Abstract:Language is distinctive, so it reflects gender differences. Human beings are the one who create and use language, in daily life, misunderstandings even conflicts may happen due to people ignore the existence of gender language. For this reason, the most important point is, as the frequently development of interpersonal communication, that men and women ought to look squarely at the existence of gender language and learn to apply gender language flexibly according to the mutative language environment to meet their needs.

In recent years, a lot of valuable linguistic works were published and linguists have advanced different ideas on this topic. This paper attempts to discuss gender-related differences of English language in daily conversation. The paper tries to give some examples to analyze the differences such as topic choosing, vocabulary, intonation, and so on between men’s and women’s daily speech. Meanwhile, in the paper the author also briefly analyses some causes of gender-related differences, and point out different communicative competence that the causes have brought up accordingly.

Specifically speaking, the whole text is composed of five parts: the first part states the research background and the significance of the research. On the base of studying the directions of predecessors, here gives my direction of the study. The second part expounds the theories of the gender-related differences of language, which are almost the studies of Lakoff. The third part is mainly analysis the gender-related differences of language in daily conversation, which includes the differences in intonation, the differences in vocabulary, the differences in topics and differences in style. The part of vocabulary includes the use of adjective, adverbs, color words and swearing words. The topic part includes hedges, tag-questions and amount of talk. The fourth part states the causes of gender-related differences. And in the part, the author tries to analyze the causes from psychology and physiology, society and culture. The last part briefly states the different communicative competences between men and women, and it gives a simple conclusion.  

Key words:  language  gender  difference

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1 

Chapter Two Language and Gender-2

2.1 A Theoretical Review-2

2.2 The Relationship between Language and Gender-3

Chapter Three Gender-Related Differences in Daily Conversation-4

3.1 Differences in Vocabulary-4

3.1.1 Adjectives and Adverbs-4

3.1.2 Swearing Words-5

3.2 Differences in Intonation-6

3.3 Differences in Style-7

3.3.1 Tag-questions-7

3.3.2 Hedge-8

3.3.3 Amount of Talk-9

3.4 Differences in Topics-9

Chapter Four Causes of Gender-Related Differences-11

4.1Social Factors-11

4.2Cultural Factors-11

4.3Psychological Factors-11

4.4Physical Factors-12

Chapter Five Conclusion-13

References-14