Cover not available
Article published In:
Language and Gender in the Australian Context
Edited by Joanne Winter and Gillian Wigglesworth
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. Series S 10] 1993
► pp. 147–179

Gender differences in spoken interaction in same sex dyadic conversations in Australian English

| Sydney University
This paper is a quantitative study of gender differences in a corpus of spontaneous spoken discourse of approximately 2000 clauses. Subjects were same sex pairs of speakers of Australian English, from a sample that was homogeneous in all respects except gender. Grammatical analyses derive from the work of Halliday, with conversational analyses developed by Berry (1981a,b,c) and Martin (1992). Results show that statistically significant gender differences occurred in the phonological, lexicogrammatical and semantic strata of the language. A Systemic Functional model was found to be most useful in capturing these differences, and in relating them in a holistic picture of this type of language variation.
Published online: 1 January 1993
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aralss.10.07thw
References (54)
References
Bell, A. and J. Holmes (eds) (1990). New Zealand ways of speaking English. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Berry, M. (1981a) Systemic linguistics and discourse analysis: A multi-layered approach to exchange structure. In M. Coulthard and M. Montgomery (eds).Google Scholar
(1981b) Polarity, ellipticity, elicitation and propositional development, their relevance to the well-formedness of an exchange. Nottingham Linguistic Circular 10/1: 36–63.Google Scholar
(1981c) Towards layers of exchange structure for directive exchanges. Network 21: 23–32.Google Scholar
Brouwer, D. and D. de Haan (eds) (1987) Women’s language, socialization and self image. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (1988) Introduction. In J. Coates and D. Cameron (eds).Google Scholar
Cameron, D., F. McAlinden and K. O’Leary (1988) Lakoff in context: The social and linguistic functions of tag questions. In J. Coates and D. Cameron (eds).Google Scholar
Coates, J. and D. Cameron (eds) (1988) Women in their speech communities. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Coulthard, M. and M. Montgomery (eds) (1981) Studies in discourse analysis. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Dubois, B. and I. Crouch (eds) (1976) The sociology of the languages of American women. San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University.Google Scholar
Edelsky, C. (1981) Who’s got the floor? Language in Society 101: 383–421. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engle, M. (1980.) Language and play: A comparative analysis of parental initiatives. In Giles et al. (eds).Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1977) Wait for me, roller-skate! In S. Ervin-Tripp and C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds).Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. and C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds) (1977) Child discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fishman, P. (1983) Interaction: The work women do. Social Problems 251: 397–406. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Freed, A. (1992) We understand perfectly: A critique of Tannen’s view of cross-sex communication. In K. Hall, M. Bucholtz and B Moonwoman (eds) Locating power: Proceedings of the 1992 Berkeley women and language conference, Vol 11. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Giles, H., W. Robinson and P. Smith (eds) (1980) Language: Social psychological perspectives. New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M. (1980) Directive-response speech sequences in girls’ and boys’ task activities. In S. McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds).Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. (1973) Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
(1985) An Introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Hirschman, L. (1973) Female-male differences in conversational interaction. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, San Diego, December.
Holmes, J. (1984) Hedging your bets and sitting on the fence: Some evidence for hedges as support structures. Te Reo 271: 47–62.Google Scholar
(1986) Functions of you know in women’s and men’s speech. Language and Society 151: 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1990a) Politeness strategies in New Zealand women’s speech. In A. Bell and J. Holmes (eds).Google Scholar
(1990b) Hedges and boosters in women’s speech. Language and Communication 10/3: 185–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Horvath, B. (1985) Variation in Australian English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. (1922) Language: Its nature, development and origin. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. (1980) Questions and role responsibility in four professional meetings. Anthropological Linguistics. 221: 66–76.Google Scholar
Joos, M. (1967) The Five Clocks. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Kalcik, S. (1975) Like Anne’s gynecologist or the time I was almost raped: Personal narratives in women’s rap groups. Journal of American Folklore. 881: 3–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kramarae, C., B. Thorne and N. Henley (1983) Sex similarities and differences in language, speech and non-verbal communication: An annotated bibliography. In B. Thorne et al. (eds).Google Scholar
Kress, G. and R. Hodge (1979) Language as ideology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic patterns. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1973) Language and woman’s place. Language and Society 21: 45–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1975) Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Martin, J. (1992). English text. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matthiessen, C. (1990) Lexicogrammatical cartography: English systems. (unpublished), Linguistics Department, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
McConnell-Ginet, S., R. Borker and N. Furman (eds) (1980) Women and language in literature and society. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
McGregor, W. (forthcoming) Speaking in black and white: Differences in the representation of Australian Aborigines and whites as speakers. In M.A.K. Halliday (ed.) Cultural Dynamics.
McMillan et al. (1977) Women’s language: Uncertainty or interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality? Sex Roles 3, 6, 545–559. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plum, G. (1988) Text and contextual conditioning in spoken English. PhD thesis (unpublished), Linguistics Department, Sydney University.Google Scholar
Preisler, B. (1986) Linguistic sex roles in conversation: Social variation in the expression of tentativeness in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spender, D. (1980) Man made language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Strodtbeck, F. and R. Mann (1956) Sex role differentiation in jury deliberations. Sociometry 191: 3–11.Google Scholar
Swacker, M. (1976) Women’s verbal behaviour at learned and professional conferences. In B. Dubois and I. Crouch (eds).Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1990) You just don’t understand. New York: Ballantine.Google Scholar
Thorne, B. and N. Henley (eds) (1975) Language and sex. Rowley: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Thorne, B., C. Kramarae and N. Henley (1983) Language, gender and society. Rowley: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Tromel-Plotz, S. (1984) Gewalt durch Sprache. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.Google Scholar
Van Alphen, I. (1987) Learning from your peers: The acquisition of gender-specific speech styles. In D. Brouwer and D. de Haan (eds). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dijk, T. (ed.) Handbook of discourse analysis. Vol. 4: Discourse analysis in society. London: Academic Press.
Ventola, E. (1987) The structure of social interaction. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
West, C. and D. Zimmerman (1985) Gender, language and discourse. In T. Van Dijk (ed.).Google Scholar
Zimmerman, D. and C. West (1975) Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne and N. Henley (eds).Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Chang, Heesun
2022. Evaluation of Language and Teaching Skill Domains for International Teaching Assistants: An Approach based on Invariant Measurement. Language Assessment Quarterly 19:3 ► pp. 264 ff. DOI logo
Xudong, Deng
2022. The use of listener responses in Mandarin Chinese and Australian English conversations. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 303 ff. DOI logo
Thwaite, Anne
2014. Teachers and teacher aides initiating five-year-olds into science. Functional Linguistics 1:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.