Research On Gender Differences In The Employment Of Discourse Markers

This study is conducted in the field of research on discourse markers that have attracted many scholars' attention both at home and abroad in recent years.With the growing interest in discourse analysis, in the past 15 years or so a group of investigations into the complex nature of discourse markers have sprouted. In the field of discourse markers study, pragmatic approach is pervasive. More and more scholars tend to regard discourse markers' functions to be pragmatic.Since Linguists have demonstrated considerable differences in male and female communicative behavior, many researchers have focused on the way in which women and men use language to mark gender boundaries, including the employment of discourse markers. In oral English, they found that men and women speak English in different way on the basis of different employment of discourse markers. Women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men. They are reported to use more expressions associated with tentativeness, such as discourse markers (sort of, kind of) and 'tags' (isn't it?, don't you?), when expressing an opinion: Well, em, I think that golf is kind of boring, don't you? Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news. They tend to respond to an expression of feelings or problems by giving advice on solutions, while women are more likely to mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman's. In the above findings, women co-operate and seek connection via discourse markers, whereas men are more competitive and concerned with power via discourse markers.Research on gender differences in employing discourse markers has also been strongly influenced by Robin Lakoff's book, Language and Women's Place. In Lakoff's study, she invents a phrase as "women's language" which refers to a group of linguistic devices that serves this function. Discourse markers, such as about, sort of, and you know, then refer to a class of devices that supposedly soften utterances by signaling imprecision and non-commitment. Since Lakoff's pioneering work, discourse markers have featured prominently in research on gender and communication. Based upon data about their distribution in the speech of men and women, researchers have made bold theoretical claims—most commonly that gender differences exist in the employment of discourse...