The pragmatics of advice-giving in the media discourse: The interplay of speaker gender and hearer gender

Chihsia Tang
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology

Abstract

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:
Publication history

Date received: 1 March 2021

Date accepted: 23 May 2023

Published online: 11 September 2023

Table of contents

The advice-giving linguistic behavior is defined as an utterance where an idea is put forward as a possibility for the addressee’s future action (Li 2010). Bach and Harnish (1979) maintained that the force of the advising illocution is for the recipient to embrace an evaluation or idea which is beneficial to himself/herself. Namely, “what the speaker expresses is not the desire that H does a certain action but the belief that doing it is a good idea, that is in H’s interest” (Bach and Harnish 1979, 50).

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