japanese, residents and residents of the Caribbean islands spoke different languages. Some sources indicate that violation of norms was considered a crime and entailed appropriate punishment.
In fact, this distinction of language based on gender should not come as a shock. You probably thought more than once that you and your significant other spoke different languages? But this is not a reason for frustration, but a great opportunity to master another “foreign” language and learn to understand your partner.
Fight for justice
Differences in the language of men and women are not only a reason for gossip in their circles, but also the subject of study of a separate science - gender linguistics. It is she who examines how the psychology of the sexes is reflected in speech, that is, the speech behavior of representatives of each of them.
One of the impetus for the development of this science was, oddly enough, the feminist movement. The fact is that human language targeted at the male part of the population. This is proven by a number of examples. Have you ever seen a sign at the entrance to the medical office “Doctor Polonskaya A.M.”? Or a competition called “Teacher of the Year”? As a rule, these “female” options for naming professions sound somewhat dismissive, with a dose of irony. That is why we will call a woman specialist a doctor, teacher, director, that is, using the noun male. Another proof: in many languages, “man” and “man” are the same word. But we will find more offensive confirmation of injustice in the Chinese language. There, the word, as is known, consists of several hieroglyphs, each of which denotes a concept. So, the hieroglyph “woman” is included in words such as envy, jealousy, illness, prostitute, hatred... It is completely unclear why women did not please the male part of the Chinese population.
Apparently, it was these and many other unjust features of language that prompted those who fought for justice (by no means “fighters”!) to organize an important branch of gender linguistics - feminist linguistics. One of the results of this was a certain “equality” of male and female vocabulary in European languages. But it seems our great and mighty feminist movement has been spared. Maybe for the better? Maybe we should perceive this as a nice feature of the structure of a patriarchal (still) society and look for the key to mutual understanding?
How about talking?...
If a woman spends hours discussing a question on the phone that a man would solve in a matter of seconds, this fact does not indicate any mental abnormalities. This is completely normal for the female half, since communication is the most important component of her existence. Many women's need for communication is so great that if they don't have time to chat during the workday, it negatively affects their mood and productivity. At some “women’s” enterprises, even 5-10 minute breaks for communication were introduced. In others, the employees' desks were rearranged so that they could talk without being distracted from their work. The measures turned out to be economically feasible! This, of course, does not mean that men can do just fine without communication, but they need less time for it, and the motivations for communication between the sexes are completely different. It turns out that women's conversations are aimed at relationships, men's conversations are aimed at gaining authority.
That is, it is important for young ladies to feel like “birds of a feather,” and for men, on the contrary, to feel independent and different from others. If it is important for a woman to hear from a friend that she has a similar problem, each representative of the stronger sex is inclined to think that his situation is exceptional.
Men speak briefly, to the point, rarely using figurative means. Their speech is (usually!) smooth intonation, and it doesn’t matter whether they are expressing their feelings for you or talking about the fall of the dollar. The woman, on the contrary, will attack you with a richly intonated speech: “It’s sooo raining there today, it’s just a nightmare!”
The same applies to correspondence on social networks and instant messengers. Let’s say you received the following message from your lover: “ Good morning" What might a representative of the fair sex think? “He didn’t put a smiley face, didn’t use an exclamation point, didn’t even call him sunshine. Something must have happened to him, or, even worse, he lost interest in me.” In the meantime, the author of the message most likely has great mood, and it would never have occurred to him what secret meanings hides its deeply lyrical message. If a man does not use appropriate means to convey his emotions in speech (intonation, diminutive words), then in writing he will avoid them even more so. So, if you notice the absence of endless emoticons and exclamation marks in a man’s message, do not be upset: it means absolutely nothing. It’s another matter if this kind of message came from a woman. An unkind period at the end of a message (or, even worse, the absence of a punctuation mark in principle) can portend anything.
There are still many gender differences in language. For example, women often use interrogative forms of sentences, men - affirmative ones. The first ones are usually used complex designs, the second are simple statements, but logically connected. Most often, women use polite forms; they strive to speak according to the norms of the language, while men often violate these norms and tend to use profanity. A lady usually uses exclamations such as “Oh!”, “Oh-oh-oh,” and so on, whereas in “macho” speech they are absent. All differences in language behavior are explained different device psyche and educational stereotypes. “Boys shouldn’t cry”, “girls shouldn’t swear” - all these rules, familiar from childhood, often shape the speech behavior of both sexes. However, we should not forget that everything is purely individual. We talk only about traditional cases.
Silence is golden, or how to find a common language with a man
“We cannot predict how our word will respond...”, or how to find a common language with a woman
It is impossible to fit such a difficult thing as communication between a man and a woman into a few (even the most “golden”!) rules. However, remember: in order for a representative of the opposite sex to understand you, you need to learn to speak their language. Peace and harmony to you!
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Most scholars who have studied gender, especially gender differences in speech, argue that there is a difference between the way men and women speak.
For example, Belyanin V.P. in “Psycholinguistics” he proposed the peculiarities of language use by men and women.
Features of the speech style of men and women manifest themselves at two levels - speech behavior and speech. For example, men interrupt more often, are more categorical, and strive to control the topic of dialogue. It is significant that, contrary to popular belief, men speak more than women. Men's sentences tend to be shorter than women's. Men in general use abstract nouns much more often, while women use concrete nouns (including proper nouns). Men use more nouns (mostly concrete ones) and adjectives, while women use more verbs. Men use more relative adjectives, and women - quality. Men are more likely to use perfective verbs in the active voice.
Women's speech includes a greater concentration of emotionally evaluative vocabulary, while men's evaluative vocabulary is often stylistically neutral. Often women tend to intensify primarily positive assessments. Men use negative evaluation more expressly, including stylistically reduced, abusive language and invective; they are much more likely to use slang words and expressions, as well as non-literary and profanity.
When using syntactic connections, men more often use subordinating rather than coordinating connections, as well as subordinate clauses of time, place and purpose, while among women, subordinate degrees and concessive clauses generally predominate.
Psycholinguistic experiments on the restoration of destroyed text have shown that women are more sensitive to the semantic structure of the text - the samples they restored show greater coherence. Women are trying to restore as much as possible original text, and men build a new one; their texts deviate from the standard more than women's ones.
A. Kirillina and M. Tomskaya in their article “Linguistic gender studies” gave distinctive characteristics male and female writing.
Male written speech:
use of army and prison slang;
frequent use of introductory words, especially those that have the meaning of statements: obviously, undoubtedly, of course;
using a large number of abstract nouns;
use during transmission emotional state or evaluation of an object or phenomenon of words with the least emotional indexation; monotony of lexical techniques when conveying emotions;
combinations of officially and emotionally marked vocabulary when addressing family and friends;
use of newspaper and journalistic cliches;
the use of obscene words as introductory words (Love, *****, found) and the monotony of obscene words used, as well as the predominance of obscene invective and constructions denoting actions and processes, as well as the predominance of verbs active voice and transitional;
inconsistency of punctuation marks with the emotional intensity of speech.
In one of the psycholinguistic analyzes of essays conducted by E.I. Peas, based on 97 parameters, it turned out that men are characterized by a rationalistic style, while women are characterized by using an emotional style. Male associative fields are more stereotypical and ordered; the male strategy of associative behavior (more explanatory and functional characteristics attributed to the stimulus) differs significantly from the female (situational and attributive) strategy. In addition, associative fields in male and female speech are correlated with different fragments of the world picture: hunting, professional, military sphere, sports (for men) and nature, animals, the surrounding everyday world (for women).
Men switch harder, getting carried away by the topic under discussion, and do not respond to remarks related to it.
Of course, the “impassable” boundaries between male and female speech are defined as usage trends. And, nevertheless, this data can be used to identify text written by a man or a woman.
This article explores the features of male and female written speech within family communication. Contains comparative analysis men's and women's written speech, produced on the basis of glossy Kazakh magazines for men and women.
Until now, all the peoples of the world have preserved traces of the division of language into male and female. Of course, the differences between them are purely biological, if only because female voice taller than masculine. However, for linguists, the more interesting differences are those that are due (directly or indirectly) to social causes. Despite the fact that the living conditions and way of life are beyond last century have changed a lot - the language changes much more slowly. And these residual effects - more significant or barely noticeable - are found even in modern societies. The same language is spoken differently not only by residents of different areas, representatives of different professions, and people of different ages.
It turns out that men and women also speak differently.
This article examines the manifestations of the language of men and women in speech within family communication. Of course, we should not forget that in real life there are different men And different women, with their own special habits (including speech habits), this article is primarily about typical men and typical women.
Analysis of the speech of men and women shows that there are differences at all three levels of language: grammatical, lexical and stylistic.
Analyzing articles and letters published between 2005 and 2010 in such modern Kazakh magazines as “Cosmopolitan”, “Glamour”, “Liza”, “Relax”, we came to the conclusion that married women in their letters and appeals, As a rule, they complain about family relationships, feel sorry for themselves, ask for help, admit their inadequacy and inability to understand difficult situations: “Life is gray, hopeless, monotonous. In winter there is drinking, rare guests on holidays, well, maybe I’ll persuade him to go to the cinema once every six months. In the summer we tinker with our six hundred square meters every weekend. I don’t remember when my husband and I talked. Not about the children, about the household, about money - but simply about life, about events, about something abstract. Every year he becomes lazier, ruder, more indifferent. We even started sleeping in different rooms, because he is almost always drunk, and he no longer has any interest in this side of life. And he doesn’t take care of his sons at all, the boys run around somewhere on their own”; “I’m completely confused, I don’t understand anything”; "What now? Why live?”;
Women cannot imagine their story without details, which seem to men to be a waste of time and take away from the main thing, because, in their opinion, in a conversation it is important to convey information and receive it. And women’s constant, detailed stories about colleagues, neighbors, and girlfriends unknown to their husbands, with all the details, can enrage even the calmest man. For example: “All day long you just talk about your figure, all these details about diets, massages, beauty salons drive me crazy! Next to a woman obsessed with her body, you involuntarily begin to wonder: is everything okay with mine?”; “How much can you talk about your ex-boyfriends
The speech behavior of women is characterized as more “humane”. Typically, women use non-aggressive, polite language in their speech, which reinforces the prevailing opinion in society that women are weaker, more insecure and less competent. For example: “When I saw the white powder, I cried: “These are drugs! This is the road to nowhere! He calmly answered: “Yes, drugs. This is the way to where I need to go.” Even in this conversation, his position seemed more thoughtful than mine”;
“Recently, a loved one with fur said that a pretty colleague does not give him access. The story didn’t seem funny to me, but I didn’t start a scandal”; “I was wrong, I’m sorry!”; “Forgive me, you are the best in the world!”
Women's speech is more emotional than men's. This conclusion can be drawn from the presence of exclamation and question marks in sentences. "And why is that?" - I was indignant; "Began! These are the fruits of addiction!”; "Thank you, darling! Now I'm a rich woman! It should be noted that men in their statements can be impatient and aggressive towards their wives and women in general, using profanity and offensive words, they demonstrate their impatience and irritability: “Ira, damn it! Should I take a whole chicken or half will be enough?”;
“She’s already going crazy!” While women use diminutive suffixes: “I kiss you too, I miss you, my little bunny” and try to express their thoughts as softly as possible, using adjectives as addresses. For example: “Listen, honey!”; "Thank you, darling!". In women's speech there is also a lot of uncertainty and contradiction, for example: “Everything is fine. But to be honest, it’s bad”; “I stayed with him, it seemed to me that I could influence him. By the way, I was ready to take drugs with him, it seemed to me that this would help us become closer.” When analyzing the choice of vocabulary by men, a very small number of evaluative adjectives and epithets are also revealed. If women use stylistic means to express their emotions and their attitude to the subject of conversation, then men try not to show their feelings and use simple sentences: “How are you with money?”; “Why are you silent?”; "How much do you need?".
Also, the speech of men is almost always full of introductory words and adverbs: “We couldn’t imagine how we could live the rest of our lives quietly and calmly, like a family”; “I couldn’t let go for a long time, we didn’t communicate, and I was terribly jealous”; “You know, you ruined my life!”; "Obviously to be useful to the family, you don’t need to sacrifice your life - you need to do what you can”; “Of course, I dream of an ideal woman, but, in my opinion, such a woman does not exist.” Apparently my demands are too high.” Typical of male speech is a deliberate, often playful coarsening of speech. For example: “What, you can’t? Do we have a matriarchy?”; “You are a hobby, I will play with you and leave you.”
A woman’s speech contains more complex adjectives and superlatives qualitative adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions: “From a burning brunette, I changed my color to a scorched blonde... Oleg liked blondes”; “You are a rare type of rich man, not a rollicking child of the 90s, not a refined top manager eating truffles at the restaurant “For Two.” Women more often use the words “so” or “such” in their speech: “When he celebrated some girl, I rushed to buy the same dress for myself”; “It was such a moment that I wanted to bury my head in the sand.” Men prefer expressive slang expressions : “The car is super!”; “You will be lost without me, you will perish!”
It should be noted that one of the pioneering studies in Russian linguistics in this area was the work of T. B. Kryuchkova (1975), who experimentally studied the characteristics of male and female Russian written speech. She found that men use sentences that are, on average, shorter in length than women's. One must agree with this statement. The syntactic side of the study shows that men resort to using simple, short sentences during conversations. They strive to simplify the structure of the utterance. Even where it would be better to use a detailed sentence, men divide it into several parts: “Yes, there is no meaning to life at all. Live. Develop yourself. Rejoice."
Why are male and female languages so different from each other? The reason is, researchers believe, that women and men prefer different communication models, i.e. Men and women have different ways of connecting with others. For men, communication is primarily an exchange of accurate information. For women, it is rather an exchange of impressions.
So, in the course of our work we were able to identify distinctive features male and female written speech. After analyzing letters and articles from magazines, we can conclude that very often in the eyes of readers women look like victims family relations. They feel sorry for themselves, ask psychologists and readers for help, admit their inadequacy and inability to understand the current situations. Men, as a rule, are impressed by the opportunity to argue, to show that they are right, and to present convincing arguments. One of the important topics for discussion among men is female chatter and mysterious female logic. It is common knowledge that men fewer women they love to talk, moreover, women’s chatter and their behavior often simply irritate men.
Women are very emotional in their statements. When trying to tell something, they often start with small details and only at the end talk about the essence of the matter, perhaps this is due to the increased emotionality of women. Trying to express their feelings and thoughts, the fairer sex uses a lot of exclamation and question marks when writing letters. Women are great at noticing little things that most men simply don’t pay attention to. With the help of a rich and flexible system of adjectives, women have versatile visual and expressive capabilities to describe a particular situation. Typically, women use non-aggressive, polite language in their speech, which reinforces the prevailing public opinion that women are weaker, less confident and less competent.
Unlike women, men are impatient and aggressive in their statements towards their wives, using profanity, slang and offensive words to demonstrate their impatience and irritability. Men are consistent in their thinking, straightforward and concise in their statements, and to summarize information they use introductory constructions that have either a modal or a generalizing meaning. The syntactic side of the study shows that, unlike women, men resort to using simple, short sentences during conversations. They speak in short, monosyllabic sentences, each expressing one clear idea.
Literature
- Bakusheva E.M. Sociolinguistic analysis of the speech behavior of men and women (based on material French): Author's abstract. dis. Ph.D. Philol. Sci. - M., 1995. - 16 p.
- Goroshko E.I. Features of male and female verbal behavior (psycholinguistic analysis): Dis. ...cand. Philol. Sci. - M., 1996. - 138 p.
- Kryuchkova T.B. Some experimental studies of the peculiarities of the use of the Russian language by men and women // Problems of psycholinguistics. - M., 1975. - P. 186-200.
