The Study of Language and Sex: Review of Sex, Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich

【Abstract】This review aims to comment on Sex， Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich written by Peter Trudgill. This article will give a thorough review of Sex， Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich， and then provide comments and suggestions of the study， and finally put forward the inspirations from the new theories developed in this area.

【Key Word】language and sex; covert prestige; linguistic change; sex and gender

【作者簡介】甘智慧，中南财经政法大学。

1.A thorough review of the article

No question that gender is more vexed than the debate about the existence of sex differences （Judith Kleinfeld，2010）. In the nineteenth century， people believed that men and women were vastly different， however， the difference in the speech of men and women has been mentioned in only a small number of researches. In the 1960s， a number of studies， in contrast， attach great importance to the difference of sex occurs in the linguistic communities of complex urbanized societies. In this article， Peter Trudgill provides a scholarly， intensively research-based and referenced analysis of the same sort of patterns of differentiation occur in urban Britain English of Norwich. It is an update to an urban dialect survey of the city of Norwich published in 1971 and includes the most recent research on the topic as well as greater theoretical emphasis on covert prestige and linguistic change as the organizing principle explaining sex differences.

2.Comments and Suggestions

In Sex， Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in the Urban British English of Norwich， Peter Trudgill analyze， with ‘classical Labovian method’， patterns of sex differentiation deviating from the norm of covert prestige， indicating a linguistic change in the speech of Norwich. Trudgill carried out an investigation in England， which coincided with the one of Labov did in American. Actually， he is one of the first to apply Labovian sociolinguistic methodology in the UK. He chooses to conduct investigation in Norwich where he is a native. Therefore， he is not only familiar with the social structure of this town but also communicate with informants naturally in the interviews. Trudgill followed Labov’s view in structuring the interview so that it included a number of different types of circumstances.（R.A.Hudson， 1998）. Different from normal pattern of interviews， this way avoid speakers unconsciously speak in formal style.

3.Inspiration from the New Theories

Language and gender have already become a popular research point. At present ， there are five theories， which give the explanation of gender differences in language： the defect theory， the dominance theory ， the difference theory ， the polite theory and the construction theory. Those theories provide us a clear theoretical framework of the study of language and gender，and proposes the trend of further study to the same degree. Compared to other theories， the construction theory gives me a new perspective of the study of language and sex. The construction theory is put forward by some linguists in recent years to oppose the traditional dualism， what is， to antagonize men and women completely. They even believe that gender can be changed， and they are opposite to the theory of domination and difference. Cameron commented that the dominance theory and the difference theory respectively represented different periods of the feminist movement. The theory of domination represents the period of anger of feminists and proves the oppression suffered by women in all aspects of life， while the theory of difference represents the celebration period of feminists and reflects their call for the restoration and re-evaluation of women’s unique cultural traditions. Therefore， Cameron argues that previous research pay much attention to the language rather than gender itself. Many researches regard gender as a predetermined factor and take it for granted that gender characteristics determine language features， so as to give stereotyped description of women talking in this way and men talking like that.

References：

[1]Cameron， D.（1990）. The feminist critique of language： a reader. New York： Routledge.

[2]Lakoff， R.（1975）. Language and woman’s place. New York： Harper and Row.