Gendered-Linked Differences in Speech Styles: Analysing Linguistic and Gender in the Malaysian Context

This study aims to look at the differences in speech styles of Malaysian men and women. The assertion that women and men typically employ different linguistic style is pursued in a wide range of studies. There is significant interest in the sociolinguistic variation associated with the speakerʹs gender. Over the last few years there has been an explosion of research in this field. Research conducted to date in anthropology and education clearly states that gender-specific patterns of behavior remain relevant factors and important social variables to be analyzed through the most common cultural codes of society, which is its language. Turning to linguistic differences between women and men, there do seem to be linguistic features that are stereotypically associated with men and women, and there is a large measure of agreement about the association of such features with one of the other gender. Gender is the term used to describe socially constructed categories based on sex. Most societies operate in terms of two genders, masculine and feminine, and it is tempting to treat the category of gender as a simple binary opposition. This paper limits itself to describe language use, in particular the different usage of women and men as speakers. Particular attention is given to the usage of five linguistic features; questions, hedges, adjectives, verbosity and politeness.