Gender Analysis Of Complaint In Marital Conversations

Studies on language and gender have aroused wide interest of linguists around theworld in recent years. Early studies on gender differences mainly focused on phonology,morphology and syntax. With the profound changes and improvement of Speech ActTheory, researchers began to carry out extensive empirical studies on various speech acts.The speech act of complaint occurs commonly in daily interactions, but studies on genderanalysis of complaint are relatively insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to make afurther tentative research on gender analysis of complaint in Chinese context.340complaints are selected from AA Life Style, among which there are233directcomplaints and107indirect complaints. On the basis of Politeness Principle and FaceSaving Theory, more importance is attached to the exploration on whether there aregender differences on the frequency of complaint and the choice of complaint realizationpatterns, complaint strategies and complaint-response strategies between Chinesehusbands and wives. By means of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, someconclusions are drawn.There are significant differences in marital conversations between husbands andwives on the frequency of complaint. Specifically, there is no significant differencebetween husbands and wives on the frequency of direct complaint while there aresignificant differences between husbands and wives on the frequency of indirectcomplaint.Some gender differences are discovered between husbands and wives on the optionof realization patterns in direct complaint and indirect complaint.As for complaint strategies and complaint-response strategies, no significantdifference is revealed between husbands and wives in marital conversations whether indirect complaint or indirect complaint.