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Gender differences in young children's speech: the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence
Author(s) -
Ladegaard Hans J.,
Bleses Dorthe
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
international journal of applied linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.712
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1473-4192
pISSN - 0802-6106
DOI - 10.1111/1473-4192.00045
Subject(s) - psychology , vernacular , danish , institutionalisation , developmental psychology , linguistics , competence (human resources) , social psychology , philosophy , psychiatry
Many sociolinguistic studies have found that female speakers prefer standard speech forms while male speakers prefer vernacular forms. This article addresses two questions: (1) when does this split between male and female language occur in the language of young children; and (2) how do little boys and girls come to prefer linguistic features which are predominant in the language of adults? Two hypotheses accounting for the mechanisms of transmission are presented – the frequency hypothesis and the role‐model hypothesis – and data from a study of Danish children's acquisition of past‐tense morphology is presented. The study found gender differences in the past‐tense morphology of the 4‐, 6‐ and 8‐year‐old participants, and it is argued that the role‐model hypothesis would most adequately explain these differences. Furthermore, it is argued that early institutionalisation of children in Denmark may lead to increased peer group influence and help explain why gender differences occur at an earlier age compared to studies from the UK and the USA.