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October 07, 2005
Tannen Article - What is Linguistic Style?
I have to admit, when I saw the title, "What is Linguistic Style", I just thought I was about to dive into another article all about technical definitions, etc. - something dull. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this article by Deborah Tannen was not only very accessible, but also very interesting. It made points that I never really thought of on my own before, but once mentioned, can think about lots of personal experiences that back it up.
One would usually assume that there would be differences in lingusistic styles between people of different cultures, but to think about the drastic differences, and the impacts they have, just between people from different areas of the country, was rather eye-opening. Nevertheless, the most interesting part, and the main point, of this article, was about the different linguistic styles between men and women. Linking back to our childhood lifestyles and interactions with friends has a huge role in our adult and professional way of communicating. It explains how men can take the credit for a woman's work in the workplace, and how it seems to be accepted because of the "natural" differences between their linguistic styles. All in all, this is a prominant factor in women not being treated equally as men in professional fields, and is often not recognized, or even realized.
Posted by lcisthur at October 7, 2005 12:14 AM