Child Language and Gender

Jorge Correia Orfão

Master in Feminist Studies

FLUC

Seminário de Feminismo e Linguística

February the 10th of 2011

Abstract

This essay intends to assess how language and gender are related to society, helping us understand that both constitute an individual’s social identity. When we learn a language, we are being socialized and influenced by patterns of doing language/actions. Considering that socialization has its foundation on the development of language, I will expand the idea of how gender roles are socially acquired. Illustrating Mary Talbot and Deborah Cameron’s “feminist critique of language”, I will focus on the analysis of how language acquisition may influence children’s gendering processes. In order to contextualize the relationship between language and gender acquisition, I will present an outline of theories of language development and will explore the usage-based theory of language acquisition, in which Michael Tomasello explains the foundational social-cognitive skills of child language. Subsequently, I will comment on a short episode of Phineas and Ferb, a cartoon show produced by the Disney Channel, in order to evaluate the extent how such programs may (or may not) facilitate social development concerning language and gender. This review attempts to indicate how masculine and feminine features are represented in the cartoon show, considering some ethnographic outcomes presented in Marjorie Harness Goodwin’s investigations about children’s socialization. (...)