Language and Gender

by Mary Talbot (University of Sunderland)

• ISBN13: 9780745616803
• ISBN10: 0745616801
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-12
• Publisher: Polity Pr

Summary

This is an up-to-date textbook in the growing area of language and gender. It will be popular with students for its accessibility and with teachers for the range and depth it achieves in a single volume. The book contains detailed discussion of work in the field, including recent research that has previously not been readily available to undergraduates or the general reader. A range of approaches is covered at an introductory level, presenting sometimes difficult and complex issues in an understandable way. Each chapter concludes with a list of recommended readings so that each topic can be taken further. The emphasis is on recent research, with a preliminary grounding in early 'classic' studies in the field. Talbot examines the language used by women and men in a variety of speech situations and genres. For this, she draws on studies working within the Anglo-American tradition of research on language and gender. Issues and problems addressed include the difficulties arising from accounting for gender differences in terms of dichotomies like public vs private and informational vs affective - and, not least, the trouble with looking for 'differences' at all. Another group of chapters present recent, critical perspectives on language and gender grounded in European theories of discourse and subjectivity, with particular attention to Critical Discourse Analysis. These chapters examine not gender difference but the construction of gender identities. They reflect both the high degree of interest in mass media and popular culture found in recent language and gender research and the preoccupation with discourse and social change that is central to Critical Discourse Analysis. The book will become a key textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates in linguisitics, sociolinguistics, cultural and media studies, gender and women's studies and communication studies. The book is usable by students for whom it is their first, or only, contact with sociolinguistics.

Author Biography

Mary Talbot is a Senior Lecturer in linguistics, at the University of Sunderland.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	viii
Acknowledgements	ix
Transcription conventions	xi
Part I Preliminaries: Airing Stereotypes and Early Models
Language and gender	3	(16)
Linguistic sex differentiation	3	(3)
Sex versus gender	6	(5)
Sex and gender as troublesome dichotomies	11	(2)
Why is language study important for feminism?	13	(3)
About this book	16	(1)
Further reading	17	(2)
Talking proper	19	(17)
Women, men and `Standard' English	19	(12)
Sex, gender and voice quality	31	(3)
Further reading	34	(2)
`Women's language' and `man made language'	36	(19)
Early interest	36	(2)
`Women's language'	38	(7)
`Man made language'	45	(4)
Conclusion and lead-in to part II	49	(1)
Further reading	50	(5)
Part II Interaction among Women and Men
Telling stories	55	(25)
Studying stories	55	(1)
Story content	56	(3)
A couple tell a story	59	(6)
At the family dinner-table	65	(13)
Generalizing from research findings	78	(1)
Further reading	79	(1)
Conversation	80	(24)
Conversation as a genre	80	(2)
The conversational division of labour	82	(4)
Miscommunication	86	(4)
Politeness	90	(7)
Men's and women's interactional styles	97	(5)
Equal but different?	102	(1)
Further reading	103	(1)
Public talk	104	(26)
Women and the public sphere	104	(2)
Doing a talking job: interviews	106	(10)
Talking on the net: computer-mediated communication	116	(11)
More troublesome dichotomies	127	(1)
Further reading	128	(2)
Difference-and-dominance and beyond	130	(19)
Deficit, dominance and difference	130	(3)
The trouble with `dominance'	133	(2)
The trouble with `difference'	135	(9)
Beyond difference: the influence of poststructuralism	144	(2)
Further reading	146	(3)
Part III Discourse and the Construction of Gender
Critical perspectives on gender identity	149	(21)
Why critical?	149	(1)
Discourse and discourses	150	(6)
Gender identity	156	(4)
The discursive construction of maternity	160	(6)
Examining constructions of gender identity	166	(2)
Further reading	168	(2)
Consumerism and femininity	170	(20)
Femininity	170	(1)
Women and consumerism	171	(5)
Multiple voices in magazines	176	(8)
The voice of a friend	184	(4)
Femininities	188	(1)
Further reading	189	(1)
New men and old boys	190	(25)
Masculinities	190	(4)
Dominance and control	194	(6)
The importance of being hetero	200	(6)
Change and resistance	206	(7)
Further reading	213	(2)
Reclaiming the language	215	(20)
Sexism	215	(3)
Modes of struggle	218	(7)
Counter-resistance	225	(4)
What is `political correctness'?	229	(5)
Further reading	234	(1)
References	235	(16)
Index	251