Contested words, gender norms and language ideologies
the gendered meaning of 'tai'
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.28954Keywords:
meaning debate, gender, language ideology, taiwanese, mandarin chinese, localnessAbstract
This study investigates the slang term tai in Taiwan Mandarin and its interactions with gender norms and local language ideologies. Initially a derogatory term denoting an undesirable type of localness, tai has been appropriated to emphasize non-conformity and local identity and has become a discursive site where ideologies concerning gender, language, localness, and cosmopolitanism interact with and shape each other. Using both questionnaire and news corpus data, the study reveals that female subjects evaluate tai more negatively and display a higher level of sensitivity to the role of linguistic practices in the discourse of tai than male subjects. Analysis of related news indicates that tai is strongly associated with non-standard language and non-conformity and is less compatible with the mainstream ideal of femininity. The study reveals how word meaning is embedded in an ideological matrix in which representations of language and gender constantly interact with various intersecting strands of ideologies.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brontsema, R. (2004) A queer revolution: reconceptualizing the debate over linguistic reclamation. Colorado Research in Linguistics 17(1): 1–17.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (2003) Gender and language ideologies. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 447–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch19
Cameron, D. and Kulick, D. (2003) Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791178
Cheng, R. L. (1997) A comparison of Taiwanese, Taiwan Mandarin, and Peking Mandarin. In R. L. Cheng (ed.) Taiwanese and Mandarin Structures and Their Developmental Trends in Taiwan II: Contacts between Taiwanese and Mandarin and Restructuring of Their Synonyms 27–62. Taipei: Yuan-Liou.
Cheshire, J. (2002) Sex and gender in variationist research. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes (eds) Handbook of Language Variation and Change 423–43. Oxford: Blackwell.
Coupland, N. (2003) Sociolinguistic authenticities. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 417–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00233
Eckert, P. (2008) Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4): 453–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.x
Eisikovits, E. (1998) Girl-talk/boy-talk: Sex differences in adolescent speech. In J. Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader 38–48. Oxford: Blackwell.
Feifel, K. (1994) Language Attitudes in Taiwan: A Social Evaluation of Language in Social Change. Taipei: Crane.
Gal, S. (2005) Language ideologies compared. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15: 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2005.15.1.23
Hsiau, A. (1997) Language ideology in Taiwan: the KMT’s language policy, the tai-yu language movement, and ethnic politics. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18(4): 302–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434639708666322
Holmes, J. and Meyerhoff, M. (eds) (2003) The Handbook of Language and Gender. Malden, MA: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942
Huang, S. (1993) Yuyan, shehui, yu zuqun yishi: Taiwan yuyan shehuixue de yanjiu [Language, Society, and Ethnic Identity: A Sociolinguistic Study on Taiwan]. Taipei: Crane.
Huang, S. (2000) Language, identity, and conflict: a Taiwanese study. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 143: 139–49. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2000.143.139
Irvine, J. (2001) ‘Style’ as distinctiveness: the culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation. In P. Eckert and J. R. Rickford (eds) Style and Sociolinguistic Variation 21–43. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Irvine, J. (2004) Say when: temporalities in language ideology. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14: 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.1.99
Irvine, J. and Gal, S. (2000) Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities 35–84. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
Jacobs, G. (1998) The struggle over naming: a case study of ‘queer’ in Toronto. World Englishes 17(2): 193–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00093
Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. (1990) The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change 2: 205–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500000338
Lai, Y. (2006) The rhetorical vision of Tai-Ke as constructed in media: an analysis of the ‘generation’ show. MA thesis, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei.
Lakoff, R. T. (2004) Language and Women’s Place: Text and Commentaries (revised and expanded edition, ed. M. Bucholtz). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Macaulay, R. K. S. (1977) Language, Social Class, and Education: A Glasgow Study. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (1989) The sexual (re)production of meaning: a discourse-based theory. In F. W. Frank and P. A. Treichler (eds) Language, Gender, and Professional Writing: Theoretical Approaches and Guidelines for Nonsexist Usage 35–50. New York: MLA.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (2002) ‘Queering’ semantics. In K. Campbell-Kibler, R. J. Podesva, S. J. Roberts and A. Wong (eds) Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice 137–60. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
McElhinny, B. (2003) Theorizing gender in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch1
Milani, T. M. (2008) Language testing and citizenship: a language ideological debate in Sweden. Language in Society 37: 27–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404508080020
Milani, T. M. (2010) What’s in a name? Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print-mediated debate. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(1): 116–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00435.x
Romaine, S. (2003) Variation in language and gender. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 98–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch4
Sandel, T. L. (2003) Linguistic capital in Taiwan: the KMT’s Mandarin language policy and its perceived impact on language practices of bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi speakers. Language in Society 32: 523–51. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503324030
Su, H. (2005) Language styling and switching in speech and online contexts: identity and language ideologies in Taiwan. PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Su, H. (2008) What does it mean to be a girl with qizhi? Refinement, gender, and language ideologies in contemporary Taiwan. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(3): 334–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00370.x
Su, H. (2011) The meaning contestation of tai: language ideologies and the global-local ambivalence.’ Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 37(2): 283–308.
Trudgill, P. (1972) Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society 1: 179–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500000488
Trudgill, P. (1974) The Social Difference of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wong, A. D. (2005) The reappropriation of tongzhi. Language in Society 34: 763–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404505050281
Wong, A. and Zhang, Q. (2000) The linguistic construction of the tongzhi community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 10: 248–78. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2000.10.2.248
Woolard, K. A. (1998) Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In B. B. Schiefflin, K. A. Woolard and P. V. Kroskrity (eds) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory 3–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xie, Y. (2006) Taike wuting de wudao zhengzhi [The politics of dance in Taike dance club]. Cultural Studies Monthly 55. Retrieved from www.cc.ncu.edu.tw/~csa/journal/55/journal_park422.htm.
Yueh, H. S. (2012) The imagined geography and identity trouble: the discursive construction of Taipei Chic in Taiwan’s women’s talk shows. Paper presented at National Communication Association Conference, Orlando, FL, November.
Zheng, K. (2004) Shemoshi tai? Taiwan wenhua tuxiangzhong de mohudidai [What is Tai? The ambiguity in Taiwanese culture]. Contemporary Magazine 195: 60–79.
Brontsema, R. (2004) A queer revolution: reconceptualizing the debate over linguistic reclamation. Colorado Research in Linguistics 17(1): 1–17.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge.
Cameron, D. (2003) Gender and language ideologies. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 447–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch19
Cameron, D. and Kulick, D. (2003) Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791178
Cheng, R. L. (1997) A comparison of Taiwanese, Taiwan Mandarin, and Peking Mandarin. In R. L. Cheng (ed.) Taiwanese and Mandarin Structures and Their Developmental Trends in Taiwan II: Contacts between Taiwanese and Mandarin and Restructuring of Their Synonyms 27–62. Taipei: Yuan-Liou.
Cheshire, J. (2002) Sex and gender in variationist research. In J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes (eds) Handbook of Language Variation and Change 423–43. Oxford: Blackwell.
Coupland, N. (2003) Sociolinguistic authenticities. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 417–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00233
Eckert, P. (2008) Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4): 453–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.x
Eisikovits, E. (1998) Girl-talk/boy-talk: Sex differences in adolescent speech. In J. Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader 38–48. Oxford: Blackwell.
Feifel, K. (1994) Language Attitudes in Taiwan: A Social Evaluation of Language in Social Change. Taipei: Crane.
Gal, S. (2005) Language ideologies compared. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15: 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2005.15.1.23
Hsiau, A. (1997) Language ideology in Taiwan: the KMT’s language policy, the tai-yu language movement, and ethnic politics. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18(4): 302–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434639708666322
Holmes, J. and Meyerhoff, M. (eds) (2003) The Handbook of Language and Gender. Malden, MA: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942
Huang, S. (1993) Yuyan, shehui, yu zuqun yishi: Taiwan yuyan shehuixue de yanjiu [Language, Society, and Ethnic Identity: A Sociolinguistic Study on Taiwan]. Taipei: Crane.
Huang, S. (2000) Language, identity, and conflict: a Taiwanese study. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 143: 139–49. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2000.143.139
Irvine, J. (2001) ‘Style’ as distinctiveness: the culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation. In P. Eckert and J. R. Rickford (eds) Style and Sociolinguistic Variation 21–43. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Irvine, J. (2004) Say when: temporalities in language ideology. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14: 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.1.99
Irvine, J. and Gal, S. (2000) Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskrity (ed.) Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities 35–84. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
Jacobs, G. (1998) The struggle over naming: a case study of ‘queer’ in Toronto. World Englishes 17(2): 193–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00093
Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. (1990) The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change 2: 205–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500000338
Lai, Y. (2006) The rhetorical vision of Tai-Ke as constructed in media: an analysis of the ‘generation’ show. MA thesis, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei.
Lakoff, R. T. (2004) Language and Women’s Place: Text and Commentaries (revised and expanded edition, ed. M. Bucholtz). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Macaulay, R. K. S. (1977) Language, Social Class, and Education: A Glasgow Study. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (1989) The sexual (re)production of meaning: a discourse-based theory. In F. W. Frank and P. A. Treichler (eds) Language, Gender, and Professional Writing: Theoretical Approaches and Guidelines for Nonsexist Usage 35–50. New York: MLA.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (2002) ‘Queering’ semantics. In K. Campbell-Kibler, R. J. Podesva, S. J. Roberts and A. Wong (eds) Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice 137–60. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
McElhinny, B. (2003) Theorizing gender in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch1
Milani, T. M. (2008) Language testing and citizenship: a language ideological debate in Sweden. Language in Society 37: 27–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404508080020
Milani, T. M. (2010) What’s in a name? Language ideology and social differentiation in a Swedish print-mediated debate. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(1): 116–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00435.x
Romaine, S. (2003) Variation in language and gender. In Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003): 98–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch4
Sandel, T. L. (2003) Linguistic capital in Taiwan: the KMT’s Mandarin language policy and its perceived impact on language practices of bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi speakers. Language in Society 32: 523–51. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404503324030
Su, H. (2005) Language styling and switching in speech and online contexts: identity and language ideologies in Taiwan. PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Su, H. (2008) What does it mean to be a girl with qizhi? Refinement, gender, and language ideologies in contemporary Taiwan. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(3): 334–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00370.x
Su, H. (2011) The meaning contestation of tai: language ideologies and the global-local ambivalence.’ Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 37(2): 283–308.
Trudgill, P. (1972) Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich. Language in Society 1: 179–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500000488
Trudgill, P. (1974) The Social Difference of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wong, A. D. (2005) The reappropriation of tongzhi. Language in Society 34: 763–93. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404505050281
Wong, A. and Zhang, Q. (2000) The linguistic construction of the tongzhi community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 10: 248–78. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2000.10.2.248
Woolard, K. A. (1998) Introduction: Language ideology as a field of inquiry. In B. B. Schiefflin, K. A. Woolard and P. V. Kroskrity (eds) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory 3–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xie, Y. (2006) Taike wuting de wudao zhengzhi [The politics of dance in Taike dance club]. Cultural Studies Monthly 55. Retrieved from www.cc.ncu.edu.tw/~csa/journal/55/journal_park422.htm.
Yueh, H. S. (2012) The imagined geography and identity trouble: the discursive construction of Taipei Chic in Taiwan’s women’s talk shows. Paper presented at National Communication Association Conference, Orlando, FL, November.
Zheng, K. (2004) Shemoshi tai? Taiwan wenhua tuxiangzhong de mohudidai [What is Tai? The ambiguity in Taiwanese culture]. Contemporary Magazine 195: 60–79.
Published
2018-05-11
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Su, H.-Y. (2018). Contested words, gender norms and language ideologies: the gendered meaning of ’tai’. Gender and Language, 12(1), 27-60. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.28954
