Depending on gender

Sociolinguists have grappled with how speakers of different genders use linguistic variables differentially to constitute their identities. Two seemingly-conflicting generalisations have emerged, referred to as the gender paradox. Women at once maintain standard forms which are overtly-discussed and positively-evaluated; yet lead change in non-standard forms which are below the level of consciousness. These trends are relatively robust in cases of language-internal change in Western societies but less so in non-Western societies and situations of language contact. This paper examines the role of gender in a north Australian Indigenous community where there is a shift underway from Gurindji to Kriol. The dataset consists of 185 variables used by 78 speakers across three generations. Here we examine the results of the application of the BayesVarbrul to the dataset which suggest that women tend to be more conservative than men in retaining Gurindji variants, despite a more general shift to Kriol.

社会语言学家一直在努力解决不同性别的人如何以不同的使用语言的方式来构建他们的身份。他们研究发现了两种看似相互矛盾的现象，称为性别悖论。一方面女性更愿意用公认的标准形式来使用语言，另一方面她们又无意识地引领了非标准的形式来使用语言。这个性别悖论的现象在西方社会语言内部变化的时候很显著，但在非西方社会语言内部变化或在与其他语言的接触变化中并不那么显著。本文探讨了性别在北澳大利亚土著社区中语言变化的作用。该社区正在从使用古林吉语转向使用克里奥尔语。我们的数据由三代 78 位参与者使用的185 个语言变量组成。我们演示了如何应用 BayesVarbrul 来分析这个数据。结果表明，尽管整个社区普遍地转向使用克里奥尔语，但女性比男性更愿意保留使用古林吉语。