Article published In:
Pragmatics: Online-First ArticlesThe pragmatics of advice-giving in the media discourse
The interplay of speaker gender and hearer gender
This study investigated how the gender of the contestants in TV talent competitions affects male and female
judges’ management of their advice, exemplified by evaluative talks in two Taiwan-based talent contests. In addition to the
pragmatic configuration of the advising acts, the internal and external modifiers of the advising speech events were also analyzed
in an attempt to gain insights into whether and how the advice messages are instrumental in the construction of gender identities.
Results showed that deviating from the stereotypical gendered style of communication, the female judges utilized significantly
fewer politeness mechanisms than did their male counterparts to moderate their advice. Besides, the psychological needs and face
want of the male and female advice-receivers remarkably influenced the discursive moves of the given advice comments. These
findings suggested that in the public media discourse, the speech context outweighs the socially prescribed gendered styles of
communication on one’s advice-giving behavior.
Keywords: advice-giving, gender, media discourse, Mandarin Chinese, talent contest
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Background
- 1.2Gender and the speech act of advice-giving
- 1.3Limitations of the existing literature on gendered advice-giving
- 1.4Aims
- 2.The study
- 2.1Source of the data
- 2.2Data coding and analysis
- 3.Results
- 4.Discussion
- 4.1The speaker’s gender
- 4.2The hearer’s gender
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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