The relationship between language and gender has been studied in literature by several authors such as Robin Lakoff, Pamela M. Fishman, and Deborah Tannen, who, although using different approaches and perspectives, have observed and explored some differences between men and women in language use and provided reasons for them. However, we will see that there are shortcomings in the research since, as the scholars Deborah Cameron and Janet S. Hyde have suggested, similarities between men and women in language use play the same important role as differences and should not be overlooked as is often the case in analyses dealing with this issue. First, in this dissertation, I will examine the origins of the research on the relationship between language and gender, the subsequent studies on this research topic, and the differences found between women's and men's language in the use of tag questions, along with some criticisms that derived from the studies. Secondly, I will focus on the topic of women, men, and politeness. Differences in the ways men and women use linguistic politeness strategies have been one of the most important research topics in sociolinguistics. Specifically, I will explain the concept of linguistic politeness and I will provide a review of how different scholars have proposed to analyse this topic across a range of social factors that have proved useful, including gender. In this second section, space will also be given to how men and women use tag questions to express linguistic politeness. Finally, I will use a fictional corpus, obtained from the transcription of the subtitles of the movie Inception, with the aim of motivating the linguistic choices made by the scriptwriter and identifying whether there is a difference between the expressions he attributes to male characters and those he attributes to female characters. Precisely, the aim of this dissertation is to explore the overall frequency with which the scriptwriter attributes the use of tag questions to women and men, as well as to investigate whether there are any gender-related differences in their use.
La relazione tra lingua e genere è stata studiata in letteratura da diversi autori come Robin Lakoff, Pamela M. Fishman, Deborah Tannen, i quali, seppur utilizzando approcci e prospettive diversi, hanno osservato e approfondito alcune differenze tra uomini e donne nell’uso della lingua e fornito motivazioni al riguardo. Tuttavia, vedremo che ci sono delle lacune nella ricerca poiché, come hanno suggerito le studiose Deborah Cameron e Janet S. Hyde, le somiglianze tra uomini e donne nell’uso della lingua svolgono lo stesso importante ruolo delle differenze e non devono essere trascurate come avviene spesso nelle analisi di questa tematica. In primo luogo, in questa tesi, esaminerò le origini della ricerca sulla relazione tra lingua e genere, gli studi successivi su questo tema di ricerca e le differenze riscontrate tra il linguaggio delle donne e quello degli uomini nell'uso delle domande tag, insieme ad alcune critiche che sono derivate dagli studi. In secondo luogo, mi concentrerò sul tema delle donne, degli uomini e della cortesia linguistica. Le differenze nei modi in cui uomini e donne usano strategie linguistiche di cortesia sono stati uno dei più importanti argomenti di ricerca in sociolinguistica. Nello specifico, spiegherò il concetto di cortesia linguistica e fornirò una rassegna di come diversi studiosi hanno proposto di analizzare il tema attraverso una serie di fattori sociali che si sono rivelati utili, incluso il genere. In questa seconda sezione verrà dato spazio anche al modo in cui uomini e donne usano le domande tag per esprimere la cortesia linguistica. Infine, utilizzerò un corpus fittizio, ricavato dalla trascrizione dei sottotitoli del film Inception, con lo scopo di motivare le scelte linguistiche attuate dallo sceneggiatore e individuare se c'è una differenza tra le espressioni che egli attribuisce ai personaggi maschili e quelle che attribuisce ai personaggi femminili. Precisamente, l'obiettivo della presente tesi è quello di esplorare la frequenza complessiva con cui lo sceneggiatore attribuisce l’uso delle domande tag alle donne e agli uomini e indagare se ci sono differenze legate al genere nel loro uso.
Gender differences in language use: men and women use tag questions for different purposes, don't they?
GALZIGNATO, ALESSANDRA
2021/2022
Abstract
The relationship between language and gender has been studied in literature by several authors such as Robin Lakoff, Pamela M. Fishman, and Deborah Tannen, who, although using different approaches and perspectives, have observed and explored some differences between men and women in language use and provided reasons for them. However, we will see that there are shortcomings in the research since, as the scholars Deborah Cameron and Janet S. Hyde have suggested, similarities between men and women in language use play the same important role as differences and should not be overlooked as is often the case in analyses dealing with this issue. First, in this dissertation, I will examine the origins of the research on the relationship between language and gender, the subsequent studies on this research topic, and the differences found between women's and men's language in the use of tag questions, along with some criticisms that derived from the studies. Secondly, I will focus on the topic of women, men, and politeness. Differences in the ways men and women use linguistic politeness strategies have been one of the most important research topics in sociolinguistics. Specifically, I will explain the concept of linguistic politeness and I will provide a review of how different scholars have proposed to analyse this topic across a range of social factors that have proved useful, including gender. In this second section, space will also be given to how men and women use tag questions to express linguistic politeness. Finally, I will use a fictional corpus, obtained from the transcription of the subtitles of the movie Inception, with the aim of motivating the linguistic choices made by the scriptwriter and identifying whether there is a difference between the expressions he attributes to male characters and those he attributes to female characters. Precisely, the aim of this dissertation is to explore the overall frequency with which the scriptwriter attributes the use of tag questions to women and men, as well as to investigate whether there are any gender-related differences in their use.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Final Version Galzignato Alessandra.pdf
accesso riservato
Dimensione
722.82 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
722.82 kB | Adobe PDF |
The text of this website © Università degli studi di Padova. Full Text are published under a non-exclusive license. Metadata are under a CC0 License
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/31095