Language in society Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Language in society - Assignment Example Gender stereotypes are basic generalizations about the gender attributes, variations and the roles of individuals or groups. Gender stereotypes can be both positive and negative, perpetuated when people automatically apply assumptions based on gender to others in disregard of evidence to the contrary.Looking at the linguistic behavior of both women and men across languages; we will identify many specific differences. Gender stereotypes can be identified in the use of language in diverse contexts. Historically, Language forms may maintain old attitudes which portray men as morally, intellectually, spiritually or absolutely superior to women. Men and women are socially diverse in that society places special social roles for them, expecting different patterns of behavior (Trudgill, 1992). This may cause offence in today’s society, so we view these forms as appropriate for change. For example, terms such as men, man or mankind depict male as the norm-the term for the species or pe ople in general is identical to that referring to one sex only. It had been so different three years ago, the night she'd met Stefan de Vaux. There'd been a party. Bella always threw a party when she'd sold a picture because poverty, she'd explained, was a great inspiration. She'd been wearing a brilliant blue caftan, her fair hair twisted on the top of her head, the severity of it accenting her high cheekbones, the little jade Buddha gleaming on its silver chain round her neck. Claire, pale from England and the illness that had allowed her to come to Tangier to recuperate, had been passed from guest to guest - "Ah, you're Bella's cousin" - like a plate of canapes, she thought ruefully, attractive but unexciting. Until Stefan de Vaux had taken her out onto the balcony and kissed her. "Well?" he'd said softly, in his lightly accented voice, letting her go at last, and she had just stood there, staring at him, at his lean, outrageously handsome face, his laughing mouth, amber brown ey es. "Angry? Pleased? Shocked?" And she'd blushed furiously, feeling all three. This article can be analyzed to reveal whether men and women speak differently, and to explore the nature of masculinity and femininity and their association to ideologies conveyed in language. Women supposedly speak in emphatic language that includes the use of italics. For example, the speaker in the article uses the words ‘so different’ or ‘ruefully’ to create emphasis in her speech. Use of redundant qualifiers, also linked to women’s language is evident in the phrases ‘attractive but unexciting’, ‘lightly accented voice’, ‘outrageously handsome face’ and ‘amber brown eyes’. The speaker employs the use of direct quotation when she talks of â€Å"Ah, you're Bella's cousin", "Angry? Pleased? Shocked?" and "Well?" in her description of the conversations between characters. Use of special lexis of color can be identified in the phrases ‘a brilliant blue caftan’ and ‘silver chain’. Women use questions more often in speech as a rhetorical means of engaging the other partner’s conversational contribution or of getting attention from others conversationally. This can be spotted in the article where the speaker asks the