This research examines the way people talk to one another and the fact that there are gender differences that can be discerned in human speech. Specifically to be examined is the way boys and girls talk, showing how they interact with each other, what they communicate, and how researchers have noted these differences. Early research concentrated on individual speech, but more recently the method has shifted to an examination of conversations to study the issue in the context in which speech phenomena naturally occur. The research has found numerous gender differences in the way boys and girls order ideas, shape the language to their ends, and communicate with one another to convey those ideas through language.
Goodwin (1980) notes that boys and girls have access to the same general language system, though there are systematic differences in how the sexes put that system to work. Tannen (1994) notes there are gender differences in how people talk in terms of conversational coherence, meaning whether or not the topics chosen cohere or hang together. How people talk is examined by Tannen and other researchers in terms not only of gender differences but age differences for each gender as well. Several researchers consider preschool conversational behavior, showing where gender differences begin. Eder notes conversational behavior in disputes among female adolescents, and conflict talk provides a rich source good data for Eckert (1990) as well.
Goodwin (1980) finds that the way tasks are organized among boys differs from the way they are organized among girls, and there are also variations in syntactic forms. Boys make accusations directly. Boys boast openly about their achievements in the presence of others. Boys deal directly and expediently with their grievances. Disputes seldom last more than a few minutes. Such differences in behavior are apparent in the ordinary ways of "doing things with words."
Tannen (199...