International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(2)

Mar-Apr 2020 | Available online: https://ijels.com/

He’s a man and she’s a woman: A Conversation

Analysis on Linguistic Gender differences
Jasmin M. Sumipo, PhD

Mater Dei College, Tubigon, Bohol, Philippines

Abstract— This study used a conversation analysis design guided by a questionnaire adopted from Rowe and
Levine (2015) to assess the linguistic gender differences of male and female. Three pairs of interactants of
varied age group, children, teens, and adults, were observed as they engaged in dyadic conversations.
Interactants chose the topic of their choice to give the conversation a natural and smooth flow. Age, gender
and physical appearance were noted to describe the profile of interactants and to find out how these would
possibly influence their dyadic encounters. Elements of communication such as number of interruptions,
clarifications, reference to past and future events, and initiators were noted. Social aspect of communication
relating to speech acts were also observed since this would show similarities and differences between male and
female interactants. One of the conclusions reached in this study was age and physical appearance had no
impact since each pair of interactants belonged to the same age group and all interactants were physically fair.
Gender differences, however, were manifested in the varied communication elements as well as in the social
aspects of communication, particularly in speech acts.
Keywords— conversation analysis, gender differences, elements of communication, linguistic differences,
speech acts.

I. INTRODUCTION characteristics, men use more aggressive, assertive, direct,

Language is an important factor in our day-to-day and powerful communication traits (Basow & Rubenfield,
communication. Through language, people can express 2003; Maltz & Borker, 1982; Wood, 1996; Mason, 1994).
emotions, share personal views, needs and everything they
want to say. This means that language surrounds, defines II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
personality, determines social behavior, supports societal
The Genderlect theory of Deborah Tannen strongly
system, indicates thoughts and feelings and provides a
believes that men and women have different ways of
platform to share ideas, co-operate and refine development
communicating, different dialects which can best be
process (Chaturvedi et.al. 107)However, men and women
described in a cross cultural format (Tannen, 1990). These
use language differently. In sociolinguistics, the relation
differences may be seen in elements of communication
between language and gender is one of the major issues
including the duration of time a male or female speaks,
raised long time ago.
number of interruptions, number of clarifications, referent to
Gender differences of all kinds fascinate people, past and future events, and even who initiated the start and
and so it is not surprising that there is curiosity about the way end of conversation.
women and men talk and whether there are linguistic gender
In the same token, Gray (1992) postulated than
differences. Gender differences can also be observed
there are significant and consistent differences in
between and among conversations. Baquee (2016) mentioned
communication styles between men and women.The extent
that the amount of words used when talking is another field
of these differences can be observed not only in the
where men and women have the difference. Academic
physiological elements of communication but also in the
research has shown that while women tend to have more
social aspect including the purposes of communication.
expressive, tentative, cooperative, and polite communication
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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(2)
Mar-Apr 2020 | Available online: https://ijels.com/

Among these are social functions are questioning, In order to know the profile needed for the study,
instructing, demanding, and correcting. interactants are identified according to their age, sex,
Similarly, the difference approach is in consonance sociolinguistic background and appearance. Other significant
with Tannen and Gray which emphasizes the idea that information taken into consideration on the behaviors of the
women and men belong to different subcultures. Men and interactants included number of interruptions, number of
women live in a different or separate cultural world, and a times interactant referred to past and future events, number
result, they promote different ways of speaking (Nemati, of times for clarification, who had the 1st and last word,
2007). Women’s growing resistance to being treated as a initiation, and who closed the interaction.
subordinate group led them to assert a different voice, a In analyzing the data, the following questions were
different thinking, and a different way from me. Based on used to further investigate and identify the linguistic
observations, stylistic differences can be seen between male behavior of the interactants. These questions were taken from
and female. Women's speech has been said to be more polite, Rowe and Levine’s book, “A Concise Introduction to
more formal, more clearly pronounced, and more elaborated Linguistics in 2015.
or complex, while men's speech is less polite, more elliptical, 1. What generalizations can be made about the age of
more informal, less clearly pronounced, and simpler.On the interactants?
other hand, males interrupt females more than they interrupt 2. What generalizations can be made about the
other males, and males are more likely to give direct orders different sex-gender combinations of interactants?
that females. 3. Could you notice any effects that the physical
Furthermore, the dominance theory believes that appearance of interactants had on the
men and women inhabit a cultural and linguistic world where communications?
power and status are unequally distributed. This approach 4. Who spoke the most? The least?
focuses on male dominance, and assigns language 5. Who interrupted whom the most often? How did
differences between men and women to the dominance of gender, age, or other factors affect this?
men with a society (Baquee, 2016). 6. What generalizations can you make about the nature
Another theory which serve as basis for this of interactants and the type of ‘speech acts” as they
research is the Speech Act Theory holds that the meaning of performed?
linguistic expressions can be explained in terms of the rules 7. Humans are the only animals for which
governing their use in performing various speech acts (e.g. communication about past and future events in
admonishing, asserting, commanding, exclaiming, common. What does the data show about this?
questioning, requesting, warning). Ludwig Wittgenstein and 8. What correlations can you make between asking for
J.L. Austin provided important stimuli for the theory’s clarification and nature of the interactant?
development which explains linguistic meaning in terms of 9. Could you see any consistencies in who opened and
use of words and sentences in the performance of speech closed an interaction and how it was done?
acts. Some advocates claim that the meaning of a word is 10. Did age have anything to do with this?
nothing but its contribution to the nature of the speech acts 11. Did gender have anything to do with this?
that can be performed using it. Dyadic communication of three pairs of male and
female interactants were recorded to answer the research
questions. Each dyad was timed at ten minutes. The pairs
III. METHODS were told that their conversation would be recorded for
The study employed conversation analysis in order research purposes and their identity were kept confidential in
find out the linguistic differences of male and female accordance with ethical considerations in research.
interactants. Conversation analysis is an inductive, micro-
The researcher purposely chose that research
analytic, and predominantly qualitative method for studying
interactants must have an age gap of not more than five years
language as it is used in social interaction where its focus is
to minimize the impact of age and to focus on the gender
on language as a resource for social action; and its procedure
differences. The children interactants are siblings, teens were
is based on the analysis of details of participants’ own
classmates, and adults were office mates. Participants were
behavior.

ISSN: 2456-7620
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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(2)
Mar-Apr 2020 | Available online: https://ijels.com/

chosen using a purposive sampling to suit the targeted speak more carefully that the male participants. Females also
profile. have the tendency to pronounce words more carefully and to
add an explanation whenever they felt the need to assert or to
make their point clear.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In all three pairs, males interrupted more times than
Three pairs of dyadic interaction between male and
the females. When analyzed, the interruptions made by males
female of different ages were recorded to answer the research
were made to hint that they understood their female
questions. Their conversation is recorded to answer the
interactants. In a conversation between male and female,
questions needed in this research. The first table presents
male often interrupts females although this is less likely to
data on the duration of speaking, number of times of
happen in conversations of both males. Michael Karson, a
interruption, number of times referring to past and future
psychologist indicated that in a lively culture, not
events, number of times for clarification, and initiator of first
interrupting someone usually means the speaker thinks that
and last words.
the other party is boring or too stupid to merit a response. He
As can be seen in the table females generally added that interruption spares the communication partner
engaged longer speaking time. Byrd (1994) explained that from having to wind up every sentence with a grammatical
females tend to regard experimental situations (recorded stopping point.
interactions) as relatively formal settings, and as a result,

Table 1. Elements Found in the Conversation of Interactants

Communication Elements

Interactants No. of
Speaking No. of times No. of times
Gender times for Initiator
time of interruption referred to
clarification
Past Future First Last
Event Event word word
Male (9) 2.10 3 0 1 3 √
2 children
Female (4) 3 2 1 2 1 √
Male (14) 3.15 secs 3 3 2 4
2 teens
Female (13) 5. 30secs 1 4 5 3 √ √
Male (28) 3. 07secs 6 0 2 4
2 adults
Female (32) 5 secs 3 1 4 1 √ √

Recalling past events and referring to future events in psychologist, who said that recalling or recollecting the past
communication is inevitable. The teen male interactant is one way in which people could organize their memories
referred to the past when he said, “I played volleyball since I and the best way of doing this is by talking about them. It
was in grade two. Human beings love to talk about the past could be noted that in the three pairs of interactants, females
so that they could provide a background of themselves for tend to refer more to past and future events more than males.
better understanding. Yet another reason why people do A correlation can clearly be seen that those who
refer to past is for them to consolidate the events in their initiated the interactions were also the ones who frequently
well. This was obvious with the adult female said, “I’ve been asked for clarification. This implied that the initiators are
to Manila several times. My family lived there for five obliged to make sure that they achieve their goal-
years.” This confirms the view of Charles Fernyhough, a
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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(2)
Mar-Apr 2020 | Available online: https://ijels.com/

understanding. In teen and adult dyad, the initiator were the (2017) stated that people’s social background is closely
females and they also had more times of clarifications than related to people’s language behavior, and even people who
their male counterparts. In the children dyad, the boy who use the same language will have many differences because of
initiated the conversation also had more clarifications than their social backgrounds. In this study, each pair of
the girl. interactants have almost similar social backgrounds since
In teen and adult conversations, females were the they share something common, home in the case of the
ones who opened and closed the interactions. This shows children, classroom in the teenage interactants, and work
consistencies of their roles as initiators. In children place in the case of adults.
conversation, however, the boy initiated the talk but was In table 2, it can be noted that age did not have a
closed the girl. great impact in the three dyadic communications. Age is not
Furthermore, other than gender, age and physical a major factor in this study that each pair of interactants
appearance, certain social factors like different speech acts belonged to the same age category- children, teenagers, and
such as interrupting, questioning, instructing, demanding and adults. Thus, they have the same topic of interest making
correcting within the interactions are observed. Dan and Rui conversation easy and natural.

Table 2. Analysis of Communication Elements Found in the Conversation of the Interactants

SOCIAL ELEMENTS
INTERACTANTS Physical appearance # of times an interactant performed the act on:
Age Questioning Demanding Instructing Correcting
2 children Male lean 2 1 0 0
(9) fair skin
Female chubby 2 2 2 0
(4) a bit fair
2 teenagers Male skinny 3 0 0 1
(14) wavy hair
Female a bit chubby 0 2 1 1
(13) fair complexion
2 adults Male tall 4 1 0 1
(28) chubby
Female fair skin 2 3 2 1
(32) slender
round eyes

Physical attractiveness is important in human interaction 2010). This allowed generally more satisfying, pleasant,
according to Timothy Newton. In this research, the three intimate, disclosing, more assertive and lower in fear of
pairs of interactants ere pleasing looking and fairly attractive. rejection by the opposite sex.
Physical attractiveness related positively to the quantity of It is the nature of interactants to perform speech acts
social interaction with both males and females although when they offer an apology, greet, request, complain, invite,
attractiveness related positively to the quality of social compliment or refuse. This study focused on the following
experience for both sexes (Horton Spieler, & Shriberg,
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International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(2)
Mar-Apr 2020 | Available online: https://ijels.com/

acts: questioning, demanding, instructing, and correcting. REFERENCES

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