A Qualitative Analysis on Pragmatic Characteristics of American Women’s Lexical Usage【毕业论文】.doc

1、1 本科毕业论文 （ 20 届） 英语 A Qualitative Analysis on Pragmatic Characteristics of American Womens Lexical Usage 2 1 Introduction Sociolinguistics is a discipline which investigates the relationships between languages and social relations. Wardhaug (2000) pointed out that “sociolinguistics is concerned with

2、 investigating the relationship between language and society with a goal being better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication.”(p.12) According to the definition of sociolinguistics, it concerns about how people use languages and how they convey info

3、rmation. As peoples expression of language is influenced by cultures, people from different cultures would use languages differently. The same is true to people of different genders. Language usage can be reflected in several aspects, such as lexicon, tone, pronunciation and so on. This thesis aims

4、to investigate the characteristics of American females lexical usage as well as the factors leading to these characteristics. Early in 1664, reports on the differences of conversation pattern between males and females had been released in Caribbean areas (Jespersen, 1922). Courses named “Linguistic

5、Behavior of Male and Female” offered by Marie Ritchie Kay were given in California University in 1969. One of the major issues in the sociolinguistics of speech is the relationship between gender and language. The speech patterns specific to women have been described by many scholars. For instance,

6、Lakoff (1975) described six categories of language use that are sharply differentiated by the sex of the speaker: lexical distinctions, strong verses weak expletives, womens versus neutral adjectives, tag questions, question intonation with statement syntax, and strength of directive speech acts. Bu

7、t Lakoff only describes the characteristics of females lexical usage very roughly. She didnt mention the method how she analyzed the traits in her book. Besides, when she described the lexical distinctions, she only listed the differences in curse words usage and adjectives usage between males and f

8、emales. And she didnt further analyze the features of females lexical usage in other aspects, such as the usage of 3 euphemism, courtesy words, etc. For the reason that female English reflects females attitude towards society as well as the societys attitude towards females, studying American female

9、s characteristics of lexical usage is significant. This thesis collects a certain amount of American Womens dialogues or takes some film clips, and analyzes the characteristics of American Womens lexicon usage by using the qualitative research method. 2 Previous Studies Zhang Yanshuang, Zhang Fuli a

10、nd Wu Yu (2010) conduct a research on characteristics of womens speech in their article. They concentrate on the differences in three lexical aspects: particles and nouns and pronouns. They concluded that women use more particles than men so as to show their mellowness, grace and gentleness. On the

11、contrary, men use rude words more than women to show their independence and challenging spirit. According to the authors, women should speak gently without opening their mouth widely because of the conventional social consciousness. In her article, Dong Fang (2007) points out that female language re

12、flects the females social status in English speaking countries and the societys attitude towards women. In one of the chapters, she analyzes the characteristics of females lexical usage from six aspects. She describes that women like using exaggerate adjectives and adverbs to express their emotion,

13、while men tend to use curse words more than women. Apart from that, she also states that women use colorful words frequently because of their natural aesthetic appreciation. At the end of her thesis, she makes a brief conclusion of the reasons leading to the special features of female language. Lin

14、Xiaoying (1994) also describes the characteristics of females speech from 4 the perspective of lexicon, standard ability and elegancy in her article. She only describes three aspects of womens lexical usage: color terms, adjectives and adverbs. In her analysis of the reasons, she points out that soc

15、ial factor is an important element leading to the differences. Females have their own language which helps them to show their social status. Because of the social factors, females think they are inferior to males. They hold the opinion that they should use language to indicate their social status. 3

16、 Analysis 3.1 The Introduction to Methodology Two ways are usually used to do sociolinguistic study, one is qualitative research and the other one is quantitative research. Qualitative research is a method of investigation employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social

17、sciences. Qualitative researchers aim to gain an in-depth understanding to human behavior and the factors that lead to such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the reasons and ways of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than

18、 large samples (Wikipedia). In the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques (Wikipedia). The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, t

19、heories and hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationship. The collected data of quantitative research is numbers

20、 which have the function of showing one phenomenon objectively. By analyzing the data, researchers can get the result they want. 5 This paper mainly adopts qualitative research method with statistical support. The author collected 100 sentences spoken by females and 100 sentences spoken by males who

21、 are native Americans. By analyzing these data, the author will make a brief summary of the differences. 3.2 Statistical Analysis of Lexicon 3.2.1 Usage of Polite Lexicon Polite lexicon Curse words Female 2% 4% Male 1% 14% As is shown in Table 1, we can see a very clear comparison between females le

22、xicon usage and males usage of polite lexicon. As far as curse words using are concerned, males use curse words more often than females. Ding Houqin (2009 ) explains that females language is more polite than males. She also explains that females are more sensitive about the words which will hurt oth

23、ers feeling than males. For instance, when asking for something, females would use “may”, “can”, “could”,etc. to start a sentence in order to ask a question or to get something they want. While when it comes to males, they would try not to use “may”, “can”, “could”, etc. instead, they just use imper

24、ative sentence to ask for what they want. For example, when a female wants to buy a drink, she would like to say “Can I have a cup of tea, please?”, instead, a male would just say “A cup of tea.” If a male wants to be polite, he would say “A cup of tea, please!” Females would say “May I use your pho

25、ne real quick?” when they want to borrow something from others. While males would just say “Give me your phone!” or “Let me use your phone.” in which the tone is more uncompromising. Normally, females use more polite lexicon than males do. A very clear comparison has been shown by the table on curse

26、 words usage. Even in a very common conversation, males would also use curse words. For example, on the sentence “I went to the interview,” if it is spoken by a male, he 6 would say “I went to the damn interview.” While females would try to avoid using curse words in order to keep their elegance. Ma

27、les have always been put in a leading role. It had been acknowledged for a long time that males are superior to females in social status. In order to change this situation, females have to use proper words to improve the social status. Using more polite lexicon is one step for females to improve the

28、ir status which can show their elegancy and politeness. 3.2.2 Usage of Particles Particles discussed in the following part are mainly talking about the prepositions which are attached to verbs. Particles Female 25% Male 18% As can be seen from Table 2, figures show that females use more particles th

29、an males do. The definition of particles is “an adverb or a preposition that can combine with a verb to make a phrasal verb.” For instance, people can simply say “I can clean this window.” While females prefer to add “up” after the verb “clean”. The sentence would be like this “I can clean up this w

30、indow.” In addition, when it comes to the word “show”, females would add “up” after it to express that someone shows or something appears. For example, females would say “Im sure hell show up.” While males would simply say “Im sure hell show.” Females would say “He never fusses up.” “You just dont n

31、eed to cover it up.” They add “up” after the verbs more often than males. But that doesnt mean males dont use particles at all, males would also use particles, however they use less. As for females, they are trying to be more polite to show their elegance. Females are used to be considered to charge

32、 the family. Males are responsible for supporting the family. Thats the reason why males sometimes consider themselves with a higher standard. Males would like to express their certainty so as to show that they are superior to others. Thats part of the reason 7 why males use less particles than fema

33、les do. 3.2.3 Usage of Affectionate Words Affectionate Words Female 6% Male 2% Talking about affectionate words like “honey”, “sweetheart”, “darling”, “dear”, “sweetie”, females use them more frequently than males do which can be shown by Table 3. Females think these kinds of words can narrow the di

34、stance between people, making people feel comfortable. Females use these kinds of words to express their strong feelings instead of curse words which are used by males more to express their feelings. For example, females would use “oh, dear, who wet the floor?” to express they are surprised. If it c

35、omes to a male, he would say “Damn, who wet the fucking floor?” which can show his angry feeling. Females use “oh, my goodness” “oh, my Gosh” “my darling” more often than males. It mainly relies on the different personalities of females and males. For instance, females are described meek while males

36、 are strong. Females are nuanced with little things. They would be emotional with things around; in that case, females would use affectionate words which are effective for females to express their emotional feelings. While males are described strong who are normally decision makers. They usually don

37、t like to show their emotional feelings in front of people. Compared to females, males are more reasonable, thus, males are often considered as decision makers. Thats the reason why males use less affectionate words because they hold the opinion that the affectionate words are used by meek females a

38、nd using affectionate words can lower their status of a decision maker. 3.2.4 Usage of Adjectives Adjectives 8 Female 22% Male 16% It is apparent from the figures that females use more adjectives more than males do. Females would use some exaggerating adjectives to express their agreements, complime

39、nts, admiring and so on. Males would make compliments according to the real situations. Marry G. McEd-Wards (1996) indicates that females use more adjectives than males do, while the scholar doesnt prove the statement with data.(p46-48)For example, females would say “The meal is wonderful” to expres

40、s that they do like the meal even if the meal is not so good as they want. Males would say “The meal is not bad.” They dont use the exaggerating adjectives as much as females do. Another example is when females see the beautiful scenery; they would state “The scenery is gorgeous.” Words like “adorab

41、le”, “charming”, “beautiful”, “gorgeous”, “super”, and “lovely”, “sweet” are used by females more often than males. It can be seen in the following sentences spoken by females. “What a lovely day!” “Thats terrible!” “Its magnificent.” “He did an excellent job.” “This is really a beautiful friendship

42、.” “Juliet made a pretty big buy.” “She has an incredible doctor team working on her, very incredible.” For most part, females using of exaggerating adjectives is related to their own personalities. Females are weak while males are strong in feelings. Females are sentimental while males are not. In

43、that case, females need to use more adjectives to express their own feeling. Females care about others feeling more than males do. Because of the differences in social and cultural roles of males and females, a settled pattern has existed in peoples mind: males are broad-minded while females are nar

44、row-minded; males would like to express their independent and challenging spirit, while females are naturally exquisite. Thus, they would use some exaggerating adjectives to make a compliment to show their agreement or just to make others feel better. 3.2.5 Usage of Adverbs Adverbs 9 Female 59% Male

45、 46% According to the figures showed in the table above, it is clear to state that females use more adverbs than males do. It is also one of the features of females lexicon usage that females use emphatic adverbs to strengthen their tones. Words like “so”, “very”, “terribly”, “exactly,” “absolutely,

46、” “pretty,” “perfectly” “definitely” are used a lot by females. For instance, females would say “He is completely wrong.” On the contrast, males would just say “He is wrong.” Females using “completely” to emphasize that “he” is not just wrong, instead, “he” is not right at all. Females think using e

47、mphasizing adverbs can easily and perfectly show their feelings. Sentences spoken by females as follows can illustrate this point more clearly. “Shes extremely hard to make plan with.” “You are exactly like him.” “Its entirely up to you.” “He is definitely rich, check out his car.” “Are you absolute

48、ly sure that this is what you want to do?” “I cant say Im entirely pleased.” “Feelings of females are stronger than males. Comparing with males, females are good at expressing their feelings. Males would prefer to express their feelings by action which is not acceptable to females. While females hav

49、e to find themselves a way to express their feelings, that is, using lots of emphatic adverbs. 4 Reasons Leading to the Features 4.1 Social Status Labor division based on gender determines that males are in the leading position in the society while females are subordinate to males. This pattern has been universally acknowledged for a long time. Males are always considered working outside to support family while females are in charge of housework. Males represent power, status and dominance. Thus, males play a leading role