A Pragmatic Study Of Gender Language Differences In Verbal Communication

Since the women's movement in the early 1970s, research on the relation between language and gender has caught the attention of linguists. The study of gender language differences has become one of the focuses of sociolinguistic studies. However, most of the studies so far made on gender language differences at home and abroad concentrate on phonetics, vocabulary and syntax, and comparatively fewer studies have been made from the perspective of pragmatics. This thesis has taken a pragmatic approach to gender language differences existing in the dynamic process of verbal communication. By analyzing how males and females observe and flout such pragmatic principles as the Cooperative Principle, the Politeness Principle and the Face Theory in verbal communication, the thesis has discovered the gender language differences related to pragmatics. On the basis of this, the thesis has investigated the causes of gender language differences and ways to succeed in inter-gender communication.The thesis has collected and analyzed a lot of data from daily conversations. The result of the analyses reveals that males and females differ in observing and flouting pragmatic principles in verbal communication. To put it specifically, females can make adequate and relevant responses to the other party's speech and tend to observe the Cooperative Principle, while males don't make adequate or relevant responses to the other party's speech and tend to flout the Cooperative Principle. Females like using yes/no questions and tag-questions, seldom use swearing words or taboo language and tend to observe the Politeness Principle, while males like using imperatives, directives, swearing words or taboo language, and tend to flout the Politeness Principle. Besides, males and females tend to use different face strategies in verbal communication. Females belong to the subordinate group in society and tend to employ negative face strategies, while males are the dominant group in society and tend to employ positive face strategies.The thesis has analyzed the factors that cause gender language differences in verbal communication, concluding that the major factors are biological factors, psychological factors, social and cultural factors. The thesis points out that, because of these factors, misunderstanding very often arises between males and females. The thesis has also discussed how successful inter-gender communication can be achieved by suggesting ways such as increasing mutual knowledge and learning to be open and flexible.It is believed that the study of gender language differences in verbal communication is of great realistic significance, for it can increase the awareness and sensitiveness of communicators to gender language differences, and promote everyday verbal communication between males and females.