CATEGORIES OF GENDER IN INTERACTION

Abstract

The speech code theory investigates the manner in which groups of human beings communicate due to particular social, cultural, gender or other factors. Thus, every speech code contains the notion of what it means to be a male or female, it gives the patterns of speech behavior depending on the social roles of each individuum. The aim of the paper is to consider and analyze the characteristic features of gender relations in the implementation of intercultural communication and problems that arise in such interaction. The relevance of this issue lies in deepening and intensification of intercultural ties between the states, as well as intensifying the struggle for democracy principles and norms, which includes overcoming social problems and, in particular, problems of gender relations. Gender is an integral part of speech behavior, it determines the stereotypical forms of behavior, confirmed by language means (verbal and non-verbal) that allow a person to present himself or herself in the society. The particular attention is paid to gossip as a social and speech phenomenon and unavoidable activity among women and men as well. Gender differences in gossiping are also still under examination. Such means as hedging, boasting, talkativeness, intonation, interruption typical for gender interaction help us to specify gender roles in the society and characterize some nuances of communication and to dispel stereotypes. Also, the lexical peculiarities of female and male speech are analyzed. From the gender point of view, the following outcomes have been noted. Women are interrupted more than men; they tend to provide feedbacks to the utterance of the other participants more than men; both women and men are talkative; women have the different choices and frequency of the lexical items comparing to men; the speech of women is full of redundancy; women tend to gossip more than men; women hedge their speech acts to avoid being direct and clear.