Representation And Perception Of Gender In Discursive Interaction

Gender is never solely a psychological category existing in individual minds but predominately a social category being negotiated in social interaction between its bearer and other involved interlocutors.Thus,an individual's gender should be understood as a co-constructed product of his or her own linguistic representation of it combined with others' perception of it.Previous studies have extensively investigated representations of gendered language in diverse contexts,yet failing to explore gendered language occurring in social interaction,which is regarded as the primary context for gender negotiation.Also,as most of these studies were conducted in English-based contexts,more cross-linguistic evidence for representations of gendered language is needed.On the other hand,considering perception of gender language,there has been a general lack of research on whether and how gendered language can be perceived by interlocutors.To address the three gaps,the present study comprising two sub-studies investigates how gendered language is employed and perceived in Chinese-based discursive interaction.Study One aims to identify and analyze the gendered language represented in the interactive discourses produced by 170 Chinese-speaking participants who were instructed to have online conversations with each other in controlled conditions.A number of eight Chinese features were found to display gender variations in same-gender interaction,which are discussed in relation to those gendered features found in English use.In addition,the female participants engaged in same-gender interaction were found to represent their gender by linguistically accommodating themselves to each other.In Study Two,a selection of 120 out of the 170 participants in Study One filled out a questionnaire where they were asked to perceive the masculinity or femininity encoded in the eight Chinese gendered features previously found.Results suggest that interlocutors were capable of perceiving the gender meanings of these gendered features by referring to the socio-pragmatic meanings they conveyed in the interactive context.The two sub-studies taken together provide an account for the way gender is represented,perceived,and thus negotiated in social interaction by means of gendered language.