英语会话中模糊语使用的性别差异

Gender Differences in Using Vague Expressions in English Conversations

本文旨在探索英语会话中对模糊语言使用的性别差异,共随机抽选SCoSE(Saarbrücken Corpus of Spoken English)中的部分男女会话,其中含32245个英文单词。按Channel的模糊表达分类方法分析语料中的模糊词语,共鉴别出989个模糊词语,共分成8类。后用独立样本t-test对这些模糊词语及整个语料进行统计分析。统计结果表明糊语词语占话语总量的3.067%,女性使用模糊词语频率明显高于男性,总体平均使用频率无显著差异;男女对某些类型的模糊词语使用各有偏好。这些差异大多与人们在交际中习惯使用的语用交际原则有一定的关系。

This paper aims to investigate gender differences in using vague expressions in English conversations.Some conversations were randomly selected from SCoSE(Saarbrücken Corpus of Spoken English),including 32 245 words.By using Channel's method for identifying vague expressions,989 vague expressions were identified and divided into 8 groups.T-test was applied in a statistic analysis of the corpus and the identified vague expressions.The results show that vague expressions account for 3.067% of all the corpus words.Females use vague expressions significantly more frequently than males,with a distinctive gender differences in use of certain kinds of vague expressions.Analysis indicates that the difference mainly relates to pragmatic principles in communication.