2

POSSIBLE RESEARCH TOPICS

Most of the topics I have included here involve data collection and analysis.  Your project should include both some examples of the data and a discussion of your data-gathering techniques.  You may wish to include all of yourdata as a kind of appendix to which the reader can be referred (however, the appendix is not to be counted as part of the 12 pages required; bibliography, on the other hand, may be counted).  Your paper grade will depend greatly on the quality of your analysis and interpretation of the data and also on the coherence of its overall organization.

1. a.  Differential Usage of Tag Questions.

     Collect data from overheard conversations and from radio and T.V. (especially talk shows).  You should note down in a systematic way the following factors in each situation:

     1) sex of speaker and addressee

     2) approximate ages of speaker and addressee

     3) social identity of speaker and addressee (e.g., mother-daughter, brother-sister, friend-friend, student-teacher, newscaster-newscaster, host-guest, etc.)

     4) the actual sentence heard with its tag question (e.g., 'I can go now, can't I?;'You're a real wise-guy, aren't you?')

     5) the type of sentence melody on the tag (rising, falling, or other).

     6) additional voice modulations (e.g., angry, supplicating, sarcastic, etc.)

     7) the place where you heard the tag question (e.g., on the sidewalk outside of the speaker's apartment, in a linguistics class, on a TV talk show, etc.).

Relate your findings to such research as exists on this topic

1.b..  Differential Usage of Rising Terminals on Sentences that are Responses to Questions

This research topic is related to Topic 1.a., and will be mentioned in class in connection with the claim that has been made that women tend much more than men to answer, in effect,  a question with a question--e.g. Q:  What is your name?  A:  My name is Sara Strong (with the answer ending in a rising terminal, suggesting a question).  Follow the directions as for 1.a. through Item 3 and also Item 7).

Beyond that look for any factors in the context or the nature of the interaction that might help you understand why this type of intonational pattern is selected.  It would also be very useful, if possible, to record instances of the same speaker using falling intonation in some contexts, and then to see which variables (if any) have changed across the examples of rising vs. falling intonation in response to a question.

Relate your findings to such research as exists on this topic

2.  Differential Usage of Direct/Indirect Imperatives

     You will need to consider all of the same variables as given in #1, adapting them, of course, to the use of imperatives.  In addition, you may find it useful to classify the imperatives in the following way:

DIRECT:  e.g., Shut up!, Go away!

INDIRECT:  Will you go away?  Would you mind going away?

Won't you please go away?

DIRECT + INDIRECT:  Go away, please! or Go away, won't you

please?

Relate your findings to the hypotheses and interpretations of sex differences in politeness forms

3.  Conversation analysis

Drawing on what you have so far learned about sex differences in English, create three conversations (about 2 pages each—9 conversations all together) between female-female, male-male, and female-male conversational partners.  The speakers should be matched for age, education, and socioeconomic status. Construct the conversations around one (and only one) of the following themes:

•         Does television influence people’s behavior?

•         Finding employment after graduation

•         Life in the U.S in the year 2020

Construct the conversations so that they sound reasonably natural to you—that is, don’t overdo the stereotyped linguistic features associated with the female and male speech registers (styles).  On the other hand, you should incorporate those linguistic features that seem to be in agreement with real usage (according to what has been reported in lectures and/or the readings, and based also on your own experience).

Following the conversations, provide a discussion of the similarities and contrasts in the three sets of conversations that you have constructed, and indicate specific readings and/or lecture materials that you have drawn on in creating them

4.  Differences in Conversational Practices

For this project you will need to tape-record and take careful notes on what goes on during a conversation or informal discussion among the members of a small group (4-6 people, mixed sex).  You will need at least an hour's worth of talk to get enough data for patterns to become evident; and you must also get the consent of the people whom you record.  Alternatively, you can collect data from TV talk shows; such data are somewhat less than "normal", but they usually are spontaneous and they are readily accessible.

Questions that you will be trying to answer are:  who takes more turns; who takes longer turns; who interrupts whom; who is interrupted most often; who interrupts most; how is sex related to turns and interruptions?

The following information should be noted for each participant in the conversation:

     1) sex and approximate age of speaker

     2) number of turns taken in a particular conversation

     3) average length of speaker's turns (in seconds or minutes)

     4) number of interruptions made by each speaker

     5) number or times each speaker was interrupted

     6) reaction of the person interrupted (e.g., tried to regain the floor, overrrode the interruption, lapsed into silence, etc.).

Discuss your findings in light of the readings and lectures on conversational dynamics

5.  Differences in Terms of Address

Keep a journal in which you record how you were addressed by whom in what situations.  Note down systematically the setting in which each term of address was used (e.g., service stations, restaurant, a telephone call received, doctor's office, etc.); the social identity of the addressor (e.g., gas station attendant, waitress or waiter, insurance salesperson, doctor or nurse); the sex and approximate age of the addressor.

What conclusions can you draw about others' perceptions of you as a social persona on the basis of the terms of address you receive.  Discuss in relation to readings and lectures.

6.  Differences in the Use of the Third Person Pronoun

Collect examples, in the sentences in which you hear them, of the third person pronoun used to refer to a person whose sex is unknown or irrelevant.  Jot them down in a notebook as you hear them, noting also sex of speaker and of addressee, approximate age and socioeconomic position of the speaker.  Collect examples for at least three weeks.  You may pad out your corpus of data with examples culled from written sources as well.

Which third person pronouns are used in each category and with what relative frequencies? Be prepared to hear 'they/their/them' in addition to the singular pronouns 'she/her/her' and 'he/his/him'.

Does usage vary with any of the social variables noted above (sex of speaker, etc.). Discuss findings in relation to other research on the generic masculine

7.  Speech Role Models in Children's Books

Compare several books written for children in different decades--e.g., the 1940's, the 1960s, and the

1980s-- looking for differences in speaking portrayed by the girls and boys in the dialogues--differences relating to verbosity, content, topic, politeness, etc.  Look also for differences in the adult speaking models--do they parallel what you find for the children?

8.  Adult Speech Patterns in Literature

Contrast the dialogue of female and male characters in works of fiction written by female and male authors who are of about the same generation and nationality.  A sample of four novels should suffice--two by female and two by male writers of an equivalent genre (e.g., spy, science fiction, romance, etc.).  Compare your findings with some of that reported in the research on literary style

9. Data has shown that:

males and females tend to have similar views about civil liberties but men's emotional responses to homosexuality tend to be more dramatic.
consistent correlation b/t homophobia and traditional gender and family roles
males tended to be more defensive in reactions to homosexuality

Test out these theories through use of questionnaires, surveys, interviews, directed discussions. How do your findings correlate with the findings above? Discuss reasons for the given data as well as for your collected data. Make sure to classify the males and females you use in a number of different ways (ethnicity, socio-economic, political, etc.)

10. Themes in Gender and Media

If it’s true that the media reflect cultural values and ideals and act as a mirror of society(the media reflect what society's ideals already are) then the way advertising is constructed should portray familiar societal concepts of male and female. Research a multitude of advertisements (both print and TV) collecting data on the following:

underrepresentation
number of women; number of women of varying ages vs. the number of men; body types, race; realistic v. unrealistic portrayals.
stereotypes of men and women
limitation of our ideas about what is possible for each gender
stereotypical relationship portrayals

male independence	female dependence
male authoritativeness	female incompetence
male = breadwinner	female = caregiver
male aggressor	female victim or sex object

11. “What's in a name?”

 Why do women usually adopt their husbands' names at marriage, but husbands rarely adopt the names of their wives?  Is this true of all cultures?  Conduct surveys, interviews, etc. of attitudes towards women retaining their birth  names.  Compare findings of American vs. other cultures as well as female vs. male and young vs. old attitudes on this issue.

Some topics that have been examined by LIN 4651 students

in past years:

·   Differences in language used to infants

·   Sexism in popular music lyrics

·   Sisters sing:  the lyrics of African American women singers

·   The images of woman in popular music

·   Gender in poetry

·   Sleeping beauties and sinister stepmothers:  How fairy tales affect childrens'  perceptions of gender in society

·   The influences of Disney movies on children's perceptions of gender in society

·   Sex in Seuss:  An examination of gender bias in beginner books

·   'Girl' vs. 'guy':  an analysis of language usage

·   The depiction of sex role (and language usage) in greeting cards

·   Inmates and classmates:  What men call women

·   Gender and conversational practices:  A comparison of three FIU discussion sections

·   Eye contact:  The study of one form of nonverbal comunication

·   The dance floor as a laboratory:  A study of nonverbal communication between the sexes

·   Facial expression:  A part of our everyday lives

·   Techniques of address in four American plays

·   Women and terms of address in Russian

·   Hey, nice game, dude!  Terms of address in sports

·   The effects of clothing on terms of address

·   Interruption patterns on television talk shows

·   Power surge:  The masculine characteristics of female talk-show hosts

·   Sex and gender exploitation in the advertising industry

·   The portrayal of males and females in men's and women's magazines

·   The portrayal of women in the media

·   Media, advertisements, and African American women in white America

·   Hilary Clinton, woman candidate:  Her treatment by the press

·   Sexism in sports coverage

·   Sexism in TV commercials

·   Sexism in the language of stand-up comedians

·   Gender perception of American English words

·   An analysis of female and male language use in describing attractive people

·   Beginning writers' conceptions of female/male speech styles.

·   Dr. Morgan, the Wizard, and Mary:  What are women worth in the comics?

·   Gendered stereotyped speech in fictional dialogue

·   Sex differences and stereotypes in science fiction

·   Confidence in a linguistic form

·   Linguistic portrayal of gender identity as expressed in nursery rhymes

·   Innocent nursery rhymes?

·   The portrayal of female and male characters in Saturday morning cartoons

·   A linguistic perspective on the musical My Fair Lady

·   Saturday Night Live:  A sociolinguistic analysis

·   Sex stereotyping of animals

·   The influence of culture on language:  A study of two Greek societies

·   The generic masculine:  Its use and perception by children

·   A survey of fraternity word usage

·   A survey of attitudes towards women retaining their birth names

·   What's in a name?

·   Women's and men's joke-telling

·   Assessment of sex role stereotypes with regard to occupations by non-American students studying English: A study of attitudes

·   Adolescent sex-role perceptions:  A survey of SeniorHigh School students

·   The role of sexist language and stereotypes among teenagers

·   An examination of speech habits in four children