Male and Female

Lecture: Male and Female Communicative Patterns.

Professor Scott has presented at Concordia University a lecture of a research made by Deborah Tannen. She wrote a book about differences in men and women’s communicative patterns. She supports her thesis using a linguistic-pragmatic theory. It was explained in the lecture that pragmatic consist in part of linguistic which study the practical use of language. I will give an example by myself, if an owner of a restaurant located in front of a beach put a sign stating: “It’s forbidden enter using bikini”; it means that it is not allowed to come in without being dressed up. But, if the same sign is put in entrance of one nudist beach, it will mean something completely different. This is an excellent example of use pragmatic of language, i.e. when the same sentence have opposite meanings. It was also explained by Professor Scott based in Deborah Tannen’s research that female usually tell each other stories about how fights destroy their relationships, while male speak about troubles in general topics. Both of them talk about other people, importance of friendship and put down other people, but men do that in very general way, while women talk in a specific way, such as when they talk about hair-style or clothes other women are wearing. In that lecture, it was shown study on patterns communication between male and female in debates on TV show as well. In this kind of TV show people are invited to talk about scientific, cultural, social or political topics, specially well-known, celebrities, and experts. In that kind of show when male experts are talking about their field of studies women always support them. But the opposite has never happened, even if the women had extrinsic values and highest level of knowledge. It has never been easy for women negotiate their status, explain Professor Scott. In workplace environment, for instance, women are always making suggestion, alliances and negotiations, but men usually just state their ideas in a very positive and direct way. In conclusion, it is recognized that exist certain patterns of communications separated by genders, but it doesn’t mean that all women or men speak exactly at the same way. [Comments: the lecture was really fruitful because Professor Scott gave us practical examples of using communicative patterns in men and women conversations and it was presented in a simple and clear way].