Lanxiang Wang Wang

English 0711 page 1

Instructor: Betsy Self Elijah

Feb 15th, 2015

Essay 1

Differences between Men and Women

Many things are different from others, so how about males’ and females’ language? Are there any differences between males’ and females’ language? The author Ronald Macaulay make a argument about this problem in his article. Sex Difference argued about is there any difference between men and women’s language. He use many claims, evidences, and tone to show that male’ and female’ language have no difference. In this essay, almost part persuade me, but there is only one part that do not convince to me.

I consider that claims about physiology problem between males and female is not convince to me. It has no logic in this part. His opinion is that there are no differences between men and women, but in this part he says “There are some differences between males and females that do not depend upon unreliable tests of language development.”. Although he says it is depend on unreliable test of language development, I think this is a fact, males and females’ vocal cord are different, and the frequency of vocal cord’s vibration is also different. In normal situation, a man’s vocal cord is thicker than a woman’s, so a man’s vocal cord can vibrating more than a woman’s vocal cord, then the sound their make is also different.I think this physiology problems belong to the differences between males and females,and I believe that the diverse voices make the language different between men and women. So I disagree with Macaulay’s argument in this context.

Wang

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However, the argument about how boys and girls learn language persuade me. The example says “Girls have an innate tendency toward sedentary pursuits to claims that it is easier and more astisfying for the girl baby to imitate the mother’s speech than it is for the boy baby to imitate the father’s.”, then Macaulay argues about this statement, he says”I am not sure whether the writer considered himself a scientist, but if his writing is an example of intellectual rigor, then give me hte subtlety of the humanities any day.” He thinks it is incredible and it showed no important sex differences in language development. I agree with the author, I believe every baby have the same ability on learning language. Some researches show that the only way influence language’s learning of baby is genetic predisposition and acquired environment, and not related to gender.

The author’s tone is formal and academic. He always put some examples, and then make argument to evident his opinion. For instance, he use Professor Dorothea McCarthy’s conclusion “One of the most consistent findings to emerge from the mass of data accumulated on language development in American white children seems to be a slight difference in favor of girls in nearly all aspects of language that have been studied.”, and next, he make a argument carefully. He said that he found nothing provided convincing evidence of consistent sex differences in language development. The way he presents the evidence is serious and careful at the same time. This formal and academic tone let me convinced.

Wang

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All in all, almost of this article convince to me, by the tone, the argument, and the claims. Nevertheless, the argument of the physiology problems between males and females make me confused. In this article, I learned how to use argument to evident my statement, like use some examples, then find some opposite idea to show my statement is correct. Also I believe there are some physiology problems make the male’s and female’s language different, beyond that, there is no sex difference in male and females’ language.