Full Description
Women, Men and Language has long been established as a seminal text in the field of language and gender, providing an account of the many ways in which language and gender intersect. In this pioneering book, bestselling author Jennifer Coates explores linguistic gender differences, introducing the reader to a wide range of sociolinguistic research in the field.
Written in a clear and accessible manner, this book introduces the idea of gender as a social construct, and covers key topics such as conversational practice, same sex talk, conversational dominance, and children's acquisition of gender-differentiated language, discussing the social and linguistic consequences of these patterns of talk.
Here reissued as a Routledge Linguistics Classic, this book contains a brand new preface which situates this text in the modern day study of language and gender, covering the postmodern shift in the understanding of gender and language, and assessing the book's impact on the field. Women, Men and Language continues to be essential reading for any student or researcher working in the area of language and gender.
Contents
Preface
PART ONE: INTRODUCTORY
1 Language and gender
2 The historical background (I) - Folklinguistics and the early grammarians
3 The historical background (II) - Anthropologists and dialectologists
PART TWO: THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC EVIDENCE
4 Quantitative studies
5 Social networks
6 Gender differences in conversational practice
7 Conversational dominance in mixed talk
8 Same-sex talk
PART THREE: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
9 Children and gender-differentiated language
10 The role of gender differences in linguistic change
11 The social consequences of gender differences in language
PART FOUR: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
12 New developments in language and gender research
Bibliography
Index
