CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES ABOUT GENDERED ROLES IN TED TALKS

Abstract

This study is designed to explicate how the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationship of language is the embodiment of gender differences. The present research deals with data taken from TEDx videos of both male and female speakers to find out how the speech varies between both sexes; what lexical choices and grammatical patterns are used by the speakers to make their speech stand out. The data, after being transcribed according to the Jeffersonian system of transcription, are analysed in the light of multiple parameters of Lakoff’s Deficit Model (1975). The paper mainly focuses on how men and women exploit various linguistic choices in terms of topics, empty adjectives, hedges, intensives, super-polite adjectives, telling jokes and intonation in their talks. The results implicate that both men and women have reshaped their linguistic choices over time and, as opposed to Lakoff’s findings, women’s talk is getting subject-oriented, shaded with lesser use of intensifiers, empty adjectives and intonations; whereas men are using these parameters with conviction. This represents a negation of internalised stereotypes by both sexes.