User:RoaaAlZagha/sandbox

Definition
Stylistics is a discipline that studies the styles of a language used. It covers various aspects of language style including pronunciation, grammar, terminology, and meaning. It is a field of applied linguistics. A frequently asked question is whether females and males acquire different uses of language. Research in this area is divided into two main areas of study: determining the varieties of speech associated with a particular gender, and analysing the social norms and conventions that specific genders produce.

Areas of Study
Huffaker and Calvert (2017) profoundly examined the issue of language usage amongst male and female teenagers who established weblogs. As a part of their study, gender and language use was included. Males use a direct and forceful style of language whereas females use a more indirect and intimate style of language when interacting. As the authors have mentioned from Lakoff's (1975) theories on women language, "Females use a language style that reflects shyness, diffidence, and lower self-confidence, indicating a lack of strong opinion”. They also mentioned that the male's usage of language was more active and flexible compared to females.

Similarly, Xia carefully explained how men and women differ in using language. The author discussed the differences from various language parts including pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, syntax, manners, attitudes and non-verbal distinctions. The first aspect of language analysed was pronunciation differences. Females have the better pronunciation of the "-ing” and in learning L2. The second aspect that was mentioned is intonation differences. High-pitch, rising intonation, and reverse accent were associated with women’s speech according to Kia. She has also pointed out vocabulary differences between genders. This point was divided into five categories; colour words, adjectives, adverbs, diminutives, and pronouns. Females tend to discuss politely things and prefer to use first person plural pronouns, whereas men's speech contains swear words and first singular pronouns. Women modulate their speech, grammar and use interrogative sentences more than men do, while men tend to have more imperatives in their speech. Women pay more attention to standard language than men. Differences in the manner were also pointed out by Kia to state that men interrupt more than females.

Compared to the above studies, Gu suggests that language style is affected due to gender. It was found out by the author that females often used more concrete colour words than males. As well as the tone is included in language stylistics. Females usually speak in a milder tone and use more rising intonation compared to males. Adjectives and tag questions were found out to be included more in women's language. Also, politeness and hyper-correct grammar are features of women's language.

On the other hand, Masaitiene stated the different conversational styles of genders. The study employs the method of conversational analysis to see how males and females have a different style of using language. Females leave more unfinished sentences compared to males due to their indecisive mode of speaking.

Thoughts, emotions, senses, and negations are used more by women than men. The male’s speech was characterised by more negative emotion along with business, money and sports discussions. Reluctance and politeness were dominant features in female's language.

Synthesis of the Studies
Xia (2013) mentioned how females speak in a more rising intonation than men, relating to this point Gu (2013) pointed out this same feature in his research. The former mentioned how a female’s language is characterised with hyper-correct grammar, while the latter pointed out how women pay more attention to standard language than men. Even though both authors agreed on this feature, their researches lacked proofs to support their arguments.

Huffaker and Calvert (2017) described that males use a forceful style of language whereas females use an intimate style of language usage. The authors may have a deep-rooted prejudice against gender. Huffaker and Calvert (2017) gave a negative evaluation of the language of female and their communicative style. This prejudice has influenced their explanation to the language aspects. In this sense, the research findings have lacked objectivity.

Limitations of Stylistics
Language is a significant communicative tool in human society, therefore knowing the differences in linguistic stylistics in gender is essential for minifying misunderstanding issues. In the analysis above, the complicated relationship between gender and language has been profoundly discussed. While differences in language style between genders exist, it is safe to assume that similarities exist as well. However, all the researchers above only pay great deal attention to the differences, disregarding similarities. The lack of research in similarities between gender language styles highlights a gap in the literature. Moreover, it is likely that the differences in language usage between women and men would diminish soon due to the arousing issue of feminism.