175-022 Language & Gender

Formerly available as 175-237/337. Students who have completed 175-237 or 175-337 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Students may take this subject without having completed first-year linguistics. Gender studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed first-year gender studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject gives a detailed consideration of the social variable of gender as it interacts with language. Differences between women's and men's use of language are considered in such domains as pronunciation; the lexicon; grammar; discourse structure and the pragmatics of interaction; child language acquisition; and language change. Differences in speech and interaction within same and cross-gender pairs are considered. Some of the complexities of studying microlinguistic variation are addressed (eg. What relationship does gender have to sexuality? Is there any way in which it makes sense to discuss the language of 'women' or 'men' as unitary groups?). Differences in the ways in which men and women are represented in language are also considered, such as the notion of 'sexism in language'; the role of language in establishing and regulating gender divisions; and models for linguistic intervention and change.