Differences in the Use of Directives in the United States

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • アメリカ人の依頼表現における男女差 : 性別と親密さの比重
  • アメリカジン ノ イライ ヒョウゲン ニ オケル ダンジョサ セイベツ ト シンミツ サ ノ ヒジュウ

Search this article

Description

English has no grammatical markers which identify the gender of the speaker. It has, however, been argued that, in certain cases, male and female speakers tend to use different ways of speaking. In this paper, I have investigated by questionnaires the way American speakers make a request to their friends, and compared the expressions that male and female informants preferably use. The results of my investigation show that male and female speakers tend to use different kinds of expressions when they make a request. Male speakers tend to change their expressions depending on the degree of their intimacy with the listeners. They use polite forms of making a request when the listeners are not intimate. If those who do them a favor are close friends, they will ask them in a more casual way, even bluntly without showing any politeness. Male speakers also generally use more polite expressions when they speak to female friends than to males, while female speakers are found not to change their expressions as much depending on the sex of the persons they speak to. Besides, they generally use more polite expressions both to the male and female listeners alike. The difference between the male and female ways of making a request indicates that men choose from different expressions, depending on whom they are talking to, while women tend not to change their way of speaking. This result reflects the different ideas between male and female speakers about gender and intimacy.

Journal

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top