Language And Gender

Question 1

Reading Study - Language in Gender

Answer 1

• Jenny Cheshire
•The aim was to gain data about the relationship between the use of grammatical variables and adhering to a peer group culture of boys and girls
•She found that social group had an impact on your language
Group A girls who disapproved of swearing and carrying weapons were less likely to use the non-standard ‘s’, ‘was’, ‘what’, ‘come’, ‘ain’t’
• While Group B girls who approved of swearing and carrying weapons were more likely to use all non-standard except for ‘has’ and ‘never’.

Question 2

Linguist Judith Baxter

Answer 2

•”Gender neutral term does help people change their view of reality over time”

Question 3

Jean Scott

Answer 3

•Gender is not just about sex it also signifies a relationship of power

Question 4

Oxford dictionary

Answer 4

•Defines the word ‘rabid’ with the example ‘rabid feminist’

Question 5

What did Julia Stanley find about nouns

Answer 5

She found that 26 nouns denote male promiscuity and 220 nouns denote female promiscuity.

Question 6

Motschenbacher findings

Answer 6

He found that cases where female terms were placed before male terms it was to depict traditional social roles of women

Question 7

Linguists opniin on Gender pronouns in English

Answer 7

• If the English language had been properly organised, there would be a word that meant both ‘he’ and ‘she’

Question 8

Norwich study - Language in Gender / Social class

Answer 8

•Peter Trudgill
•The aim was to find how and why people’s way of speaking varied.
•He studied the final consonant in words like walking, reunning
•He found that in all social class, the more careful they speech the more likely they were ‘walking’ rather than ‘walkin’
•The people in lower social class were likely to say ‘walkin’
•Women tend to think they say ‘-ing’ than they actually did.
Men tend to say they use the non-standard ‘-in’ than they actually did.