Linguistic differences in the speech of men and women : a cross-cultural study of English language /

This study aims to investigate the linguistic differences in the way men and women speaking English as a second language use the two linguistic items namely, hedges and intensifiers. In order to conduct the study, two focus group interviews were held. From the interview transcription, 373 occurrence...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Khatun, Rabiya
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Kuala Lumpur : Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, 2015
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Online Access:http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/6636
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Summary:This study aims to investigate the linguistic differences in the way men and women speaking English as a second language use the two linguistic items namely, hedges and intensifiers. In order to conduct the study, two focus group interviews were held. From the interview transcription, 373 occurrences of hedges and 181 occurrences of intensifiers were found. The data collected from the interview transcriptions were analyzed by referring to the frequencies of the occurrences of the linguistic items. The number of occurrences of the seven main hedges 'so', 'I mean', 'like', 'well', 'you know', 'ah', and 'em' and the four main intensifiers 'so', 'just', 'very', and 'well' within focus group interviews were marked. The results obtained from this data analysis provided answers to the research questions. The findings show that the difference is insignificant for both hedges and intensifiers. Both genders are seen to have used more hedges than intensifiers. The difference is significant at the individual level of each focus group. However, the hypothesis put forward by Lakoff and Tannen regarding the higher use of hedges and intensifiers culturally among women is null. From the final findings we can observe that women used hedges slightly more than men while men used intensifiers slightly more than women. Nevertheless, the difference is insignificant. Further research with more focus groups and linguistics items with specification of age factor would perhaps increase the credibility of the findings regarding the differences between the speeches of the two genders.
Physical Description:xii, 77 leaves : ill. ; 30cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-76).