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LANGUAGE VARIATION IN RELATION TO GENDER AS A SOCIAL FACTOR

ABSTRACT

This research is designed to examine language variation in relation to gender as a social factor, the thrust of this study is a sociolinguistic analysis of gender on language use. The research through its data that encompasses various languages has proved beyond every doubt the existence of gender variation in language use.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  GENERAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntary produced symbols (Sapir, 1921:8). David crystal, (1989:252) further affirms that language is referred to as human a vocal noise or the graphic representation of this noise in writing used systematically and conventionally by a community for purpose of communication. Generally speaking language is a basic tool of socio-cultural communication; it specifically deals with the human capacity for using and acquiring complex systems of communication (Bloomfield 1914).

Language and gender is an area of study within socio-linguistics, applied linguistics and related fields that investigate varieties of speech associated with a particular gender of social norms. A variety of speech or sociolect associated with a particular gender is sometimes called “genderlect” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Language and gender basically explores two basic issues which are the representations of gender in language and the conversational characteristics of men and women. Cross-linguistic examinations have revealed a number of key areas of grammar and vocabulary where gender is displayed or indicated in various ways, other studies have identified symmetric male-female difference in many languages, these ranges from differences in vocabulary, difference in linguistic forms e.g. Phonology, morphology and syntax, to difference communication styles, politeness and directness in language.

Sociolinguistics variation is the study of the way language varies and changes in community of speakers and concentrates on the interaction of social factors such as a speaker’s gender, age, ethnicity etc. and linguistic structure such as sounds, words, introduction feature, grammatical structure etc.

The study of sociolinguistic variation has its roots in dialectology, emerging in the 1960s partly as a result of inadequate methods in earlier approaches to the study of dialect and partly as a reaction to Chomsky’s generative programme.