1. Today Speaker Variable: Gender
Variability in the speech of males and females
- Evidence
- Explanations:
Hypothesis 1: sex-based variability
Hypothesis 2: gender-based variability

2. Key terms
Sex-related variability: Differentiation of speech behavior between males and females related to physiological, neurological and biological factors.
Gender-related variability: Differentiation of speech behavior between males and females related to gender roles.

3. Today Speaker Variable: Gender Articles:
Eckert, 1998: “Gender and Sociolinguistic Variation
Eckert, 1988: “Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change”
Gal, 1997: “Peasant men can’t get wives”

4. Background
Subfields of linguistics conducting research bearing on language vis á vis gender:
1. Phonetics
2. Discourse analysis
3. Sociolinguistics
-- language attitudes
-- language variation

5. Evidence for male~female differences
1. Phonetic features
2. Pragmatic and discourse features
3. Grammatical features
Chambers: “Sex differences, being visible, are usually taken as individual variables to be correlated with sociolinguistic factors, while often ascribed as gender in the absence of any real consideration of gender roles within the community.”

6. Phonetics
Sex-related variability
Differentiation of speech behavior between males and females related to physiological, neurological and biological factors.
Gender-related variability
Differentiation of speech behavior between males and females related to gender roles.
Perceived visibility of sex has lead to masking of gender effects

7. Sex-related variability
Phonetics
Sex-related variability
Differentiation of speech behavior between males and females related to physiological mechanisms of speech
males:
larger larynx = lower pitch
17-24mm (males)
13-17 mm (females)
Fundamental frequency:
80-200Hz (males)
Hz (females)

8. Sex-related variability
Phonetics
Sex-related variability
Vowel quality differences:
Acoustic analysis and normalization
Linguistic advantages tending to correlate with female sex
less likely to stutter
less likely to acquire aphasias (speech disorders)
less likely to have reading disabilities
There are very few biological differences between males and females that have an effect on language. These differences relate to vocal production, and almost never to language use.

9. Discourse Analysis
Discourse Analysis: The study of the linguistic regularities in continuous stretches of speech, with specific attention to functions of conversational structures (topic, turn-taking, gap-overlap).
Brendt (1975)
Women make greater use of intonational contours associated with surprise and politeness
Maltz and Borker (1982)
Discourse strategies: women use “mmhmm “ to backchannel; men to signal agreement
(backchannel: a minimal response intended, e.g., to indicate a listener’s active attention)

10. Discourse Analysis Lakoff (1973)
Women use more precise color terms than men:
(mauve, beige, aquamarine, lavender, magenta)
Women and men use different adjectives
(precious, divine, lovely, adorable, darling)

11. Putting it all together: Gender in early research
Studies of Language Variation:
1.) Quantitative studies of correlation between linguistic variables and social identity have shown a set of recurring patterns.
-- main effect of social class or social network
-- (smaller) main effect of gender
2.) effect assumed to be uniform across cultures
3.) Popular generalization: women’s speech is more conservative
4.) …and a set of popular explanations:
women are more status-conscious, more polite
To what extent is this generalization TRUE and NOT TRUE?
~treated as independent, reflecting academic practice as well as traditional thought on gender

12. Putting it all together: Gender in early research
Studies of Language Variation:
1.) Quantitative studies of correlation between linguistic variables and social identity have shown a set of recurring patterns.
-- main effect of social class
-- (smaller) main effect of gender
2.) assumed to be a uniform effect across cultures
3.) Popular generalization: women’s speech is more conservative
4.) …and a set of popular explanations:
women are more status-conscious, more polite
To what extent is this generalization TRUE and NOT TRUE?
Interaction: relationship between independent and dependent variables, such that a main effect may be observed to be particularly strong for one level of the independent variable.

13. Putting it all together: Gender in early research
Studies of Language Variation:
1.) Wolfram, 1969:
AAE--women at all social levels were more conservative
“Women’s lower levels of non-standard variants are likely to result from women’s greater exposure to MUSE speakers (i.e., broader range of social contacts)”
2.) Milroy, 1976
Belfast--here, women were vernacular speakers, as well
“In societies where gender roles are sharply differentiated, such that one gender has wider social contacts and greater geographical range, the speech of the less circumscribed gender will include more variants of the contiguous social groups.”[ital. mine]

14. Putting it all together: Gender, as understood now
(Eckert again): CAUTION!
Women tend to be more conservative (sometimes meaning more “standard”) in their use of stable markers e.g., (ing), (dh)
Men are frequently more conservative, however, in their use of innovatory variants, e.g., raising of (ae), in changes in progress
Women are frequently more conservative in their use of grammatical markers (NEG)
One factor at the heart of the issue:
Linguistic markets, Physical Capital, and…
Symbolic capital = Social and affective “resources” that enable successful functioning in society. What is “right” depends on the market in which one is embedded.