Language and Gender

Organizing talk - Looking like a professor

• The words of a person who doesn‘t appear to be a professor are less likely to be taken as authoritive than the same words coming from someone who does look like a professor
• Many men don‘t recognise women as professors
• Many women wrote novels and poems under a man‘s name in order to be published
• e.g. George Eliot - real name: Mary Ann Evans)

Organizing talk - Speech activity

• Lecturing,sermonizing,gossiping,talking dirty,joking,arguing,therapy talk,small talk,etc.
• There are some speech activities that occur in all speech communities, while others may be specific to, or more common in , particular communities

Organizing talk - Gossip vs. Arguing (1)

• Gossip derives from Old English god sib
• ( = supportive friend or godparent)
• Gossip is supposed to characterize much of women‘s talk
• Many people - esp. men - think that gossiping means talking bad about others
• BUT: just any informal talk among close women friends

Organizing talk - Gossip vs. Arguing (2)

• Arguing: in most English-speaking countries- men argue, women quarrel or bicker (zanken)
• Quarreling has a more personal orientation in general and is seen as more emotional
• Arguing is essentially focused in the subject matter- involves giving reasons and evidence
• In many Italian-speaking communities of practice lively and loud arguments involving both women and men are frequent

Making social moves - Contents

• Speech act theory
• Functions of talk and motives of talking: gender oppositions
• Politeness
• Affective and instrumental talk
• Intimacy and autonomy, cooperativeness and competitiveness
• Speech acts embedded in social action
• What is a compliment?
• Evaluation of face work
• “Do they really mean it?” What’s the key?
• Conclusion