Language and Gender Emma Naylor and Joe Hudson

Zimmerman and West Looked at turn taking in mixed/same sex groups. They recorded 20 same sex conversations and 11 mixed sex conversations They analysed the conversations to try and find interruptions and overlaps

Their Results Same Sex: There were 22 Overlaps and Seven interruptions Mixed Sex: There were Nine Overlaps by men and 0 by women there were also 46 interruptions by men and only two by women

Conclusions From their conclusions they found that men are more likely to interrupt in mixed sex conversations, where as women generally followed the politeness principles.

Problems The number of conversations recorded weren’t the same for both groups, there were more same sex conversations than mixed sex. The participants were residents near the University of Los Angeles so were not a conclusive international study. Participants chosen could have a range of personalities and some could be more dominating than others Don’t mention overlaps and interruptions in same sex conversations Small sample size, only a small range of people so cant be seen as international.

Our Study We studied conversations by three age groups; teenagers, adults and grandparents. Our groups included; two males, 2 mixed sex conversations and one two female conversation. We checked for interruptions, overlaps and other linguistic features.

Two Teenage Males Dan: [Looking at television] Oh Jesus no. (7) I’d love to hear him recorded being recorded. (6) Do you want to hear a joke that Sham said (.) it’s a bit racist (2) Why are all black athletes fast? (2) Because all the slow ones are in jail. [Laughter] (7 Pause) Dan: It is so racist. It’s great Jack: I think loads of people are racist though Dan: Right (.) I’ve got another one, there’s (.) a double decker bus (.) and this is in Sham’s own words so I’m not being racist here right (.) there’s Paki’s on the top deck and there are Paki’s on the bottom deck (.) there all partying and bouncy on the bottom deck and then one of the people from the bottom deck goes up to the top (.) to find out why the top is so quiet (.) and he asks (.) and one of the guys comes up and looks at him and says well that’s fine for you guys you’ve got a driver down there but we haven’t got a driver up here! [Laughter] (20 Pause) Dan: I am actually going to have to ask Sham for some more of those jokes (2) it’s incredible. Overlap

Grandparents Grandad: Yeah, little buggers. (1)Your mam, your nana took them to the shops. (2) They both come out with two handfuls of sweets. [Laughter] Nana: You buy me this nana, you buy me this. [Laughter] Grandad: Have you seen what they made today? Me: Ha, what is it? A spider? Nana: It’s a spider. We stuck pipe cleaners on it to make the legs. Me: It’s good. Grandad: They make all bloody sorts you know, they used up all my flour yesterday. (2) And Nana: They did not, there’s half a bag left. We only used a bit to make banana pie. Overlap

Two Adult Females Auntie: What did mam say? Mum: She was alright. First thing she asked was, ‘is our Christine going?’ (1) But after she knew you lot weren’t going she was alright. Dad never said a word though. Auntie: Didn’t he? He was probably too busy watching deal or no deal [Laughter] Mum: I know. They’ve been ringing me all week saying I haven’t been round. (2) And I told them last week that I’ve been working on a bid for St Helens. But then I turn up and they don’t take their bloody eyes off the television. I think if you’d have come with us she’d have been gutted though Auntie: Yeah. Mum: And it would have been expensive with Gina… Auntie: [Laughter] Overlap

Parents Mum: Oh, so they get them issued in the army? They don’t buy them themselves? Dad; No, no. Mum: Oh right. Dad: They all get, and it’s not just the army. It’s the navy and the air force and the marines. So he said you hand, obviously they get them issued and then they have to hand them back in as they, you know... Mum: Leave. Dad:... as they leave. So he said if, like, one of them, I think’s, a 1980s marine’s watch. So he said you know that, you know you could argue, well it’s been to the Faklands because it’s, he said, or, you know, it’s one of them’s an RAF watch, he said. So you could think, oh well, you know if, he said if you traced it back cos you might be able to, to, I think, apparently you can trace the er... Mum: The pilot? Dad:... the provinence of it. Interruption

Our Conclusions

In mixed sex conversations our results were the opposite to those found by Zimmerman and West. We found that women were more likely to interrupt and overlap.