Language, gender, and sex in comparative perspective / edited by Susan U. Philips, Susan Steele, and Christine Tanz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Philips, Susan Urmston.

Steele, Susan.

Tanz, Christine.

Series:

Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language ; no. 4.

Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language ; no. 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Sex differences.

Language and languages.

Language and languages--Physiological aspects.

Children--Language.

Children.

Physical Description:

xiv, 333 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Summary:

Most studies of gender differences in language use have been undertaken from exclusively either a sociocultural or a biological perspective. By contrast, this innovative volume places the analysis of language and gender in the context of a biocultural framework, examining both cultural and biological sources of gender differences in language, as well as the interaction between them.

The first two parts of the volume focus on cultural variation in gender-differentiated language use, comparing Western English-speaking societies with societies elsewhere in the world. The essays are distinguished by an emphasis on the syntax, rather than style or strategy, of gender-differentiated forms of discourse. They show how men and women, and boys and girls, often control different forms of discourse but also often carry out the same forms differently through different choices of language form. These gender differences are shown to be socially organized, although the essays in Part I also raise the possibility that some cross-cultural similarities in the ways males and females differentially use language may be related to sex-based differences in physical and emotional makeup.

Part III examines the relationship between language and the brain and shows that although there are differences between the ways males and females process language in the brain, these do not yield any differences in linguistic competence or language use.

Taken as a whole, the essays reveal a great diversity in the cultural construction of gender through language and explicitly show that while there is some evidence of the influence of biologically based sex differences on the language of women and men, the influence of culture is far greater, and gender differences in language use are better accounted for in terms of culture than in terms of biology. The collection will appeal widely to anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, and others concerned with the understanding of gender roles.

Contents:

Introduction: The interaction of social and biological processes in women's and men's speech / Susan U. Philips 1

Part I Women's and men's speech in cross-cultural perspective

1 The womanly woman: manipulation of stereotypical and nonstereotypical features of Japanese female speech / Janet S. Shibamoto 26

2 The impact of stratification and socialization on men's and women's speech in Western Samoa / Elinor Ochs 50

3 The interaction of variable syntax and discourse structure in women's and men's speech / Susan U. Philips, Anne Reynolds 71

4 A diversity of voices: men's and women's speech in ethnographic perspective / Joel Sherzer 95

5 Women's speech in modern Mexicano / Jane H. Hill 121

Part II Gender differences in the language of children

6 Preschool boys' and girls' language use in pretend play / Jacqueline Sachs 178

7 Sex differences in parent-child interaction / Jean Berko Gleason 189

8 Children's arguing / Marjorie Harness Goodwin, Charles Goodwin 200

9 Do different worlds mean different words?: an example from Papua New Guinea / Bambi B. Schieffelin 249

Part III Sex differences in language and the brain

10 Cerebral organization and sex: interesting but complex / Walter F. McKeever 268

11 Sex differences in the patterns of scalp-recorded electrophysiological activity in infancy: possible implications for language development / David W. Shucard, Janet L. Shucard, David G. Thomas 278.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 297-322.

ISBN:

0521328497

0521338077

OCLC:

13823346