《傲慢与偏见》中语言使用的性别差异研究.docx

AcknowledgmentsThanks for giving me this chance to accomplish this thesis and to make the conclusion for my four years education. Through writing this paper, I have gained more knowledge than I supposed.First, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Mr. Lei Hongyou, for his invaluable supervision and suggestions, for his generosity in spending his time discussing questions concerning my thesis, and for his constant encouragement. Without his guidance and help, this paper would not have come into being.Here, I also want to give my thanks to my classmates who have given me much help. Without their assistance and encouragement, I would not have completed my thesis in such a short time. Thanks a lot!AbstractThrough the applications of the Lakoffs theory on language and gender within the sociolinguistic field and Conversation Analysis in the linguistic field, the gender differences in language use in the novel Pride and Prejudice are intended to be explored by static and dynamic analysis in this thesis. In terms of static analysis, it is divided into lexical and syntactic levels; and dynamic aspect includes amount of talk and topic management. This thesis attempts to make a contrastive study about gender differences embodied in the language used by male and female characters in the novel, and probes into how the different uses of language are employed to portray the typical characters, express emotions and reflect themes. In addition, this study will also explore the major factors leading to the gender differences in language use in the novel.This thesis provides a new perspective for others who are interested in Pride and Prejudice to appreciate its unexcelled charm and also proves the feasibility that sociolinguistic and linguistic theories can be applied to the interpretation of literary works to some degree.Key Words: Pride and Prejudice; gender differences; language use摘 要本文从社会语言学的角度出发，通过运用罗宾·莱考夫关于语言与性别的理论阐释，及会话分析的相关理论，试图从静态和动态两个方向对世界经典名著傲慢与偏见中男女两性的语言差异进行定量、定性分析：静态方面主要从词汇和句法层面入手；动态方面着重体现在话语量及话题管理层面。通过对小说中两性语言特点进行对比分析，进而探究这些语言差异是如何塑造人物性格、表达感情、照应主题的，另外本研究剖析了在作品创作中影响这种差异性的主要因素。本文阐述了傲慢与偏见中男女两性的语言差异及产生原因，提供读者以全新角度欣赏这部作品的同时在一定程度上证明了社会语言学和语言学的相关理论能够应用到文学分析的可行性。关键词:傲慢与偏见；性别差异；语言使用Contents TOC o "1-3" h z uHYPERLINK l _Toc12622 1. Introduction 1HYPERLINK l _Toc17008 2. Sex and Gender 2HYPERLINK l _Toc4045 3. Analysis of Gender Differences in Language Use in Pride and Prejudice 3HYPERLINK l _Toc8986 3.1 Formal Language Structure 4HYPERLINK l _Toc15860 3.1.1 Lexical Level 4HYPERLINK l _Toc23125 3.1.2 Syntactic Level 8HYPERLINK l _Toc15579 3.2 Speech Style 10HYPERLINK l _Toc13052 3.2.1 Amount of Talk 11HYPERLINK l _Toc26988 3.2.2 Topic Management 12HYPERLINK l _Toc26063 4. Causes of Gender Differences in Language Use in Pride and Prejudice 14HYPERLINK l _Toc4866 4.1 Internal Individual Factors 14HYPERLINK l _Toc24583 4.2 External Social Factors 15HYPERLINK l _Toc2061 4.2.1 Social Status and Roles 15HYPERLINK l _Toc31725 4.2.2 Sexism 17HYPERLINK l _Toc20711 4.2.3 Sub-Cultures 18HYPERLINK l _Toc8926 5. Conclusion 19HYPERLINK l _Toc21049 Bibliography 21A Study of Gender Difference in Language Use in Pride and Prejudice1. IntroductionLanguage can be traced back to the beginning of human society. We can say that people are born to speak, though they are not born speaking. Language, as a communicative medium of crucial importance, plays a peculiar role in human relationships. Every day we use language here and there automatically, often without conscious effort. We take this phenomenon for granted that language is a natural instinct of human beings.With the development of society, more and more researchers put their focus on the influential functions of language. If a society is defined as any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose; accordingly, a language is what the members of a particular society speak. No matter how language is defined, there is no doubt that language and society are interdependent. Sociolinguistics, a science of studying language in relation to society, appeared in the late 1960s. As a field of study involving the interaction of language and society, it has naturally been a form of linguistics which has been applied more than any other forms. With the rise of the feminist movement in the western countries, the studies concentrated on language and gender has become one of the major issues in sociolinguistics since late 1960s and early 1970s. At that time, Language and Womans Place, written by Robin Lakoff, has become milestone in this field. It made people begin to realize the striking characteristics of female language and the close relationship between language and gender.As we all know, Pride and Prejudice, written by English female novelist Jane Austen who is famous for realistic style and biting irony, is one of her masterpieces and the most favored novels in English literature. The stories take place in Austens works always from her familiar experience and observation. Many scholars have analyzed Pride and Prejudice in multiple perspectives from its themes and skills to linguistic phenomenon by concerning pragmatic theories. Some study its irony and humor art; some discuss about marriage and feminism; others focus on conversation styles on a basis of cooperative principlesince this novel has a great number of excellent speech and classic conversations, this thesis attempts to take it as object to make a contrastive research about gender differences embodied in the languages used by its male and female characters, and then discusses how the language differences of both genders are employed to portray the typical roles, express their emotions and reflect the works theme. Meanwhile, the study will explore the major causes contribute to the gender differences in language use in the novel. The study standing from the perspective of sociolinguistics, and combining the applications of Lakoffs theory on language and gender and Conversation Analysis in the linguistic field, analyzes the gender differences in language from quantitative and qualitative directions: one is formal language structure, and the other is speech style. In terms of formal language structure which is divided into lexical level and syntactic level, 108 utterances as date are collected from the novel text Pride and Prejudice. More specifically, the lexical level will be discussed from the aspects of intensifiers, interjections and extravagant adjectives. The syntactic level is mainly concentrated on tag questions and hedges used by males and females in this novel. In terms of the aspect of speech style, the study includes amount of talk and topic management. The study of formal language structure is a static analysis in horizontal direction while the speech style is a dynamic one in vertical direction. The results of the research indicate that the gender differences in language use in Pride and Prejudice are the combination of “similarity” and “particularity”. This thesis provides a new perspective for us to have a better comprehension about how Jane Austen presents her charming language skills use by male and female characters in Pride and Prejudice, and also proves the feasibility that sociolinguistic and linguistic theories can be applied to the interpretation of literary works to some degree.2. Sex and GenderTo some extent, “gender” and “sex” are two similar concepts for us. However, they actually focus on different perspectives. In order to better understand the theme of the thesis “gender difference”, it is necessary to make a clear distinction between gender and sex. Gender is a relatively new term emerging since the 1960s with the development of sociolinguistics and feminist movement, and widely adopted into American literature and daily life since the 1980s. Here are several well-accepted definitions of gender. For Ronald Wardhaugh, sex is biologically determined whereas gender is a social construction (but one heavily grounded in sex) involving the whole gamut of psychological, social, and cultural differences between males and females (53). According to Anthony Giddens, sex shows biological or anatomical differences between men and women, whereas gender concerns the psychological, social and cultural differences between males and females (47). In the view of Jennifer Coates, sex refers to biological distinction, but gender is a term used to describe socially constructed categories based on sex (39). Similar definition is given by Eckert and MeConell-Ginet, denoting that gender is the social elaboration of biological sex in other irrelevant fields and domains (51). Another definition comes from Chinese scholar Bai Jiehong: sex is a female and male signal based on biology determined by genes, while gender is a feminine and masculine signal based on social roles and statues and gained from the influence of social, cultural and psychological factors (40).From the discussion above, we can make a conclusion that sex is a biological and birth-given term, either man or woman, which is static and unchangeable except individual preference and choice with the help of denaturation operation. On the contrary, gender is a social-and-cultural constructed term, which is dynamic and can be learned and acquired by human beings in the lifetime under the influence of cultural background and environment. In another word, one may have both feminine and masculine characteristics but present them respectively and appropriately according to different contexts.3. Analysis of Gender Differences in Language Use in Pride and PrejudicePride and Prejudice mainly tells the love story between a rich, proud young man Darcy and the beautiful and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet. Here we wont talk much about the details of the novel but concentrate on their languages. Every individuals language seems to have linguistic items that reflect social characteristics of the speaker, of the addressee or the relations between them. One of the typical features of this novel is its excellent and flexible use of language. In this section, we will put our focus about the language used by different genders in novel on two fields: the language structure employing the Lakoffs theories of features in female speech; the speech style on a basis of Conversation Analysis. The research will be conducted by studying the data collected from literary text through quantitative and qualitative methods.3.1 Formal Language StructureLanguage is such an integral part of humanity that too much about it has been taken for granted. It is used as a medium for access to other fields of knowledge rather than just as a subject in and by itself. However, if we pause to think of the rhyme about language, its indeed necessary to reconsider the real essence of language. In linguistic system, formal structure consists of phonemes, syllables, intonation, pronunciation, then of words, phrases, sentences, and lastly, of speech and writing, etc. In this field, the representative scholar Robin Lakoff has made great contributions to the research on language and gender systematically. Here we discuss the words in form of written instead of spoken, so the analysis will be carried through lexical and syntactic level.3.1.1 Lexical LevelAs we mentioned before, there are three aspects we can discuss at lexical level in Pride and Prejudice. According to Lakoffs theory, they are intensifiers, interjections and extravagant adjectives.Generally speaking, intensifier is one kind of adverb of degree usually functioned as the modifier to emotional adjectives. For example, the adverbs “so”, “really”, “very”can be regarded as intensifiers to emphasize the emotional degree of the modified words. Accordingly, Lakoff refers to it in her Language and Womans Place that “the intensive so, used where purists would insist upon an absolute superlative, heavily stressed, seems more characteristic of womens language than of mens” (54). She supposes that females are more likely to use intensifiers to strengthen their moods and opinions. Under most circumstances, the intensifiers chosen by females are somewhat different from males. With the guidance of this theory, a data about the using of intensifiers by each gender in Pride and Prejudice is listed in the following table:Table 3.1: The Frequency of Intensifiers Used by Male and Female CharactersIntensifierGender so really very quite totalMale 26 32 4 3 65Female 41 35 8 14 97From the table above, we can clearly conclude that female characters are more tend to use intensifiers than males do in speech. For example, in Chapter 25, Elizabeth and her aunt Mrs. Gardiner totally use “really” 6 times during their conversation about Lydia and Wickham. And only in this section Mrs. Gardiner uses intensifiers 11 times in all. Here we will take the female character Mrs. Bennet as a typical object to analyze her expressions in the novel, to prove these features more specifically.“Jane was so admired, nothing could be like itand Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautifulI was so vexed to seeand he seemed quite struck with Jane” (Austen 13-14).“I am quite delighted with him. He is so excessively handsome!” (Austen 14).“for he is a most disagreeable, horrid manSo high and so conceited . fancying himself so very great! . I quite detest the man.” (Austen 14).These expressions are selected from Chapter 3, happening after Mrs. Bennet comes back from the ball. The intensifiers help express Mrs. Bennets emotions more vividly. The three utterances respectively stand for her proud of Janes beauty, praise of Mr. Bingleys elegance and disgust for Mr. Darcys prejudice.Another example is taken from Chapter 25 when Mrs. Bennet complains about Elizabeth refusing Mr. Collinss proposal with Mrs. Gardiner:“It is very hard to think He made her an offer in this very room. The Lucases are very artful people It makes me very nervous and poorly and I am very glad to hear” (Austen 174)There are five “very” in these utterances to emphasize the degree of Mrs. Bennets anger, and readers can feel her regret and disappointment for Elizabeths decision.We can certainly imply that Mrs. Bennet is a person who always speaks out what she thinks in mind directly from these samples. It is in accord with her personality described in novel that she always puts her daughters marriage in the first place and spares no effort to find a satisfactory husband for each of them. In addition, the other female characters such as Jane, Caroline also use intensifiers in their utterances. However, these words can hardly be uttered by male characters. Thus, we have no difficulty to draw a conclusion that female characters prefer to use intensifiers in their daily communication to express more strong feelings in the novel, in comparison to males. That is to say, th