Gender Differences in the Responses to Criticisms: A cross-cultural study of Americans and Chinese

性別因素在回應批評語行所產生的差異：美國人和中國人的跨文化研究

段惠珍(Jeanne H. Tuan)

《人文社會電子學報》 6卷2期 (2010/09) Pp. 47-63

https://doi.org/10.30134/STOSHSS.201009.0004

摘要

性別因素是否在語行上所產生的差異性一直是極大的爭議。本研究旨在探討說話者的性別與他們回應批評語行之間的關連，特別是當說話者與對話者相對權利不平等。R. Lakoff (1975)有關男女在語言上差異的理念是本研究的理論背景。藉由54 位美國人和45 位中國人參與四場情境角色辦演活動，研究者共收集252 個語料。這些語料分析後，歸類於五大策略：道歉、反証、反駁、挑釁與控訴。差異的假設在本研究中獲得部分肯定。說話者並未因性別變因而展現極大不同的行為模式，但說話者會因對話者的性別而表現不同的反對語行。例如，在與男性對話時，說話者會以尊敬的方式，和緩地表達反對意見；卻以挑釁的姿態，反駁女性對話者的評定或指控。男尊女卑的觀念可從說話者的言語表現上見端倪。

關鍵字

性別差異 ； 語言行為 ； 跨文化研究

並列摘要

Gender differences in speech act behavior have been a highly debated issue. Presented here is a complete study exploring the relationship between speakers‘ gender and their reactions to criticizing in the situations where these is a power asymmetry between conversation participants. To conduct the study, R. Lakoff‘s (1975) ideas concerning linguistic differences between males and females were taken into account. Data were collected from a sample size of fifty-four native speakers of American /English (ENSs) and forty-five Chinese native speakers (CNSs), via four role play scenarios. A total of 252 reactions were transcribed and analyzed in terms of five broad categories of realization strategies: Apology, Counterclaim, Contradiction, Challenge and Accusation. Results of a t-test do not support the hypothesis that there is significant difference between women and men in their responding utterances to previous criticisms. The speaker gender has little impact on the use of the five main strategies across the groups. However, their linguistic behavior was greatly influenced by the addressees‘ gender. For example, they are inclined to show their deference in a mitigated way in a male-addressee situation; to the contrast, they speak in a confrontational tone and choose aggravators to intensify their opposition in a female-addressee situation.

並列關鍵字

gender difference ； speech acts ； cross-cultural studies