Male linguistic patterns adopted by Ana Cristina Vera

Abstract

Every social group has norms that determine acceptable behavior from the participants. The patterns that favor the group are established as social norms, which turn into mandatory characteristics for a community. Gender is one of the most influential elements in this process. Women have played a private role in this context, a situation that defined specific female linguistic patterns. Women’s continuous seek for equal rights has created new opportunities in terms like education access and labor opportunity for women, allowing them to actively develop in a public field, once reserved for men. As a result, the use of male public linguistic patterns by women is more usual. The objective is to describe the linguistic patterns of the participants in the debate: “¿Despenalizar el aborto por violación?” to describe the use of patterns that differ to its gender. It will also identify the interaction of linguistic patterns from Ana Vera, lawyer, and defender of the women's rights through the transcription of relevant fragments from the debate. Ana Vera uses male linguistic patterns in similar situations than the male participant, mostly when she wants to emphasize a statement, provide data, and defend her speaking time. It can be seen that some linguistic patterns from an intimate environment are present too, even when the situation is public and formal. This example shows the interaction between gender linguistic patterns in a public environment.