Masterclass: Talk on Gendered Talk

• When? 31 October 2019 , 12:00 - 13:00
• Where? University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, UK

In a recent broadcast on Radio 4 the claim was made that women apologise more often than men, and that this makes them less powerful and authoritative (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060brht). Stereotypes about gender differences in language use abound, many of those dating back to early 70s research in Linguistics. Do these stereotypes reflect the world we currently live in or are they outdated? Are women given advice more often about the way they (should) speak than men, and does it matter? Has the #metoo movement and the world of social media unleashed new forms of sexism and is this reflected in the way language is used?

In this talk, Josiane Boutonnet proposes to look at the evidence for gender differences in language use and what the implications are for the various roles men and women occupy in the modern world, and the new forms of communication people have available to them. This talk fits in with AS/A level syllabi on language diversity and change, and students wanting to carry out a language investigation as part of their course work on Language in Action.

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