Men and Women: Communication Gap (the Case of Gender-Oriented Utterances in English language fiction)
Анна Сергеевна Вахрамеева
Докладчик
доцент
Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет
Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет
Ключевые слова, аннотация
Gender, stereotype, utterance, conflict, misunderstanding.
Тезисы
At the start of feminist linguistics male dominance was portrayed
somewhat simplistically. It was assumed that men intentionally communicate
dominance, power and greater esteem for masculine behavior. Later on there was another approach in
communication research — the two-cultures approach.
This paper focuses on gender-biased utterances in
English Language Fiction which may cause conflicts and misunderstandings between men and women. The most frequent areas of conflict
include
1) Independence vs Intimacy.
2) Advice vs Understanding.
3) Information vs Feelings.
4) Orders vs Proposals. Under gender-oriented utterances I will understand
utterances of men about men and women and utterances of women about men and
women.
The analysis in this paper indicates that female characters tend to use
utterances of a simple structure with explicit ideas when describing both male
and female, while male characters use utterances of simple structure only when
describing men. When male characters characterize women, they tend to use a
complex structure with a
complicated implication, which indicates his desire to hide his implicit idea,
make it more distant from the hearer. Another conclusion concerns
gender stereotypes (the set of perceived behavioral norms
associated particularly with men and women) which exist in English language
culture.