Micro Linguistic Features of Conversational Style
... and less personal interactions. Language provides us with concepts for thinking with and with ways of meaning that a crucial to the construction of our identity (Montgomery 1995). Our identity in linguistic terms is separated into the category of gender. The distinction between gender and sex is important because although all documented societies find the basic differences between the male body and the female body important, there remains a great deal of variation over what is deemed appropriate behaviour for women and men from one society to another and from one historical period to another (Montgomery, 1995). The differences between male and females are gender differences. These are socially and culturally constructed. These gender differences not only include features of observable behaviour, but highlight the whole way of regarding ourselves as male and female. They include questions both of gender role (ways of behaving) and also of gender identity (ways of relating, to ourselves and others) (Mongomery, 1995). An important way in which language interacts with aspects of gender role and identity is through the commonsense beliefs and stereotypes that are held about the basic differences between the language of men and women. Women, it is said, are less assertive (more tentative) in their speech than men; it is said that they use fewer taboo forms and more euphemisms than men, that they talk more than men, or conversely that they talk less then men; that they are inclined to gossip; that they are more conservative in their speech and at the same time, more sensitive to matters of correctness; that their speech is more polite, and so on (Montgomery, 2001). There are many examples illustrating the differences between genders. A man can gain an understanding of how his wife can love talking on and on to her female friends about a problem and never receive any advice or criticism. The women are interacting to get support, not solutions. Women can come to understand why men shift the topic to something they did and/or something they know about, rather than asking questions as a woman would (asking questions might suggest the other person knows more). Many men relish getting into lively arguments about politics, sports, or a professional issue. Men enjoy the competitive process, e.g. men like their debate opponents better afterwards; women tend to like any challenger or debater less afterwards (Mongomery, 1995). One of the most obvious speech differences between women and men is in the pitch of their voices. Most people believe this difference develops at puberty. It is certainly true that young boys’ voices often ‘break’ at puberty and become noticeably lower in pitch. This physical explanation is only part of the reason for gender differences in voice pitch however. Social and cultural factors contribute too. Young boys’ voices often become lower in pitch than girls’ voices well before there is any physical basis for the change. It is more masculine to speak with a lower-pitched voice, and so young boys often develop this masculine feature, along with other more obviously sociolinguistic features of male speech such as the greater use of vernacular forms of words (Holmes, 2001). An example of this would be cutting off the ‘h’ sound in words such as “house” and “home.” There are...