Gender and Conversational Interaction

by Tannen, Deborah

• ISBN13: 9780195081930
• ISBN10: 0195081935
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-09-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The author of the best-selling You Just Don't Understand, Deborah Tannen, has collected twelve papers about gender-related patterns in conversational interaction. The theoretical thrust of the collection, like that of Tannen's own work, is anthropological and sociolinguistic: female and male styles are approached as different "cultural" practice. Beginning with Tannen's own essay arguing for the relativity of discourse strategies, the volume challenges facile generalizations about gender-based styles and explores the complex relationship between gender and language use. The chapters, some previously unpublished and some classics in the field, address discourse across the lifespan, including preschool, junior high school, and adult interaction. They explore such varied discourse contexts as preschool disputes, romantic and sexual teasing among adolescent girls, cooperative competition in adolescent "girl talk," conversational storytelling, a faculty committee meeting, children in an urban black neighborhood at play, and a legal dispute in a Tenejapan village in Mexico. Two chapters review and evaluate the literature on key areas of gender-related linguistic phenomena: interruption and amount of talk. Gender and Conversational Interaction will interest general readers as well as students and scholars in a variety of disciplines including linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, women's studies, and communications.

Author Biography

Deborah Tannen is University Professor in the Linguistics Department at Georgetown University

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction	p. 3
Overview of the Chapters	p. 6
Notes	p. 11
References	p. 11
Talking Among Friends
"Go Get Ya a French!": Romantic and Sexual Teasing Among Adolescent Girls	p. 17
An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Approach	p. 19
Teasing About Romantic and Sexual Behavior	p. 20
Dealing with Multiple Social Concerns Through Teasing	p. 24
Discussion	p. 29
Notes	p. 30
References	p. 30
Cooperative Competition in Adolescent "Girl Talk"	p. 32
Women and Symbolic Capital	p. 33
Female Symbolic Capital in the High School Setting	p. 35
The Girl Talk	p. 38
Talk About Boys	p. 41
Third Parties	p. 41
Asking Boys Out	p. 49
Popular Boys	p. 52
Flaws	p. 55
Conclusion	p. 60
Notes	p. 60
References	p. 61
Community and Contest: Midwestern Men and Women Creating Their Worlds in Conversational Storytelling	p. 62
Discourse, Gender, and World	p. 68
Men's and Women's Narrative Worlds	p. 69
Language and Storyworld	p. 71
A Community Story	p. 74
Discussion	p. 75
Notes	p. 76
References	p. 77
Conflict Talk
Pickle Fights: Gendered Talk in Preschool Disputes	p. 83
Introduction	p. 83
Gender Socialization Through Language	p. 83
Gender Socialization Through Language Socialization	p. 83
Gender Role Socialization Through Peer Talk and Peer Play	p. 84
Gender Differences in Dispute Management	p. 86
Two Models of Gendered Styles in Children's Talk	p. 87
Affiliative Versus Adversarial Styles	p. 87
Focus on the Relationship Versus Focus on the Self	p. 88
Female-Associated Conflict Style: Focus on the Relationship	p. 89
Male-Associated Conflict Style: Focus on the Self	p. 89
The Pickle Fights	p. 90
Method	p. 90
Differences in the Use of the Pretend Frame by the Girls and the Boys	p. 91
The Girls' Session: Preliminary Discussion	p. 92
The Girls' Pickle Fight	p. 94
The Boys' Session: Preliminary Discussion	p. 97
The Boys' Pickle Fight	p. 99
Conclusion	p. 104
Notes	p. 106
References	p. 106
Tactical Uses of Stories: Participation Frameworks Within boys' and Girls' Disputes	p. 110
Introduction	p. 110
Fieldwork and Theoretical Approach	p. 111
Stories Within Disputes of Boys	p. 112
Disputes Built Through Reciprocal Counters	p. 112
Using a Story to Restructure a Dispute	p. 114
Participant Frameworks Invoked by the Story	p. 115
Audience Alignment Toward Opponent/Story Character	p. 116
Building a Multiparty Consensus	p. 118
Girls' Stories	p. 119
Structure in Telling and Listening to Instigating Stories	p. 120
Cited Characters and Current Participants	p. 122
Recipient Responses	p. 125
A Comparison of Boys' and Girls' Dispute Stories	p. 127
The Children	p. 130
Transcription	p. 130
Boys' Dispute Story	p. 131
Girls' Dispute Story	p. 135
Notes	p. 141
References	p. 142
Gender, Politeness, and Confrontation in Tenejapa	p. 144
Current Themes in Language and Gender Research	p. 145
Ethnographic Background	p. 146
Norms of Interaction	p. 146
Casual Conversational Style	p. 147
Arenas for Conflict	p. 149
A Tenejapan Court Case	p. 149
Format and Procedures	p. 149
The Case of the Runaway Daughter-in-Law	p. 150
Interaction in the Courtroom Context	p. 152
Speech Event Demarcation	p. 152
Participants	p. 152
Turn-Taking Structure	p. 152
Conclusion	p. 156
Notes	p. 159
References	p. 161
The Relativity of Discourse Strategies
The Relativity of Linguistic Strategies: Rethinking Power and Solidarity in Gender and Dominance	p. 165
Introduction	p. 165
Overview of the Chapter	p. 166
Theoretical Background	p. 166
Power and Solidarity	p. 166
The Ambiguity of Linguistic Strategies	p. 167
The Polysemy of Power and Solidarity	p. 168
Similarity/Difference	p. 170
The Relativity of Linguistic Strategies	p. 173
Indirectness	p. 173
Interruption	p. 175
Silence Versus Volubility	p. 176
Topic Raising	p. 178
Adversativeness: Conflict and Verbal Aggression	p. 179
Conclusion	p. 183
Notes	p. 184
References	p. 185
Who's Got the Floor?	p. 189
Introduction	p. 189
Theoretical Prods for the Study	p. 190
Initial Procedures	p. 191
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Focus	p. 191
A New Focus	p. 200
Turns and Floors in the Literature	p. 200
One-At-A-Time	p. 200
Turns	p. 201
Floor	p. 204
Partial Answer to the First Research Question: What Is the Floor?	p. 207
Turn and Floor Defined	p. 207
Procedure for Analyzing the Data Objectively	p. 212
Preparing the Data for Analysis	p. 212
Inducing the Variables	p. 213
Data Analysis	p. 214
Counted Results	p. 215
Differences Between the Two Types of Floors	p. 215
Gender Differences	p. 219
Conclusions	p. 221
Notes	p. 222
References	p. 224
Critical Reviews of the Literature
Women, Men, and Interruptions: A Critical Review	p. 231
Overview of Research Results: Questions in Need of Answers	p. 231
The Use of the Term "Interruption" in This Review	p. 237
The Functions of Interruptions	p. 238
Interruptions as Supportive and Cooperative Speech Acts	p. 238
Other Circumstances in Which Interruptions Do Not Violate the Speaking Rights of Others	p. 240
The Extent to Which Interruptions Are Likely to Be Dominance-Related in Different Types of Interaction	p. 241
"Successful" Interruptions and Dominance	p. 244
The Functions of Interruptions: Conclusions	p. 246
Gender and the Use of Dominance-Associated Interruptions	p. 247
Semantic Content as a Gauge of Gender Differences With Respect to Dominance-Related Interruptions	p. 248
Type of Context as a Gauge of Gender Differences With Respect to Dominance-Related Interruptions	p. 249
"Successful" Interruptions as a Gauge of Gender Differences With Respect to Dominance-Related Interruptions	p. 250
Dominance Predisposition and Power as Gauges of Gender Differences with Respect to Dominance-Related Interruptions	p. 251
Discrimination on the Basis of Gender of Interruptee as a Gauge of Gender Differences With Respect to Dominance-Related Interruptions	p. 253
Gender and Dominance-Associated Interruptions: Conclusions	p. 258
Gender and Cooperative Interruptions	p. 258
Other Factors Which May Have Affected Results in the Gender-Related Interruptions Literature	p. 260
Effects of Subject and Situational Variables	p. 260
Age	p. 261
Degree of Intimacy	p. 261
Personality Factors	p. 262
Status/Power in the Interaction Resulting From Some Source Other Than Gender	p. 262
Degree of Conflict Present, and the Extent to Which the Interaction is Task-Oriented	p. 263
Natural Versus Laboratory Setting	p. 263
Dyad Versus Group	p. 263
Topic of Conversation	p. 263
Change in Gender Behavior Over the Years	p. 264
Methodological Considerations	p. 265
Conclusions	p. 268
Notes	p. 269
References	p. 274
Understanding Gender Differences in Amount of Talk: A Critical Review of Research	p. 281
The Research Findings on Amount of Talk	p. 281
The Approach to Understanding the Research Findings	p. 284
Status Characteristics Theory	p. 286
The Relevance of Research Activity to Amount of Talk	p. 287
Amount of Talk in Formal Task Contexts	p. 288
Understanding the Results	p. 289
Amount of Talk in Formally Structured but Not Formally Task-Oriented Interaction	p. 294
Amount of Talk in Informal Task Contexts and Non-Task-Oriented Contexts	p. 296
Understanding Talk in Informal Contexts	p. 297
Conclusions	p. 301
Epilogue: Stereotypes Revisited	p. 302
Notes	p. 303
References	p. 306
Contributors	p. 313
Index	p. 317
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