Gendered-Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Gendered-Language - Essay Example This paper seeks to discuss aspects of gendered language. Through this, the paper will focus on sociolinguistic variations and the varying aspects employed during conversations. Sociolinguistics is the study of society and language. Sociolinguistics attempts to analyze the social factors which leading to the diversity of human languages, whereas many linguists concentrate on exploring unity under the diversity of human languages. In a nut shell, sociolinguists focus on the differences in languages and variation within a particular society language. As stated earlier, this paper will focus on the aspects of sociolinguistic variations in terms of gender based conversations. For instance, in the past few days when I was walking around, I heard two women chatting and discussing their issues. Naturally, I have never been interested in listening to them sharing their views but on this occasion, their subject attracted my attention. I listened keenly how they were praising their mode of presentation. The first woman was commenting on how her colleague had plaited her hair. â€Å"Jane! You look smart. Who plaited your hair? I like it! † The second woman laughed, showing a sense of appreciation. â€Å"My husband took me out over the weekend where I was plaited. Imagine am proud of him.† The first woman was so curious, â€Å"Do you mind giving me directions so that I may go too? I should be as cute as you look!† â€Å"Oh please, I am not sure of the place, but it was so far that you can’t make it alone. It cost me good money to achieve this. I doubt if can afford. Probably you can look for another salon within this town.† The other woman seemed to break the heart of her colleague so that she could not trace the salon. â€Å"No, I don’t care! I need the same even it means selling part of my other belongings.† The woman replied with a lot of determination. Their conversation continued but I didn’t bother to listen more (Li, 2002). On another occasion when I had gone for a ride to my nearest shopping centre, I engaged in a discussion with my friends who were shaving. At some point, they began discussing on the recent men hair styles. I was keen on the on their dialogue. â€Å"Martin, have you seen my friend’s hair style who arrived recently from abroad? The guy is smart!† One gentleman came up. â€Å"Yeah! But that style isn’t all that new. I’ve seen many people shave like him.† Jack replied with very cool voice. â€Å"In fact I don’t see any need of one straining to cope that style. It may cost you a lot for nothing, after all our nearest barb er shop can do it. You can save that money and do other things other than just shaving.† Most men in the discussion agreed on Jack’s opinion and all seem not to be interested on the topic again. They switched to discussing other issues (Chambers, 2003). From the set of the conversations, it is evident that women and men have different language of approach. Although they could have the same subject of discussion, women could approach differently as men could. In the instance above, women are seen to be admiring each other in the way they have dressed. One could realize how her colleague has plaited her hair and show admiration up to an extent of digging out where and how it can be done. Women are seen to invest much of their time on what the outsiders can see. Although the other woman wants to look beautiful as her fellow, it is clear that the first woman is possessive and wants to own the beauty alone. She tries all the impossibilities to ensure that the efforts