An analysis of gendered speech and changes over time in American TV shows

Abstract

For my bachelor’s thesis I am going to analyze gender linguistics from the 1960’s and the 2020’s. I will be looking into changes in language over time by watching and comparing a few episodes from two different TV shows. I will be using the two popular American TV shows, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” which aired in the 1960’s and “Modern Family” which aired in the 2020’s. My focus will be on language in context with gender, I am more specifically interested in assumed generalizations and frequent claims about the ways the people of different genders speak, in other words: stereotypes. I am also going to explore how gender stereotypes can affect linguistic research and if they should be used or not. I want to specify that when it comes to stereotypes and assumptions about how the different genders speak, I will mainly be using generalizations. Even though it can be assumed that for example women use certain varieties in their language, the variety should not be assumed for every single woman in that speech community. I also want to find out if the use of gendered stereotypes when conducting linguistic research can be damaging, and if it can be mainly helpful or not helpful to use such stereotypes in research. In addition, I want to find out if there are any linguistic differences between the men and women’ language in “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, as well as if there are any in “Modern Family”. I also want to find out if there have been any differences or changes in language between the two TV shows.

For my bachelor’s thesis I am going to analyze gender linguistics from the 1960’s and the 2020’s. I will be looking into changes in language over time by watching and comparing a few episodes from two different TV shows. I will be using the two popular American TV shows, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” which aired in the 1960’s and “Modern Family” which aired in the 2020’s. My focus will be on language in context with gender, I am more specifically interested in assumed generalizations and frequent claims about the ways the people of different genders speak, in other words: stereotypes. I am also going to explore how gender stereotypes can affect linguistic research and if they should be used or not. I want to specify that when it comes to stereotypes and assumptions about how the different genders speak, I will mainly be using generalizations. Even though it can be assumed that for example women use certain varieties in their language, the variety should not be assumed for every single woman in that speech community. I also want to find out if the use of gendered stereotypes when conducting linguistic research can be damaging, and if it can be mainly helpful or not helpful to use such stereotypes in research. In addition, I want to find out if there are any linguistic differences between the men and women’ language in “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, as well as if there are any in “Modern Family”. I also want to find out if there have been any differences or changes in language between the two TV shows.