Women, Men and Language Linguistics 343 - Spring 2011 OVERVIEW This course examines the complex relationships among language, gender and sexuality. Integrating different perspectives from sociolinguistics as well as gender theory and gender studies, the goals of this course are to familiarize students with major theoretical approaches on language and gender and to explore, through data-driven activities, how the different approaches can shed light on everyday linguistic practices. Through lectures, group exercises, weekly readings, class discussions and data workshops, the course will cover a wide variety of topics including gender as cultural difference, gender as a social construct, sexist and heterosexist language, language and gender in interaction (including turn-taking, gossip, access and power), gender and style, cross-cultural perspectives on language and gender, language and sexuality, and the linguistic construction of masculinities and femininities. Students will develop the ability to evaluate and critique research; particular emphasis will be put on performing original research, utilizing the analytical skills acquired to analyze gendered language in everyday life. CONTACT INFORMATION Instructor Anastasia Nylund Email [email protected] Office Hours Monday, 12.30-2pm, ICC519E or by appointment I am also happy to answer any minor questions about assignments or readings over email – please remember to start your assignments in good time, and identify problems early, as I reserve the right not to reply to emails received less than 24 hours before an assignment is due. CLASS MEETING SCHEDULE Monday, 10:15-11:30am, WALSH 496 Wednesday, 10:15-11:30am, WALSH 496 ACADEMIC HONOR CODE All students are required to comply with the Georgetown University Academic Honor code. Any student who fails to comply with the Honor Code and is found guilty of plagiarism or cheating will automatically receive a final grade of F. I urge you to become familiar with the Honor Code, a detailed description of which can be found at this website: http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/ A good outside resource for understanding the Honor Code and honest academic practice is: Lipson, Charles. 2004. Doing Honest Work in College: How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism, and Achieve Real Academic Success. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1

REQUIREMENTS READINGS There is one required book for this course: Tannen, Deborah. 2007 [1990]. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men In Conversation. New York: Harper. The book (henceforth YJDU in the syllabus) is available for purchase at the Georgetown University campus bookstore. All other readings are available as .pdf documents on Blackboard. They are listed in the same order as on the syllabus, and can be found under the Readings menu on Blackboard. Please complete all readings before the class for which they are assigned, as discussion of the theoretical issues depends on a thorough understanding of the assigned materials.

PARTICIPATION Active engagement with the literature and participation in the class discussions is a major component of this course. Therefore, you are required to attend all class meetings. It is particularly important that you are present on dates when you are presenting, leading a discussion, or otherwise are partially responsible for the class progressing felicitously. If you know you will be unable to attend class, please schedule a meeting with me to discuss your situation as soon as possible. NOTE: More than one (1) unexcused absence will affect your participation grade and thus your overall grade in the class. Absences are excused in case of sickness with a doctor’s note or with a dean’s or coach’s note explaining the reason for your absence.

ASSIGNMENTS MEDIA PRESENTATION This assignment is a 10 minute presentation in which you will discuss an example of gendered language in the media. Your data can include a photo/photos, an advertisement/logo, a clip from a movie or TV show, an interview, or a news broadcast. You will present your media example, discuss what the role of gender is in it, draw links between gender and linguistic practices, and generate a brief class discussion at the end of your presentation. Where possible, draw links between your presentation and our class discussions. Also, you may use presentation aids such as PowerPoint or a handout (though this is not required). 2

DATA ANALYSIS PAPER For the data analysis paper, you will carry out a more structured study of language and gender in action. For this assignment, you will record and transcribe a conversation, and perform a discourse analysis of the different linguistic devices and maneuvers at play in the interaction, highlighting how gender is locally constructed or reflected in the interaction. The assignment consists of two components. First, you will hand in a draft of your transcript along with a brief plan for analysis, and receive feedback on the level of detail and your proposed argument. You should incorporate my feedback as your construct and write up your data analysis paper. Your paper (4 pages) should have a clear thesis which you argue by linking the discursive practices you find in the interaction to one or more of the theoretical perspectives discussed in class. FINAL GROUP PROJECT For the final project, groups of students will conduct original research in language and gender. The groups will together construct an original study on any topic relating to the course. The research may be quantitative or qualitative in nature, depending on the methodology most suitable for the investigation. Each group will write a project proposal and carry out the study together. Each group member will produce an individual final paper (8 pages), presenting your thesis, methodology, findings, and relating your investigation to relevant theories as well as discussing the implications of your study on the field of language and gender. NOTE: Citations for all written assignments must follow the guidelines of the most recent edition of the Citation and Style Guide of the American Psychological Association (APA). If you are unsure of how to use this citation format, come see me or use the wide variety of tutorials and guides available online, such as: http://apastyle.apa.org/ GRADE BREAKDOWN AND DUE DATES Course component

Weight (%) Due dates

Participation Media Presentation Data Analysis Paper

10% 10% 25%

Final Group Project - Proposal - Group presentation - Individual paper

55% 10% 15% 30%

Sign-ups Week 2 Transcript due Wednesday, 2/16 Paper due Wednesday, 3/2 Wednesday, 3/30 Wednesday, 4/27 or Monday, 5/2 Tuesday, 5/10

SCHEDULE NOTE: Changes may occur throughout the semester. Readings for the next class will be announced at the end of each class. 3

WEEK

TOPIC AND READINGS

Week 1

Introduction

W 1/12 Week 2

NOTES

Overview, syllabus (no reading) Early work in Language and Gender

M 1/17

NO CLASS – Martin Luther King Day

W 1/19

Lakoff (1973), Bucholtz and Hall (2006)

Week 3

Language/Gender preliminaries

M 1/24

Ochs (1992)

W 1/26

Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003)

Week 4

Theoretical Approach 1: Gender as Cultural Difference

M 1/31

Maltz and Borker (1982), YJDU chapter 1-3 and afterword.

W 2/2

Guest Speaker: Professor Deborah Tannen

Week 5

Theoretical Approach 2: Gender as Dominance/Power

M 2/7

O’Barr and Atkins (1980), Hall (1995)

W 2/9

Fishman (1983), YJDU chapter 7

Week 6

Theoretical Approach 3: Gender as a Social Construct

M 2/14

Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (1992), Livia and Hall (1997)

W 2/16

Review Communities of Practice

Week 7

Language, gender, and ethnicity

M 2/21

NO CLASS – Presidents Day

W 2/23

Bucholtz 1995, Bucholtz 1996

Week 8

TRANSCRIPT DUE

Gender ideologies: Emotion and expressiveness

M 2/28

Holmes (1995), Brown and Levinson (1978)

W 3/2

Lutz (1994), Sattel (1983)

DATA ANALYSIS PAPER DUE

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** SPRING BREAK March 5th-13th ** Week 9

Language and masculinities

M 3/14

Kiesling (1997), Pujolar i Cos (1997)

W 3/16

Cameron (1998)

Week 10

Language and sexuality

M 3/21

Cameron and Kulick (2003), ch. 1 & 4

W 3/23

Guest Speaker: Professor Robert Podesva Podesva (2007)

Week 11

Cross-cultural perspectives on language and gender

M 3/28

Okamoto (2002), Kulick (1998)

W 3/30

Guest Speaker: Sakiko Kajino

Week 12

PROPOSAL DUE

Gender and sociolinguistic variation

M 4/4

Eckert (1989), Schilling-Estes (2002a)

PROJECT MTGS

W 4/6

James (1996)

PROJECT MTGS

Week 13

Language, gender and style

M 4/11

Schilling-Estes (2002b), Coupland (2007)

W 4/13

Rickford and McNair-Knox (1994)

Week 14

Sexist language, taboo and feminist innovations

M 4/18

Ehrlich and King (1994), Armstrong (1997)

W 4/20

Sutton (1995), Miller (2004)

Week 15

Wrapping up…

M 4/25

NO CLASS – Easter Monday

W 4/27

GROUP PRESENTATIONS

Week 16 M 5/2

Wrapping up… GROUP PRESENTATIONS 5

FINAL PAPER due May 10th, 12 noon, by email ([email protected]) and a hardcopy in my department mailbox (ICC 479) BIBLIOGRAPHY Armstrong, James D. 1997. Homophobic slang as coercive discourse among college students. In Anna Livia and Kira Hall (eds.), Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 326-34. Brown, Penelope and Steven C. Levinson. 1999. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. In Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland (eds.) The Discourse Reader. London/New York: Routledge. Bucholtz, Mary. 1995. From Mulatta to Mestiza: Language and the Reshaping of Ethnic Identity. In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds.), Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 351-374 Bucholtz, Mary. 1996. Black Feminist Theory and African American Women's Linguistic Practice. In Victoria Bergvall, Janet Bing, and Alice Freed (eds.), Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. Longman, pp. 267-290 Bucholtz, Mary and Kira Hall. 2006. Gender, Sexuality, and Language. In Keith Brown (ed.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 2. Oxford: Elsevier. Cameron, Deborah. 1998. Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinity. In Jennifer Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 270-284. Cameron, Deborah and Don Kulick. 2003. Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, selected chapters. Coupland, Nikolas. 2007. High Performance and Identity Stylisation. In Nikolas Coupland, Style: Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 146-176. Eckert, Penelope. 1989. The Whole Woman: Sex and Gender Differences in Variation. Language Variation and Change 1: 245-267. Eckert, Penelope and Sally McConnell-Ginet. 2003. Constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing gender. Language and Gender. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. 9-51. Eckert, Penelope and Sally McConnell-Ginet. 1992. Think Practically and Look Locally: Language and Gender as Community-Based Practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461-490. 6

Ehrlich, Susan and Ruth King. 1994. Feminist Meanings and the (De)politicization of the Lexicon. Language in Society 23: 59-76. Fishman, Pamela. 1983. Interaction: The Work Women Do. In Barrie Thorne, Cheris Kramarae, and Nancy Henley (eds.) Language, Gender, and Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, pp. 89-101. Hall, Kira. 1995. Lip Service on the Fantasy Lines. In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds.) Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. New York: Routledge, pp. 183-216. Holmes, Janet. 1995. What a Lovely Tie! Compliments and Positive Politeness Strategies. In Women, Men, and Politeness. London: Longman, pp. 115-153. James, Deborah. 1996. Women, Men, and Prestige Speech Forms: A Critical Review. In Victoria Bergvall, Janet Bing, and Alice Freed (eds.) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice. London: Longman, pp. 98-125. Kiesling, Scott. 1997. Power and the Language of Men. In Sally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds.) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 65-85. Kulick, Don. 1998. Anger, gender, language shift, and the politics of revelation in a Papua New Guinean village. In Bambi B. Schieffelin et al. (eds.), Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory, pp. 83-102. New York: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, Robin. 1973. Language and Woman’s Place. Language in Society 2: 45-80. Livia, Anna and Kira Hall. 1997. ‘It’s a Girl!’ Bringing Performativity Back to Linguistics. In Kira Hall and Anna Livia (eds.) Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-18. Lutz, Catherine. 1994. Engendered Emotion: Gender, Power, and the Rhetoric of Emotional Control in American Discourse. In Catherine Lutz and Lila Abu-Lughod (eds.) Language and the Politics of Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 69-91. Maltz, Daniel N. and Ruth A Borker. 1982. A cultural approach to male-female miscommunication. In Jonn J. Gumperz (ed.), Language and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 196-216. Miller, Laura. 2004. Those Naughty Teenage Girls: Japanese Kogals, Slang, and Media Assessments. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14: 225-247. O’Barr, William and Bowman Atkins. 1980. ‘Women’s Language’ or ‘Powerless Language’? In Sally McConnell-Ginet, Ruth Borker, and Nelly Furman (eds.) Women and Language in Literature and Society, pp. 93-110.

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Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing gender. In A. Duranti and C. Goodwin (eds.) Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 335358. Okamoto, Shigeko. 2002. Ideology and Social Meanings: Rethinking the Relationship between Language, Politeness, and Gender. In Sarah Benor, Mary Rose, Devyani Sharma, Julie Sweetland, and Qing Zhang (eds.), Gendered Practices in Language. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, pp. 99-113. Podesva, Robert. 2007. Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics 11: 478-504. Pujolar i Cos, Joan. 1997. Masculinities in a Multilingual Setting. In Sally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds.) Language and Masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 86-106. Rickford, John R. and Faye McNair-Knox. 1994. Addressee- and topic-influenced style shift: A quantitative sociolinguistic study. In Douglas Biber and Edward Finegan (Eds.) Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register. Oxford: Oxford University Press Sattel, Jack. 1983. Men, Inexpressiveness, and Power. In Barrie Thorne, Cheris Kramarae, and Nancy Henley (eds.) Language, Gender, and Society. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, pp. 118-124. Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 2002a. American English Social Dialect Variation and Gender. Journal of English Linguistics 30: 122-137. Schilling-Estes. Natalie. 2002b. Investigating stylistic variation. In Chambers, J. K., Peter Trudgill, and Natalie Schilling-Estes (eds.) Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Malden/Oxford: Blackwell. Sutton, Laurel A. 1995. Bitches and skankly hobags: the place of women in contemporary slang. In Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz (eds), Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self. New York; London: Routledge.

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