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Essay on Male Vs Female Communication
Modern linguists say they have discovered major differences in how men and women talk, but they might have figured that out much earlier by reading Old Testament stories. The dialogues and speeches in the Book of Ruth suggest that clear differences in male and female communication existed long before there were sociolinguists around. The Ruth story, chronicling the relationship between Ruth and the other women of Bethlehem with Boaz, a field owner surrounded by townsmen of Judah, shows that men talk in directives and women speak to resolve relationships.
The conversations of Ruth, (her mother-in-law) Naomi and the other women reveal their concerns for community on a more personal level. Boaz and his male contemporaries show an interest in the hierarchical social order of their tribe. Linguists say such literary interpretation of ancient texts is not a totally reliable way to study male and female communication patterns, but the Ruth story at least offers intriguing parallels to recent findings.
Those findings prompt linguists to say men use "report talk" and women use "rapport talk." Linguists who study conversational settings report that men talk in lists, are conscious of people's ranks and state solutions rather than ask questions. They also tend to talk longer than women in public settings. Women, by contrast, tend to talk using questions, often with the aim of resolving relationships rather than getting a particular task done.
While men would say "Mow the lawn," women give the directive as, "Would you mow the lawn?" Women use questions in giving orders three times more often than men. Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown, has found similar distinctions in a series of widely noted books. Men talk as if in "a contest, a struggle to preserve independence and avoid failure," she said in her book, "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation......
