Linguistic Society of America

Male/Female Language: With a Comprehensive Bibliography by Mary Ritchie Key Review by: Edwin Battistella Language, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Jun., 1998), pp. 456-457 Published by: Linguistic Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/417958 . Accessed: 26/05/2012 11:14
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LANGUAGE, VOLUME 74, NUMBER 2 (1998)

tered and showing that children's narrativeshave the 'queenbee syndrome'.The focus of the original considerable stylistic and linguistic flexibility in book was the social constructionand differentiation termsof both style shiftingandcode shifting.YVETTE of the concepts male and female; the linguistic asHYTER and CAROL WESTBY in termsof labeling,nam(247-84) describe how pects of this differentiation oralnarratives areused to assess language,reviewing ing andreference,syntax,phonology,and semantics; notions of communicativecompetence and the cod- andwideraspectsof communication such as theroles ing of linguistic and kinesthetic narrativefeatures of silence and of nonverbalcommunication,and the that denote perspective and developing strategiesto characterization of women's writing. The original foster writtenas opposed to oral narrativestyles; the work culminatedby makingthe case for an androgychapterconcludes with four appendiceswhich pro- nous language (with Shakespeareviewed as the exvide supportingmaterialand informationfor assess- emplar);the second edition preserves that message MASSEY (285-306) treats but also weaves in the idea that many voices that ing oral narratives.APRIL culturalinfluenceson languageassessmentandinter- have participatedin the discussion of language and vention and develops clinical guidelines based on gender and many perspectives are to be considered socioculturalresearch.CHERYL andLISA ROG- and evaluated. K also ends most of the chaptersof SCOTT ERS(307-32) discuss written language abilities of the original 1975 essay with a shortcoda of material African American children, a topic which has re- for further study,whichbrieflyexpandson herearlier ceived less attentionthan speech but which is cru- comments and provides some additionalreferences. cially relatedto issues of spokenlanguagedifference. Two new appendices follow the essay, one on In the final paper, WANDA MITCHENER-COLSTON guidelines for nonsexist usage and one, titled 'MLA (333-50) takes up issues involving older children female studies', containingthe syllabusfor K's 1968 and youth, focusing on the perceptions of young course. The bibliography(181-307) is expandedto adults about language and code switching and on about 1200 entries (from 240 in the first edition). holistic approachesto interventionand assessment. K preserves citations for manuscriptsand works in The book is primarilydirected toward clinicians progress in the first edition, with informationabout and speech researchers,and the contributors are all later publication.Entriesinclude work from various from programs in speech/language pathology and languagesandrangefromarticleson genderin differcommunicationsdisordersin the US. While there is ent languages;to styles of writing and speaking;to some overlapamongthe papersandwhile some have acoustical, phonological, and grammatical differmore to do with linguistics than others, all are inter- ences in male/femalespeech. Journals in represented esting and detailed and supplementthe treatmentof the bibliographyrange from AnthropologicalLinAAVE providedin introductory linguisticsor speech guistics andLanguagein Societyto Women and Lanpathology texts. Communicationdevelopment and guage to Ms. Magazineand the RadcliffeQuarterly. disorders in African American children will be an In additionto books and journal articles,K includes excellent resourcefor both generalistsand those in- theses and dissertations,book reviews, generaltexts volved in researchon AAVE. [EDWN BATrISTELLA, that have sections or chapters on male/female lanWayne State College.] guage, conference papers, and sources outside linguistics (such as materialon human relations, law, education, humor, and creative writing). Also inMale/female language: With a compre- cluded, as in the first edition, are sources of general hensive bibliography. 2nd edn. By relevance to the topic: Simone de Beauvoir's The second sex, GermaineGreer's The female eunuch, MARY RITCHIEKEY. Lanham, MD: Carolyn Heilbrun's Reinventingwomanhood,Betty Scarecrow Press, 1996. Pp. xxxv, 324. Friedan'sThefeminine mystique,Susan Brownmill$36.00. er's Femininity, and Catherine MacKinnon's Only The first edition of Key's Male/female language, words. There are some drawbacksto the book. It would published in 1975, developed out of a course she taughtin 1968 and a paperpresentedat the American have been preferablefor the bibliographyto be orthanalphabetically. Dialect Society in 1970. As she notes, much has ganizedaccordingto topic rather changedsince then,andher secondeditionis directed It would have been good also, I think,to have annoto the audience of undergraduateswho were just tated the entries, thoughperhapsthis is a projectfor a future thirdedition. And the second edition drops being born in the 70's. The book begins with a new introductionto the the cartoonswhich were includedin the first (K notes second edition (xi-xxxiii), followed by the fifteen this but does not say why they were dropped).Such chapters of the original book (1-144) and chapter quibbles aside however, this is a valuable work. K's notes (145-70). The new introductiontouches on book provides a history of much of the earlierwork such topics as languageandpower, the legal concept on language and gender, citing materialwith a treof 'reasonable man', the definition of 'work', and mendous historical value, and it is an invaluable

BOOK NOTICES source for research(it is easy to imagine, for example, using the bibliographyas a resourcefor a survey of work on languageand genderappearingin American Speech or for a project on differences in male/female language in other languages). By expanding the bibliographyto include the history of the last twenty years, K has-true to her goal-produced a work that will be useful to a new generation of studentsand their teachers. [EDWIN BATTISTELLA, WayneState College.]

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W & S-E appropriately rely on user-friendlytranscriptionssuch as hoi toide on the saind soid ('high tide on the sound side'). They point out that some of the pronunciations of the island,such as the vowels of the oy in high and ay in sound are characteristic Outer Banks while others are more generally highland Southern(such as ee ander for uh, as in Virginee andfeller, and the use of a low back vowel in words like bar and far for bear andfire). Ch. 4, 'Saying a word or two' (74-96), discusses some syntactic patterns including a pattern of negative concord found in some British dialects (The dogs was . . . Hoi toide on the outer banks: The story contrastingwith I weren't), doublemodals,a-prefixof the Ocracoke Brogue. By WALT ing, the novel use of some in formingadjectiveslike uglysome or nastysome, and the use of bare plurals WOLFRAMand NATALIE SCHILLINGof measurewords. ESTES. ChapelHill: Universityof North The remainder of the book deals with some CarolinaPress, 1997. Pp. xiv, 165. broaderissues. In Ch. 5, 'No dialect is an island' The dialect of OcracokeIslandis a familiarattrac- (97-116), the authors discuss the similarities betion for tourists going to the Outer Banks of North tween the Ocracokedialect and otherAmericandiaCarolina,and the Ocracokebrogue, as it is known, lects. They note a particular affinity between has sometimesbeen associatedin folklinguisticswith Ocracoke pronunciationand syntax and that of the region,butthey also find thatthe vocabElizabethanEnglish. In Hoi toide on the outer banks, Appalachian Wolfram and Schilling-Estes report on their field- ularyof the island is closest to thatof the geographiwork with over 70 islanders(or O'cokers as they call cally nearerlowland Southerndialect. In Ch. 6 'Ebb tide for hoi toide?' (117-36), the themselves). Hoi toide, however, is aimed not at a choir of linguists-though linguists will benefit by authorsdiscuss the problem of endangereddialects readingit-but ratherat the generalpublic, and it is (which is often overlooked, as opposed to the issue sold in islandtouristshops as well as universitypress of endangeredlanguages),the scientific and cultural outlets. Commendably,a portion of the royalties go reasons for dialect preservation,and the prospects to the Ocracoke PreservationSociety. Handsomely for a revival of the Ocracokebrogue.The final chapdone with many photos and maps and clearly and ter, 'The voices of Ocracoke' (137-48), allows the crisply written,the book is a welcome departure from islandersto speakeloquentlyfor themselves, and we the usual representation of dialect in popularlitera- hear from Essie O'Neal, Rex O'Neal, Elizabeth tureand, for linguists, it providesa nice introduction Howard, and James Barrie Gaskill. There is also a to W & S-E's researchon this dialect. twenty-itemvocabularyquiz at the end of the book The book begins with an introduction to 'The roots where readerscan test theirrecall aboutthe meaning of Ocracoke English' (1-28). Here W & S-E give of such items as doast: Does it mean (a) sick, espesome background on languagechange, the historyof cially with the flu; (b) a squaredance step;(c) a small English, and the natureof dialects. They also dispel crab;or (d) toast, especially white bread? the idea that Ocracoke English is Elizabethanand The book fills severalfunctions.It providesnovice discuss the settlement history of the island and its readerswith a solid introductionto a numberof immore recenthistory.In Ch. 2, 'What's in an O'coker portantsociolinguisticconcepts withoutlosing readword?' (29-49), W & S-E deal with the lexicon of ers in a lot of academic prose or drifting too long the O'cokers, treating both recent island coinages from the main topic of the book. Readerslearnabout (such as dingbatter,referringto someone from the mainland and supplantingthe term foreigner) and language change, the regularityof dialects, age and older terms (such as momucked'to bother'and qua- sex variationin the use of dialect features,and their mished 'sick to the stomach'). The lexicon of Ocra- use to signal identity and to preserve community. in thatit celebratesdialect coke English also includes words used in otherareas The book is also important of the South(such as caterwampus meaning'crooked diversity, provides a nice model of how to do comor diagonal'), some of which have novel meanings munity-basedresearch,gives us a welcome perspecon the island (such as wampuscat, which is generally tive on the islanders' views of their being the object touristscoma fiction to scare children but used on the island to of touristattention(one O'cokerreports referto someone abnormal). The chapterincludes an ing up to her and saying "Speak!"), and even describes in passing some of the important eleven-page vocabularylist. work being Ch. 3, 'Sounding like a "Hoi Toider" (50-73), done on dialect awarenessin schools. [EDWIN BATdescribes the distinct pronunciationsof the dialect. TISTELLA, WayneState College.]