英语专业学士学位论文

1、学号：*大学学士学位论文 题 目 学 生 指导教师 年 级 专 业 系 别 学 院 * 大 学学士学位论文开题报告论文题目 学生姓名 指导教师 年 级 专 业 年 月说 明本表需在指导教师和有关领导审查批准的情况下，要求学生题研究的目的和意义认真填写。说明课题的来源（自拟题目或指导教师承担的科研任务）、课题在国内外研究现状和发展趋势。若课题因故变动时，应向指导教师提出申请，提交题目变动论证报告。课题来源：导师指导下自拟题目。课题研究的目的和意义：目的：随着对语言研究的深入，男女语言的特点以及差异研究越来越受到国内外语言研究者的关注。通过对交际中性别差异的研究，使人们能更好地认知语言性别差异这种

2、现象，并提高对它的敏感性和意识性，促进人们日常言语交际，特别是跨性别交际的顺利进行。意义：通过对交际中性别差异的研究，人们不仅能更深层次地了解语言中的性别差异现象，而且异性之间的交流，将能更好、更顺利地进行。国内外同类课题研究现状及发展趋势：国外：国际视野中的性别语言研究主要涉及语言中的性别歧视、性别言语风格差异及相应的理论构建.语言中的性别歧视主要体现在语言的构词、词义、语序等方面.研究者多从劳动分工、心理学、社会化过程及文化观念等方面解释性别歧视.性别言语风格差异研究集中在语音的标准性、词汇选择、句式结构、话题、谈话量、最少反映、沉默等方面.新的国际环境下性别语言研究将呈现多维化、多视角化

3、的格局.人类语言的性别差异已经被语言学家和社会学家当作一个不可缺少和重要因素来对待，丹麦著名语言学家叶斯伯森在1923发表的英语的发展与结构一书中曾指出英语运用中的性别差异现象。国内：语言与性别差异研究是心理学、社会学、人类学、交际分析等许多领域所关注的课题。随着20世纪60年代社会语言学的发展壮大和女权运动的兴起,以前一直呈零散状态的语言性别差异研究进入了快速发展的鼎盛时期。因此，别语言，正确地使用性别语言，对于我们成功地进行交际，更好地生活和工作都是十分有意义。课题研究的主要内容和方法，研究过程中的主要问题和解决办法：主要内容：本文主要对比男女两性在言语交际中所呈现的话语特点及差异现象，同

4、时分析语用学中礼貌原则、面子理论中的性别差异，并尝试阐明引起男女语言差异的原因。通过研究，人们不仅能更深层次地了解语言中的性别差异现象，而且异性之间的交流，将能更好、更顺利地进行。 主要问题：1.在分析国内外形势上出现在内容上的不完整。2.在研究男女语言的特点以及差异上出现了资料不全的情况。解决方法：1.老师的指导以及耐心的讲解。 2.阅读关于写论文的方法的书籍，并向高年级学姐请教。 3.通过各种渠道搜集相关资料。课题研究起止时间和进度安排：1. 2009年12月1日至12月15日：选导师及撰写论文方向。2. 2009年12月16日至12月31日：与导师商榷论文题目。3. 2010年1月1日至

5、2010年3月10日：撰写并提交开题报告。4. 2010年3月11日至2010年4月28日：撰写并提交毕业论文。5. 2010年4月29日至2010年5月7日：准备并参加毕业论文答辩。6. 2010年5月8日至2010年5月12日：导师上交所有论文材料。课题研究所需主要设备、仪器及药品：无外出调研主要单位，访问学者姓名：无 指导教师审查意见：指导教师 （签字） 2010年3月 13日教研室（研究室）评审意见：理论教研室主任 （签字） 2010年3月 13日系（部）主任审查意见：英语系（部）主任 （签字） 2010年3月 13日graduation paperfor bachelor degre

6、e* universitytitle: student: tutor: grade:major: department: college: may, 2010* universitystudy of gender differences in verbal communication abstract :with deepening study of language, the research on the respective language features of men and women and their languages differences is receiving in

7、creasing attention from language researchers both at home and abroad. through its research, people can better acknowledge the phenomenon, improve their sensitivity and awareness of language differences in gender and promote their daily communication. at the same time, its also necessary to conduct a

8、 study and description of the complex social, cultural and psychological factors contained in the performance and the behind of the gender differences between men and women. this article, from the aspect of pragmatics, mainly contrasts the differences between men and women in language communication,

9、 as well as their different discourse features in verbal communication. key words: gender differences; verbal communication; politeness principle; face theory.1 introductionsociolinguistics regards that language exists in the form of the variation of network, and is the tool of our humans cogitation

10、 and communication as well as the symbol of our social identity (the so called social identities here principally refer to age, gender, nation and occupation, not a particular mans). and not all of the members of a society are entirely consistent in the possession and use of the language, as to some

11、 degree human society is constituted by male and female between whom therere differences. just as the saying goes, theyre not only different in psychology, but also in language. however, theres hardly systematic study of the gender differences in language until the 1960, and with the development of

12、the sociolinguistics and the rise of the feminist movement, the study entered a rapid development in its prosperity. robin lakoff is the first to bring about a series of introspective style assumptions by the use of linguistics terminology. she said, “in the world reflected by the language, male is

13、in the center while the image of female is incomplete, and gender differences reflected by men and women in language are the embodiment of inequality in social status.”(robin lakoff, 1975) she also more cogently pointed that the linguistic differences between men and women were culturally and social

14、ly governed. from the viewpoint of pragmatics, this article mainly contrasts the differences between men and women in language communication, as well as in their different discourse features in verbal communication. through the study, gender differences in language will be understood in a further wa

15、y, and our communication, especially the cross-gender communication, can move on in a better and more successful way. 2 the relationship between gender and language language can be defined as human speech, or the ability to communicate or a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to w

16、hich meaning is attributed. sometimes, its also regarded as a social and cultural instrument as well as a direct reflection of the social life. and gender, different from what people call sex referring to ones biological property, is a word employed to show ones social property and is also considere

17、d to be a vital category of sociology.to some degree, language reflects gender which is the inner decisive factor in languages external performances. with the further study of language, language and gender is one of the topics in which the scientists have great interest. meanwhile, the study of lang

18、uage and gender has become an important research topic in many areas and there is no exception in linguistics. if people divide the languages users according to gender, its users principally consist of men and women. but in accordance with the previous studies, different genders show different attit

19、udes towards language while the language of the description of male and female is also different. among the contemporary research on language and gender, theres dispute of dualism and pluralism. defect theory, differential theory and congenital theory all belong to the former which supports the idea

20、 that men and women are different with no similarities and which has formed the mainstream of the field while the constructivism belongs to the latter. in 1990, constructivism was a new trend of thought coming into being in the west countries. its core point is that gender is constructed in communic

21、ative activities rather than pre-existent, nor is fixed. and it also emphasizes that sex is born while gender is formed in society and theres no fixed male and female. however, the research on the relationship between language and gender from the linguistic point of view can be analyzed from two asp

22、ects: gender differences in language and language discrimination. but here the first aspect is mainly talked about. from the topic, it can be realized that gender differences exist in language, and after a further study, it can be found that this kind of differences widely spreads in the phonologica

23、l layer, grammar and lexical layer, discourse layer and so on. here gender differences are only stated with no explanation, and the specific content will be detailed in the following sections.3 gender differences in verbal communication today, the study of gender differences in language has been an

24、essential variable existing among the study of many disciplines, such as sociolinguistics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics. it has also penetrated into different study fields and levels, say, pronunciation, lexicon, grammar, semantics, conversational mode, language acquisition, and language code. a

25、nd in the following parts, the specific performances of gender differences in pronunciation, lexicon and ways of conversation will be stated in detail.3.1 phonological differences3.1.1 difference in pronunciationlinguists have noted that in many different languages there are gender differences in vo

26、ice, even though in most cases people were not aware of these differences. among many accents in american english, women voice vowels with their tongues closer to the edge than men, that is, compared with mens tongues, womens would be closer to the front or back, higher or lower.(trudgill,1974) for

27、example, compound vowel /ei/ is a middle one, but female would like to voice it as a front one. and in an american indian language-gros ventre in the northeastern part of the united states, men would voice velar dental at the place where women voice velar consonant, say, women voice bread “kjatsa” w

28、hile men voice “djasta”. besides, in scotland, girls prefer to voice “t” in the middle or at the end of a word as an alveolar with 10% more than boys who would like to use a voice produced by larynx and tongue. as for these problems, linguists have consistent idea as follows: from the perspective of

29、 physiology, men and women have different construction of the pronunciation organs, thereby, therere different physical features in their pronunciation. generally, women have higher acoustic voice frequency and sharp and fine voice for their short, thin and tight vocal cords while men have deep and

30、suppressed voice and low acoustic voice frequency for their vocal cords are long, thick and lax. from the psychological point of view, women are more willing to get close to standard language and to strive for the melody of the pronunciation while men prefer to rustics so that they seems to be more

31、casual and forthright. by up, we can see that gender differences in language do exist in various languages, with phonological differences between men and women existing as well.3.1.2 difference in intonation and toneintonation is a mode appeared in various activities of the sound registers. d.boling

32、er(1981) supports that women use more reverse stresses and have more opportunities of using false sound register than men. m.r.key(1972) comments that women use more uncertain tones than men and their tones are richer than mens as well while robin lakoff(1975) finds that in english women often use t

33、he interrogative tone to answer others questions. for example: man: when will dinner be ready?woman: oh.around six oclock? woman answering in such a way seems to inquire the addressee whether the time is proper. besides, she also uses the method to show her uncertain side as well as a way to drop a

34、hint that she is consulting with the man. in addition, other linguists also study the changes of the tone in producing sound. in a way, womens language is very womanly, that is to say, their sound register is larger than the normal, they favor for using glides between syllables, do great efforts to

35、make changes in tones and from time to time they would use false tones.in short, women would like to use the tones that have the tendency to consult with others rather than impose their ideas or thoughts on others, such as uncertain tones and euphemistic tones. besides, compared with men, they have

36、richer sound register, thereby, they have more choices in choosing which sound is proper and should be used. maybe there would be more demotions and reconciles in their language than mens.to sum up, differences in intonation and tone do exist between men and women. that is, gender differences in lan

37、guage involve the differences in intonation and tone between men and women.3.2 lexical differencesmen and women also have great differences in the choice of words. even though they describe the same thing, they would often choose different words, as womens language is full of words that can weaken t

38、he tone. as for their differences, many scholars find that women are fond of using some exaggerated and emphasized words, such as so, vastly, terrific, always, extremely and the like. some think that people using this kind of words are superficial while john gray (1992) says that women just show the

39、ir emotion of the moment by the way in order to be impressive or to attract mens attention. at the time, scholars also realize that women prefer euphemism while men have tendency to use taboo. besides, robin lakoff(1975) also notices that women use more fancy color terms as well as less powerful col

40、or words, such as mauve, beige, lavender and taupe. whats more, some words can only be used by women, and if men use them, their mans image would be damaged, say, charming, sweet, darling, adorable, telly, nappy, nightie, yummy, tummy, hanky and mummy.in conclusion, women prefer to use warm color wo

41、rds as well as the lexical items that are less powerful which in a way are consistent with their nature while men give their preference to the contrary.3.3 differences in communication modesmen and women not only have differences in pronunciation, tone and the choice of words, but also have differen

42、ces in the way to communication. at first, by doing research on the different sentence styles produced in conversations between men and women, it will be seen that mens language sounds forceful and decisive while womens language is melodious and tactful. see the example as follows:manwomanits a good

43、 day for walking.its a good day for walking, isnt it?shut the door, please.would you please shut the door?the film is boring.the film is so boring.damn, i shut the window on my finger.dear me, i shut the window on my finger.from these sentences, something can be easily found: first, women tend to us

44、e more tag questions. in this way, their language is weakened so that uncertain and probing tones can be used to show their politeness and respect for others. second, women would use euphemistic request functional sentences rather than imperative sentences to passive tones and to avoid the phenomeno

45、n of being aggressive. third, encountering unhappy things, women choose complaining tone while men have access to venting tone. fourth, women are fonder of modifiers and multiple compound predicates than men. as for the using of tag questions, scholars havent got agreement. lakoff(1975) regards it a

46、s the symbol of women lacking confidence, but according to janet holmess(1983) study, tag questions perform many communicative functions: men often use them to assure information while women use them to express their emotion. beside these differences, in the choice of direct and indirect sentences,

47、the former is popular with women while the latter is popular with men. when requesting others, women would use the language relatively indirect and euphemistic compared with mens direct language. and goodwin(1998) and west(1987) notice that men use more forceful orders while women use more powerless

48、 orders. considering other aspects, something can be easily found that men would more like to interrupt other peoples conversation and debate with others. however, theres no difference in the frequency of interrupting others conversation in universitys academic classes. therefore, not at all situati

49、ons men are more likely to interrupt others conversations.to sum up, women owe their honor to tag questions, indirect and euphemistic sentences as well as try not to interrupt others conversation while men prefer to the contrary. and maybe womens such preferences are determined by their personality

50、and nature.3.4 the analysis of gender difference 3.4.1politeness principlethe politeness principle is a series of maxims, which geoff leech (1983) has proposed as a way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchanges. leech (1983) defines politeness as forms of behavior that establ

51、ish and maintain courtesy. that is the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony. and the principle chiefly is composed of six maxims:(1) strategy maxim (for directives and commissives) a) minimize damage to others b) maximize benef

52、it of others(2) generosity maxim (for directives and commissives a) minimize benefit to self b) maximize damage to self.(3) approbation maxim (for expressives and representatives) a) minify derogatory to others b) exaggerate praise of others(4) modesty maxim (for expressives and representatives) a)

53、minify the praise to self b) exaggerate self derogatory(5) agreement maxim (for representatives) a) minimize disagreement between self and others b) maximize agreement between self and others (6) sympathy maxim (for representatives) a) minimize antipathy between self and others b) maximize sympathy

54、between self and others.(geoff leech, 1983)according to these maxims, both sides in communication should try to narrow their psychological distance and look for the sake of others to restrain self, praise others as well as maintain selfs face. the nature of the principle is to safeguard the face of

55、both sides as much as possible. as for the conformity to and violation to these maxims, the situation of men and women is different, and detailed introduction with examples will be given in the following sections.3.4.2 gender differences in language in politeness principlein communication, men and w

56、omen have different performances in complying with the principles of politeness. overall, womens speech is more in line with the requirements of politeness principle than mens language as the females have a relatively higher request to politeness and are more conscious of maintaining politeness. women always instinctively avoid the vulgar and filthy language and enjoy using refined, indirect and implicit expressions. and several linguists also assert that women are more likely to use polite words. for example,