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Mixed Gender Relationships

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In accordance, Holmes (1995) explains also the way language is used by males is different from that of females :
Most women enjoy talking and regard talking as an important means of keeping in touch, especially with friends and intimates. They use language to establish, nurture and develop personal relationships. Men tend to see language more as a tool for obtaining and conveying information (p.2).
Moreover, men and women tend to use offensive language differently in a mixed _company.This is reiterated by Coates (2004), who mentions Gomm’s research (1981) in her book which shows that “ both men and women swear more in the company of their own sex and male usage of swear words in particular drops dramatically in a mixed_ sex conversations ” (p.97). In general, males use weaker expletives in the presence of females and they tend to use them sometimes as a strategy to dominate during mixed_gender interaction.

It is also argued that the use of TWs reinforce men’s position of strength and masculinity. Accordingly, Selnow (1985) explains that the use of TWs “ …show more content…

Similarly, Giles and Coupland (1991) claim that “ when we talk about intergenerational communication we are talking of intercultural relations ” (p. 33). This statement indicates that this difference between the younger generation and the older generation can be seen as a difference between two cultures.
Many studies have proved that change in generations may lead to change in linguistic behaviour and linguistic attitudes. Children may change their attitudes when they become teenagers and teenagers’ attitudes often change when they grow up to be adults. Individuals tend to change their linguistic behaviour as they pass through different stages of life as stated by Labov (1994): “ generational change is the basic model for sound change ” (p.

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