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Linguistics Conversation Analysis On Women Essay

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Linguistics Conversation Analysis Anadelia Dominguez November 21st, 2016 Professor Burke Fresno State Since the beginning of time, women have been thought of as less when compared to men. In fact, women are constantly having to fight for equality whether that be equality in opportunities or equality in the workforce including wages or certain jobs. Language is no different, women “use” different language than men. In fact, according to Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman’s article Women’s Place in Everyday Talk, women and children speak in a similar fashion. In a nutshell, women and children share the same concept of “powerless language” while men sit on a higher pedestal when it comes to language. Research has shown that some of the biggest differences in speech between men and women are that women tend to ask more questions, use tag questions with more frequency, and overemphasize more often. These are only some of the characteristics of “women’s language” (O’Barr and Atkins, 1980, p. 453). Men on the other hand, tend to interrupt more often, they may also “overlap” speech, and are said to swear more in conversations (West and Zimmerman, 1983, p. 146). The characteristics of both genders mentioned above, were the characteristics that dominated the conversation which was analyzed. They were used with more frequency when compared to others listed in the textbook which is why the emphasis of this analysis will be on these unique characteristics. For

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