Abstract

Differences in the ways that men and women use language have long been of interest in the study of discourse. Despite extensive theorizing, actual empirical investigations have yet to converge on a coherent picture of gender differences in language. A significant reason is the lack of agreement over the best way to analyze language. In this research, gender differences in language use were examined using standardized categories to analyze a database of over 14,000 text files from 70 separate studies. Women used more words related to psychological and social processes. Men referred more to object properties and impersonal topics. Although these effects were largely consistent across different contexts, the pattern of variation suggests that gender differences are larger on tasks that place fewer constraints on language use.

Keywords

Variation (astronomy)PsychologyLinguisticsObject (grammar)Empirical researchComputer scienceArtificial intelligenceStatistics

Affiliated Institutions

Related Publications

Publication Info

Year
2008
Type
article
Volume
45
Issue
3
Pages
211-236
Citations
777
Access
Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric
PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

777
OpenAlex

Cite This

Matthew L. Newman, Carla J. Groom, Lori D. Handelman et al. (2008). Gender Differences in Language Use: An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples. Discourse Processes , 45 (3) , 211-236. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638530802073712

Identifiers

DOI
10.1080/01638530802073712