Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная
лингвистика
и
лингводидактика
–
Foreign
Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Journal home page:
https://inscience.uz/index.php/foreign-linguistics
Gender features of speech behavior in the main varieties of
the English language
Diloramkhon SHOKIROVA
1
Andijan State University
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received December 2024
Received in revised form
15 December 2024
Accepted 25 January 2025
Available online
15 February 2025
The article examines the use of English dismembered
questions in the speech of British and American women and men.
The practice of oral and written communication shows that this
type of interrogative sentences in the speech of women and men
constitutes a significant part (especially in the American variant).
2181-3663
/©
2024 in Science LLC.
https://doi.org/10.47689/2181-3701-vol3-iss1-pp97-101
This is an open-access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru
Keywords:
characteristics,
pragmaticosocial,
linguistic,
grammatical,
gender,
communicant,
dialog.
Ingliz tilining asosiy ko‘rinishlarida
nutqiy xatti-
harakatning jinsiy xususiyatlari
ANNOTATSIYA
Kalit so‘zlar
:
xususiyatlar,
pragmatik-ijtimoiy,
lingvistik,
grammatik,
gender,
muloqot ishtirokchisi,
dialog.
Maqolada ingliz va amerikalik ayollar hamda erkaklarning
nutqida ingliz
tilidagi ajratilgan so‘roq gaplarning qo‘llanilishi
tahlil qilingan. Og‘zaki va yozma muloqot amaliyoti shuni
ko‘rsatadiki, bu turdagi so‘roq gaplar ayollar va erkaklar nutqida
sezilarli o‘rin egallaydi (ayniqsa, Amerika ingliz tilida).
1
PhD, Associate Professor, Andijan State University.
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Issue
–
3
№
1 (2025) / ISSN 2181-3701
98
Гендерные особенности речевого поведения в
основных вариантах английского языка
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
характеристики,
прагматико
-
социальные,
лингвистические,
грамматические,
гендерные,
коммуникант,
диалог.
В статье рассматривается использование расчлененных
вопросов в английском языке в речи британских и
американских женщин и мужчин. Практика устного и
письменного общения показывает, что данный тип
вопросительных предложений составляет значительную
часть речи женщин и мужчин (особенно в американском
варианте английского языка).
Research by many scientists confirms the existence of differences in the speech
behavior of men and women. In our earlier works, we identified the dependence of
people's speech behavior on their age, education, profession, level of acquaintance and
other factors from the point of view of the use of dismembered questions, i.e., we
established some sociolinguistic correlations for the British (BE) and American (AE)
variants of the English language. Such a comprehensive approach, undertaken by us
earlier, requires its completion from the point of view of gender linguistics (women-men).
In relation to this article, the main question that we pose to ourselves can be
formulated as follows: are there any normative differences in the use of dismembered
questions in American dramaturgy by women and men compared to British dramaturgy
and what sociolinguistic reasons are they due to.
We cannot limit ourselves to posing and resolving the question of the ontology of
dismembered questions in the American variant. It will be necessary to move from the
ontological level to the axiological level. The real competition between the variants of the
English language under consideration makes this transition necessary, since the forecasts
regarding the outcome of this competition are very different. On the one hand, we can refer
to the opinion of such a linguist as D. Steiner, who, being English, admires the energy and
expansiveness of the American variant. On the other hand, many opposing opinions are
expressed, such as, for example, in the work of E. Newman, where the existence of the
American variant is considered a destabilizing factor in relation to the norm of the English
language. At the same time, there is also a point of view that the process of convergence of
the two variants currently clearly prevails over the process of divergence, and, therefore,
the problem of the difference between the two variants is removed.
The statement about men and women as different or identical people is incorrect.
A person, regardless of his gender, is an individual with equal opportunities. The various
characteristics of men and women do not come from biological belonging to one or another
sex. Moreover, these differences (physiology and spiritual state) are best reflected in the
English words "sex" and "gender". G. Brandt claims that "sex is a set of biological,
physiological, natural characteristics, given by nature. Gender is a set of speech, behavioral,
personal characteristics that distinguish men and women in the spiritual sense, influenced
by culture."
Indeed, modern linguistic genderology studies the language of women and men. The
Dictionary of Gender Terms defines linguistic genderology (gender linguistics). "Language
data obtained by linguistics are one of the main sources of information about the nature
and dynamics of gender construction as a product of culture and social relations. ...
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Issue
–
3
№
1 (2025) / ISSN 2181-3701
99
Although gender is not a linguistic category (with the exception of socio- and partly
psycholinguistics), the analysis of language structures allows us to obtain information
about the role played by gender in a particular culture, what behavioral norms for men and
women are recorded in texts of different types, ... what stylistic features can be classified
as predominantly feminine or predominantly masculine, how masculinity and femininity
are understood in different languages and cultures, how gender affects language
acquisition, and what fragments and thematic areas of the linguistic picture of the world it
is associated with." People's speech is directly related to communication. According to the
theory of communication and the statement of Laurie Arliss, "communication is the means
by which we learn everything", "it always has a value load that reflects the worldview of
the participants in communication". Thus, significant differences in the female and male
worldview affect communication. Communication cannot be considered separately from
language, since the worldview and, accordingly, gender characteristics are expressed
through language and other sign systems.
The difficulty in mastering this type of question is not so much in the need to
coordinate the auxiliary verbs in the final part of the question with the verb in the main
part of the question (these difficulties are quite surmountable as a result of more or less
prolonged training), but in the fact that the pragmatics of these questions is not entirely
clear from the point of view of gender linguistics. It is for this reason that Russian students
most often simply do not use this type of question in their speech. We mean people who
have a good command of English, who equally freely use other types of English questions
in their speech.
Of fundamental importance is the remark of the Danish scientist S. Nesslin that
studying the structure of tag questions in pragmatic and gender aspects is more promising
than considering them as simply a certain grammatical phenomenon. S. Naesslin
convincingly shows with numerous examples that tag questions are both an absolutely
necessary element of speech communication, and at the same time far from a simple
linguistic means, since incorrect use of tag questions can lead to a very undesirable or
completely unexpected reaction from the interlocutor.
A characteristic feature of tag questions is that they are unthinkable outside of dialogic
speech. The most acceptable genre in which tag questions are often used are plays by modern
writers, where modern colloquial language is most fully and adequately reflected.
Domestic linguistics has always paid much attention to such problems as the
relationship between language and culture and the ways in which society consciously
influences language. The mutual influence of language and society can be traced at
different levels of the language structure with varying degrees of clarity. It is no secret that
the lexical composition of a language is the most sensitive to changes in society. As for the
grammatical structure, there is hardly any doubt that some phenomena in this area are
directly related to the specifics of a society. In other words, while agreeing with the
traditional position on the lesser susceptibility of grammar to various changes, one cannot
lose sight of the fundamental possibility of more direct contact between the grammar of a
language and the specifics of the society in which this language is used.
If the level of education of people is directly related to the social status of a person,
then gender and age, at first glance, do not relate to the social differentiation of society, but
to natural differentiation. However, it is well known that in any society there is a
sociologization of natural differentiation, thus, natural characteristics of a person (gender,
age) acquire social significance.
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Issue
–
3
№
1 (2025) / ISSN 2181-3701
100
Explaining the reasons why the characteristic of gender has recently come to the
forefront in language studies, J. Coates in his work "Women, Men and Language" writes
that this is primarily due to a more detailed, more subtle approach to linguistic
phenomena, when the researcher's goal is not only to reflect general patterns, but also to
take into account specific conditions of language use.
We analyzed the speech of only those male and female characters who, from the
point of view of other sociolinguistic criteria, are in a more or less equal position. In other
words, all the characters we analyzed are sufficiently educated, and, therefore, should
speak standard language; these are older or middle-aged people. The article also provides
examples of the use of dismembered questions in the speech of poorly educated characters
for the purposes of comparative analysis.
In most cases, our commentary reveals the relationships of the communicants in the
given dialogues, as parts of the microtext. However, sometimes it was necessary to go
beyond the dialogic microtexts and turn to the macrotext of a particular play. The analysis
method thus fully takes into account modern requirements for studying a phenomenon as
part of a whole work and comes down to examining the speech of women and men in
British and American drama.
A significant difference was revealed in the use of dismembered questions by male
characters as opposed to female ones.
Firstly, women tend to use dismembered questions in their speech more often than
men (70-30%).
Secondly, there is a qualitative difference in dismembered questions in the speech
of men and in the speech of women. The latter, as a rule, use dismembered questions with
certain positive connotations. In men, negative connotations prevail. For example:
Frederica: I wonder what it was like then, when Nelson or Hood or poor Old Admiral
Byng used to drop in.
Edward: Rather pleasant after being abroad those ships, I should think
Frederica: We’re all right, aren’t we?
Edward: Fine. All right... [Osborne. West of Suez, p. 397].
In this case, a dismembered question, unlike a general question, expresses a greater
degree of establishing contact between the participants in the conversation. However, its
function is as close as possible to the function of a general question, but the form of a
dismembered question itself is used to express one's feelings without any expectation of a
reaction from the interlocutor. At the same time, a certain element of interrogativeness is
preserved, judging by the interlocutor's remarks.
In the speech of uneducated male characters, exclamations do not take the form of
dismembered questions. Male characters in plays who are not familiar with each other do
not rise to the level of friendly disposition upon first meeting and, as a rule, do not use
dismembered questions, fearing to seem familiar. But there are exceptions (non-committal
exclamations about the weather, appearance, apologies, etc.). There are cases of using
dismembered questions during first acquaintance by representatives of certain
professions (reporter, hairdresser, etc.).
A more modest range of negative connotations in English women can be explained
by the well-known emotional restraint of the English compared to other nations. As for the
sharp increase in the number of negative connotations in the speech of American women,
i.e. the significant approximation of their speech to the speech of men, here the main
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Issue
–
3
№
1 (2025) / ISSN 2181-3701
101
reason should be the greater democratization of American society compared to British
society. When not only class differences are erased, but also any other (between adults and
children, acquaintances and strangers, etc.). In this regard, as S. Berkner quite rightly
notes, "it is necessary to distinguish between real democratization and pseudo-
democratization, which leads to the devaluation of cultural and moral values."
Dismembered questions carry socially significant information about the social
status and social role of the speaker, his gender and age, socio-cultural level, professional
and territorial affiliation, and the degree of acquaintance of the speakers. At the same time,
all of these factors are closely interconnected, which determines the importance of their
conditional distinction into social oppositions and determining the methods of their
interaction in the speaker's speech.
CONCLUSION
The choice of dismembered questions as the main operational unit of sociolinguistic
analysis in a dialogue based on plays by British and American authors is very productive.
It seems promising to conduct a more detailed study of the dismembered questions on
other material, their comprehensive description taking into account all the detectable
pragmaticosocial factors that determine the variability of the English language. It is also
interesting and productive to include in this sphere the individual variation of social
parameters determined by the psychophysical and physiological properties of a person,
which undoubtedly have the most direct influence on his speech and, as a result, allow us
to give a complete and comprehensive sociolinguistic characteristic of a particular person.
REFERENCES
:
1.
D
е
nisova A.A. Slovari g
е
nd
е
rnix t
е
rminov.
–
M., 2002, s. 255.
2.
Malyuga E. Disjunctive Questions in two main varieties of English: Mat
е
riali
m
е
jdunarodnoy konf
е
r
е
nsii
«ESSE5
-
2000», University of Helsinki, 2000. –
Helsinki, 2000,
p. 43
–
46.
3.
Popa M. Ironic Metaphor Interpretation. Toronto: Working Papers in Linguistics
(TWPL), 2010, 17 p. [in Russian]
4.
Belke D. Next Year's Man of Steel. Samuelfrench, 2012. Retrieved from: http://
www.samuelfrench.com/Download/GetFile?downloadId=101589 (accessed 28.01.2016)
[in English].
5.
Bowcott D. All About Janet. Retrieved from: http://www.simplyscripts.com/
scripts/ AllAboutJanet-Radio.pdf (accessed 28.01.2016) [in English].
6.
Butler M. Between These Lines. Retrieved from: http://australianplays.org/
extract/ASC-1085 (accessed 28.01.2016) [in English]
