会话分析视角下汉语言语交际的性别差异研究

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background
Language is not only a symbol system but also a social phenomenon.[1]And it isnecessary for people to use language to communicate with each other in society. As men andwomen have to constantly contact in order to live in society, cross-gender communicationbecomes one of important parts in social communication, so the study of gender differences inconversation becomes important and valuable.The topic of language and gender has been discussed since 17thcentury, but there werenot many studies until 20thcentury when the pioneer scholar, Otto Jespersen, wrote Language:Its Nature, Development and Origin. And in the book, he explained the feature of women’slanguage in details.[1]Then, with the development of sociolinguistics and feministmovements in 1960s, scholars, especially scholars of sociolinguistics began to study womenlanguage. And among those scholars, it was Lakoff who leads the burst of interests in studiesof language and gender. In her paper, Language and Women’s Place, Lokaff pointed out manygender differences in language structure. And then, Lokaff’s findings brought a considerableamount of discussions in the following studies. Some scholars made efforts to verify herobservations and some scholars continued to gender differences in language based on herobservations. Due to the above studies, the research of language and gender has been pushedforward since 1960s.Of all the studies, the trend is from the static study to the dynamic study, in whichscholars study gender differences in language structure to gender differences in language use.As a result, researches begin to focus on dynamic differences in utterance structure, topicselection, topic control, amount of topic, responses of utterance and manners of utterance.And the present thesis tries to explain the above dynamic differences with ConversationAnalysis in Chinese context. Furthermore, the author wants to attract people’s attention togender dynamic differences to avoid misunderstandings or even conflicts between men andwomen in China.
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1.2Research Significance
The relationship between language and gender has been studied in sociolinguistics since1960s, and scholars already have found out many differences in different aspects, such asphonology, intonation, semantics, grammar, verbal styles and so on.[2]As the abovementioned, the static study of language and gender focuses on differences in languagestructure, while the dynamic study focuses on differences in verbal styles and strategies.However, most researches concentrate on language structures, and few on verbal styles. Andin the present thesis, the author attempts to make the dynamic study with ConversationAnalysis to analyze gender differences in language use, so as to study social life and clear upmisunderstandings.There are two research questions in the present thesis: the author tries to find out genderdifferences in language use in Chinese context; the author aims to analyze whether genderdifferences in language use in English context exist in Chinese context. At last, the author putsforward some suggestions to avoid misunderstandings in Chinese cross-gendercommunications.Furthermore, this study deepens the theoretical understanding of gender differences inChinese context. And as for the practical aspect, more people will pay attention to genderdifferences in language use and find ways of avoiding language conflicts between men andwomen through the present thesis. At last, the study shows the linguistics’ practicalapplications which using the theoretical knowledge to explain and solve daily problems whichexist in real life in China.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Studies of Language and Gender Abroad

Generally speaking, studies of language and gender abroad can be divides into twoperiods: scattered early studies and systematic studies.As early as 17thcentury, differences in language between men and women were detectedby European colonialists who thought men and women had different languages when theystepped on the new lands firstly. But the issue of language and gender attract scholars’attention not until the early 20thcentury. And it was Otto Jespersen who wrote the firstacademic documentary on the relationship of language and gender from a linguisticperspective, in which he described features of women’s language with one chapter, and foundthat men and women have differences in language, such as phonetics, vocabulary andsentence patterns. At last, he concluded that social labor changes language between men andwomen. And most of Jespersen’s ideas are still popular nowadays. Although genderdifferences have been discussed early, the studies in this period are still not systematic. Butthey provided research directions for the later studies.In 1960s, with the development of sociolinguistics and statistics and survey researchwhich began to be used to study human language features from gender, age, occupation andother factors, the systematic research method began to be used by some linguists.[4]Meanwhile, the women’s liberation movements started at this time, which pushed the study oflanguage and gender forward, and more and more women asked for equalities, not only askedfor social and political positions, but also pursued cultural equalities.
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2.2 Studies of Language and Gender in China
In 1928, Zhao Yuanren put forward gender differences in pronunciation at first, butsystematic studies of language and gender began from 1970s, when the sociolinguisticsspread to China.[13]From then on, Chinese scholars got a lot of achievements in studies oflanguage and gender. It can be divided into two study periods in China: the period thatintroduce Western theories and the period that Chinese scholars study gender differencesindependently.In the period of introduction,Chinese scholars reviewed theories of gender differences inlanguage abroad through translating foreign dissertations and books. For example, DaiWeidong wrote an overview of language and gender in English context from features ofwomen language. And Yang Yonglin published many articles in terms of gender differences inpronunciation and intonation, grammar and vocabulary in details in English context.[14]Chinese scholars in this period got a better understanding of western theories, and it isuseful to studies of gender differences in Chinese context.And independent studies include studies of gender discrimination in language, forms ofgender language and gender differences in language use.[15]Chinese scholars try to studygender differences in Chinese context based on western theories.
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Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework..... 11
3.1 Conversational Structure.... 11
3.2 Conversational Strategy..... 14
3.2.1 Turn-taking Model...... 14
3.2.2Responses of Utterance...... 17
3.3 Conversational Style ........ 19
Chapter 4 Analyses of Gender Differences in Chinese Communication..... 20
4.1 Gender Differences in Conversational Structure ...... 20
4.1.1 Opening Sequence...... 20
4.1.2 Closing Sequence....... 22
4.2 Gender Differences in Conversational Strategy ....... 23
4.2.1 Turn-taking .... 23
4.2.2 Responses of Utterance ..... 25
4.3 Gender Differences in Conversational Style ...... 31
4.4 Suggestions for Cross-gender Communications in Chinese Context ........ 39
Chapter 5 Conclusion...... 43
5.1 Major Findings ..... 43
5.2 Limitations and Suggestions .... 44

Chapter 4 Analyses of Gender Differences in Chinese

CommunicationThe present thesis aims to analyze gender differences in language use based onConversation Analysis in Chinese context. In this chapter, it will discuss gender differences inlanguage in Chinese context based on gender differences in language abroad. Study results ofgender differences in language abroad refer to the differences of topic selection, topic control,the amount of topic, the manner of topic and communicational strategies between men andwomen. Men tend to choose topics of business, economics, sports and so on, while womentend to choose topics of family, children, fashion and so on. And men usually speak morewords than women in cross-gender communications. Furthermore, As men are competitive,while women are polite and cooperate in conversations, men always control the topic inconversations，and men use more interruptions and minimal responses than women do incross-gender communications.

Conclusion

This chapter is the conclusion of the thesis. Firstly it introduces major findings of thepresent study. Then it discusses some limitations in the present study and puts forward somesuggestions for the future studies.Based on Conversation Analysis, the thesis makes the dynamic study of genderdifferences in languages use in Chinese context from conversational structure, conversationalstrategy and conversational style. And the author also intends to explore whether findings ofwestern studies can explain gender differences in language use in Chinese context. The majorfindings will be present in the following.Firstly, the author finds that gender differences in language use in Chinese context haveno significant differences with results of western studies in conversational structure. That is tosay, domestic women are inclining to starting their topic indirectly to show their politeness,while domestic men are used to starting their topic directly. And for the closing sequence,domestic women pay more attention to how to end the conversation than men do, and womentend to use the final closing sequence in their conversations, especially when talking withmen.Secondly, the author finds that there is one nuance in conversational strategy betweenresults of western studies and results in Chinese context. In the aspect of using minimalresponses, results of western studies show that women use more minimal responses than men,while the present study shows that women and men have almost the same number in usingminimal responses. In addition, in China, men also like to use more overlaps and interruptionsto get their turn than women do, and women like to use more questions to attract other’sattention in the communication than men do in both cross-gender conversations andsame-gender conversations.
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References (omitted)