A Study On Gender Differences Of Speech Style In Chinese Conversation

The gender differences in language have always been a prosperous hot point for researching in linguistic circles in and out since 1960s. This article, from the social linguistic angle, deeply probes the differences in style of speech between two genders under the Chinese culture background, striving to understand the relationship between the use of language and the gender differences exactly and completely from a higher level.Firstly, the article investigates the style of speech in gender. The investigation mainly focuses on the topic, the amount of speech, the use of abuse and the interruption. During the investigation, we try to establish a dynamic research formula, which is to take some elements, such as the gender construction of speakers, the conversational occasion, the educational background and the age of the communicator to the research of the style of speech from the sight of two genders, searching for the law of speech of two genders. The conclusions are as follows:1 On topics1) In the conversation of the same genders, both genders mainly incline to show their own inclinations when they choose topics besides some topics that they can pay almost the same attention.2) Compared with the conversation between the same genders, in the conversation between the opposite genders, the appearance of their own favored topics declines, while the proportion of common topics they like rises. Furthermore, the conversation between the opposite genders would choose to base on the topics of the other's in order to coordinate the fancy of the other side. We find that when the opposite gender joins the conversation, two genders would make readjustment, but the feminine show more cooperation than male.2 On the amount of the speechThe amount of speech in both genders changes with the occasion.1)Men are more talkative than women in public.2)Women are more talkative than men in private.3 On the use of abuse1) No matter for the general or for some age, men use abuse more frequently than women.2) The composition of gender has a remarkable influence on men to use abuse while on women it is not so remarkable. Men use abuse frequently and freely in the conversation with the same gender, while the use of abuse will dramatically decline when female appears. Women seldom use abuse either to men or women. It shows that abuse mainly is the typical characteristic of men's conversation.3) Both genders will use abuse to relieve their negative emotion, but usually men also use abuse to express their joviality while women don't.4) The age distribution also shows gender differences for using abuse. For male, old man use abuse least, middle aged men and young men are all square; for female, middle aged women use abuse most, old women take second place and young women use least.5) From the content, we can see that men use abuse more intensely in semantic and vulgarly in rhetoric than women.4 On interruption1) Gender has a remarkable influence in the use of interruption. Definitely speaking, men use interruption more often than women, that is to say women obey the rule of conversational conversion more consciously.2) The gender of the listener has a notable effect on men to use interruption. Men interrupt conversation more often with the same gender than with the opposite one, while women seldom interrupt the other side.3) The gender of listener has effect on the rate of success of interruption for both genders, but in different ways: Men are more successful in the conversation with the opposite gender, but the situation for women is just opposite.4) From the modality, men use interruption more often than women. But to the content, both of them show the coherence on the diversion of topic, that is to say most interruptions keep the top of the nonce speaker. From the above 4 aspects of the investigation, the article holds the idea that the style of speech in two genders objectively exists. If you want to understand it correctly, you should make dynamic observation to see its relativity.Secondly, the article points out that the gender differences of speech style easily result in the mistakes of communication in two genders and makes a special effort to sum up the style of mistakes in communication systematically. We divide these mistakes that are caused by the gender differences into 5 types:1)Mistakes caused by topic;2)Mistakes caused by the amount of speech;3)Mistakes caused by the use of words;4)Mistakes caused by the way of expression;5)Mistakes caused by the way of talking coordination.Finally, the article states the reasons for different speech styles between two genders from different angles and levels. The article holds the idea that the style of speech between two genders is the result of the comprehensive effect of the society, the culture and the psychology. Just as Dai Qingxia says in"Social Linguistic Course","The basic reason for the differences between men and women in the use of language, no matter explicit or implicit, is different social ranks, different social division of labor that lead them to play different cultural roles, then precipitate different stereotype."(Dai Qingxia 1993:158)The investigation and search to the style of speech in Chinese not only lead in the research of the relationship between language and gender deeply, but also make us complete this research from different cultural angles and it has important realistic meaning in leading the two genders to use and understand the gender language correctly.