Gender’s Influence on Word Interpretation

Gender’s influence on the interpretation of lexical terms can be seen in everyday conversations. This can partially be explained using LePage’s Acts of Identity theoretical lens to describe how men and women’s language are unique to each other (LePage). The majority of the data collected for this essay came from interviews with four sets of couples. The couples were asked questions regarding their interpretation of different words. Through the answers, one can see how the women tend to have very specific meanings for words while the men have more general answers; indicating that women have a habit of overanalyzing everything, while men tend to not analyze at all. The major focus of this essay was to point out just how differently men and women interpret language and how growing up in one gender circle versus another influences our interpretations.

Introduction

Gender influences the interpretation of semantic meaning. The ways in which words are used in male circles are often very different from the connotations that the same words carry in female circles. Members of the opposite sex are different in many ways, from their thought processes to the way they interpret words and phrases. Stereotypically women are known for over-analyzing everything while men are rumored to do no analyzing at all. Male and female interpretation of words is different and unique to each sex. This can be explained using LePage’s Acts of Identity theoretical lens which argues that language is shaped by identity, and we have the ability to use these different identities within our language (LePage). This essay will explore the different ways men and women interpret language and how their environments helped to shape these differences.

Methods

The data for this essay came mostly from interviews conducted with four different couples of varying ages and ethnicities. Each couple was asked the same set of questions, but for concision purposes only one couple’s answer will be given for each question. In all of the interviews, similar answers were received from the majority of couples, leading to the conclusion that the data is valid and indicating that a definite trend runs throughout the interviews. The men were always asked to answer the questions first in order to keep their answers from being influenced by the women.

The words chosen for the interviews were picked specifically because some of them may be considered “hot button” topics. These lexical terms were chosen to elicit emotional responses. Other words, such as lavender were chosen to show the difference in the mental processes of men and women. They are words that had a good chance of showing how growing up in the different gender circles influences the interpretation of words.

Results and Discussion

Four couples were interviewed for this essay. The first couple interviewed consisted of an African American male and female both around the age of twenty-five.

Similar answers were received from every couple, indicating that men take terms literally while women tend to use many different phrases for similar things. All of the terms would have similar meaning but there would be slight nuances that made them each unique. This can also be seen in the next example. The second couple consisted of a white male and female around nineteen years old.

This question was interesting in that all of the women agreed that the words each had their own individual meanings while all of the men thought that the women were “crazy” after they explained their reasoning. To them all of the words were synonymous with each other. Once again the women analyzed the words to a much greater degree than the men did. This indicated that a trend of overanalyzing was becoming apparent in the way women interpret words. The third couple was a white male and female around sixteen years of age.
Interviewer: What is lavender?

This question resulted in the men thinking that the women were “crazy” again for having subcategories of light purple. The fact that purple was first broken down into dark purple and light purple and then from there into different shades of the two seemed mildly disturbing to them. They could not understand why the women did not just call the color what it looked like, such as light purple, rather than giving it names such as lavender or lilac. The fourth couple consisted of a Latino male and female around thirty years of age.
Interviewer: What are crabs?
Orlando: Animals that come out of the ocean that you eat at Red Lobster.
Sofia: Hmm when I think of crabs I think of the STD where you have little critters crawling around in your…um lower area.
Orlando: Eww that’s what you think of when you hear the word crabs?
Sofia: Well yeah. I mean I’ve never had them but I know people that have.
Orlando: Really. Who. Was it one of your sisters?

In all four of the couples, the men always thought immediately of food while three of the four women were more inclined to think of the STD. This was interesting in that men have been stereotyped as always having sex on their minds but in this case the women were more inclined to interpret the word in its sexual form than the men were.

These examples helped to show how gender influences the interpretation of lexical terms. LePage’s Acts of Identity lens states that peoples’ past, culture, parents, knowledge, and many more aspects all play a role in developing someone’s identity, which affects their language use as well(LePage). In this case, growing up in different gender circles was the major contributing factor to the different semantic meanings. Males having grown up surrounded by other males are greatly influenced by the male interpretation of certain words and the connotations that they carry. Women on the other hand, having grown up surrounded by women pick up the female interpretation of the words and their own connotations. Here the environment in which an individual was exposed to the most growing up helped to shape his or her language interpretation.

Conclusion

Gender influences lexical term interpretation. Growing up surrounded by men has shaped the male’s use of certain words to mean more general terms. They tend to be more direct and literal minded in their interpretations. Women on the other hand have adopted far more specific meanings for words. For women, slight connotational differences can completely change the meaning of the word, and similar words have very different meanings. LePage’s Acts of Identity lens helps to explain this (LePage). Our past, environment, family, and friends all help to shape our language use. In this case, gender circles have an important impact on lexical term interpretation and the shaping of our identity.

Works Cited

LePage, Robert. "Acts of Identity."