Speech on
language:
Students
leaving university.
Miss, Ms, Mrs
and Mr…
Hello! I’d
like to start by thanking you all for coming today. My name is Amy, and I’m
here to talk to you a little bit about the English language and how the male
population are being presented to be the dominant figure due to the huarache
they have inherited, however I am here to express my opinion and hopefully make
you change your perspective of this idea.
Firstly, I’d
like to start by just getting you to think about why women have so many titles
depending on their status compared to men. Why do women need to change their
title to show whether they are married or not? Is this because they are seen to be the weaker
sex? Because society makes those who aren’t married when they are middle aged
to be ashamed of themselves as they aren’t a Mrs and the idea that Miss sounds
like the title given to a young girl?
According to
the study by Zimmerman and west, two theorists in the 70’s suggest that men are
more dominant than women due to the way they speak as men interrupt more than
women suggesting they are dominant as they dictate the way the conversation
goes. This theory is supported by Lakoff’s, another theorist from the 70’s that
women’s language is more deficient than men’s this is again showing that women
are thought to be of less importance than men as they are seen to be the weaker
and more deficient sex which makes people’s views of them lower than what they
would have of a male.
When you get
letters through your door do you ever stop and read who it is addressed to
properly? Have you ever read the envelope of the post addressed to your
parents? For example ‘Mr and Mrs Mark Jones’ both the woman and the male have
their mail addressed to them under the males name. Why is it that women have to
take the males name? Are we owned
by them?
Some good ideas and a persuasive voice. Think more about how you are going to persuade them to do something - make better linguistic choices and which techniques you are going to use to get this across e.g. anecdote works well to personalise the issue and answer the question 'why are you speaking about this issue?'
ReplyDeleteWhen you introduce theory, integrate it persuasively e.g. suggest that maybe our ideas about the genders speaking differently are shaped by outdated theory, knock down Lakoff and Z&W, and go on to talk about Cameron's discursive approach; then instruct the audience (persuasively) to use their language assertively when that is required and sensitively when that is required and to invite the speech of those who use voices that are being ignored, be they male or female.