en often thought as dominant speakers, while women are placed in a subordinate role during the conversation process. Important to realize in this issue, however, is the different perspectives the two sexes have in casual speech. If women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, a clash of conversation styles can occur, when confronted with a men s language concerned with status and independence. [Tannen D. 1990]. Misinterpretation of the use of linguistic functions, thus, often arises.
Sociological studies have shown that women are more likely to use linguistic forms thought to be better or more correct than those used by men. Trudgill (1983) provides two reasons for this. Firstly, women in our society are generally more status-conscious than men, and therefore more sensitive to linguistic norms-an idea known as hyper-correction. Secondly, working-class speech ... has connotations of or associations with masculinity, which may lead men to be more favorably disposed to non-standard linguistic forms than women. [Trudgill, 1983]. This lower-class, non-standard linguistic variety has been defined by sociolinguist W. Labov as covert prestige. Linked to social class, the differences in how men and women gain, or attempt to gain status through opposing speech patterns is noticeable. There are two cases in which the woman has self-corrected herself as a show of sensitivity toward standard speech, while the men show no such effort. According to Montgomery, self-correction can be defined as the various ways utterances are reworked in the process of uttering them.
Jody: Ummm. I have to do gas ... uh ... call Mira and get them to do thegas ... uhh ... electricity ... water ... What else is there? I don t know.
Jody: Telephone. Everything has to be about six. I mean ... I get six billsevery month ... so I guess all the bills have to be ... Studies in hyper-correction and covert prestige are generally concerned with gender in relation to social class. [Trudgill 1972, 1983; Macaulay 1977; Milroy 1980; Nichols 1983].
Two participants are of equal social status, all working at the same university as language teachers. It is difficult, therefore, make the claim that Jody s self-corrections are a reflection of being status-conscious. A more likely explanation is that her standard language use stems from the social role that are expected from men and women, and the behavior patterns that fit those assumptions. As Trudgill states, women s language is not only different, it is better, and is a reflection of the fact that, generally speaking, more correct social behavior is expected of women. (1983).
Early attempts to distinguish speech norms of different communities focused on sociological factors such as economic status, ethnic minorities and age. Through this research, the belief that male and female speakers may somehow differ in their communicative behavior, and thus compose different speech communities, became the focus of researchers in the early 1970 s. Although lacking in empirical research, and influenced by bias about gender roles [Coates, 1989], this initial work on women s language, specifically the usage of several linguistic features, proved influential toward becoming an important issue in the study of linguistics.Sociolinguistics provided mechanisms for the scientific investi...
