#Linguistics The role of gender in language

 #Linguistics The role of gender in language | English Language Topics

    The literature shows that language and gender have been a very important topic of discussion in the field of sociolinguistics linguistics. Since the 1990s the subject of male and female speaking differently becomes a matter of fact as “man is from mars and women are from Venus”. So, they use language differently from each other. Women love to talk but man resists it. It is not a fallacy that language is influenced by gender, but it is just because both men and women are various kinds of creation naturally, there are many similarities as well as dissimilarities in the speech of both genders. Gender plays a very significant role in language because men and women’s speech show wherefrom they belong, their habitual actions, their way of expressing their emotions, and so on. In regard of sex and gender, the British sociologist Giddens (1989) describes as sex indicates biological differences whereas gender has a concern with more construct of psychological, cultural, and social difference between male and female.

    According to Coates (1988), in his research on language and gender explains the effects of gender on language dominancy, and differences between male and female. Robin Locke who is considered as a pioneer of this phenomenon, explains the female language in her book language and women placed which is published in 1973. In this regard, wardhaugh explains that debate on female speech is related to male speech but this difference is female’s speech is more standardized as compare to man’s speech. Gender differences are always there in terms of language learning, in terms of social and cultural equality. Women are most expected to use more standard and polite language as compare to male. In this regard Holmes (1992) examines that women are supposed to use more correct and polite language rather than the man, and this is the reason when a boy child misbehaves it would be tolerated by everyone but when girl child uses bad language or misbehaves with older, the society never accepts this form girls. Thus, it can be said that society plays a very immense role in shaping one’s language and identity. This linguistic discrimination gives birth to gender inequality in every aspect of our life, as a human being both male and female are created equally but there is some difference either they are biological or social, they can not be ignored. It needs important consideration why these differences occur in our society especially in the phase of learning a language or using a language. why female speech is considered as inferior to man, and why man always enjoys the pleasure of being dominant in various aspects of life. Many feminists argued that English is a gender-biased language. it can be seen within these examples that women are addressing with the three pronouns like “Miss”, “Mrs”., “Ms.” to judge their marital status and sex whereas men are addressed with only “Mr.” either they are married or single. This gender-biasness can be seen in this example of while hearing the word nurse, pictures of women comes automatically in our mind.  This is something unequal treatment of the English language and it makes language very controversial.

    The difference between males and females is not just in speaking a language but also in language acquisition. Gender can playa lead role in language learning as many children and toddlers learn language under the supervision of females, so their early language has effects feminine speech. In most cases, girls acquire language rapidly as compare to boy and throughout the whole life, they speak more than boys. Women are tending to speak hundred times more than men. Further, WardHaugh examined that women are more likely to use more compliments, and politeness as compare to man, he also pointed out that women tend to avoid masculine, authoritative and powerful ways of speaking.