Language Use and Gender

The fact that language reflects social differences makes it

evident to locate differences of gender use of language.
Sociolinguistic investigations have proved that males and
females speak, and equally write, in ways that more or less
mirror their sex in the sense that they have different priorities
and intention while conversing
It is agreed on among researchers that men are more
concerned with power and status and women with
solidarity. For man, conversations are negotiations in
which people try to maintain the upper hand if they can.
For women, conversations are negotiations for closeness
to establish bonds and reach consensus.
 Some differences between Male and Female Speech

Differences in Intonation

Women often like to speak in a high-pitch voice because of

physiological reasons as well as their “timidity” and “emotional
instability”.
Lakoff (1975) says that women usually answer a question with rising
intonation pattern rather than falling intonation. In this way, they
can show their gentleness, and sometimes this intonation shows a
lack of confidence.

On the contrary, men like to use falling intonation to show that

they are quite sure of what they are saying. Falling intonation also
shows men’s confidence and sometimes power
Differences in Vocabulary :

Color Words: In English, for example, women are good at using color words
that were borrowed from French to describe things, such as mauve, lavender
aquamarine, azure and magenta, etc, but most men do not use them.

Adjectives: women like to use many adjective. Using more adjectives shows
that they are more sensitive to the environment and more likely to express
their emotions

Swear words and Expletives

Women usually avoid using swear words and dirty words. They tend to use
“oh, dear, my god” to express their feelings. Men’s language identifies a lot of
swear words
Diminutives
Women like to use words that have the meaning of “small”,
such as bookie, hanky, panties. They also like to use words
that show affections, such as dearie, sweetie. If a man often
uses these words, he might be identified as being not manly

Pronouns
Women prefer to use first person plural pronouns when they
suggest something, even when she suggests the other person,
while men tend to use first person singular pronoun, and
when he is suggesting the other person, he will directly use
the second person pronoun.
Topics
When men are talking, they are more likely to choose the
topics of politics, economy, stocks, sports, current news.
Women have more interest in talking family affairs, such
as the education of children, clothes, cooking, fashion,
etc.