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Abstract: This master’s thesis deals with differences in conversational styles between men and women in American reality TV show Big Brother. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the conversations in order to find out whether there exist any differences between male and female speakers in the use of minimal responses, hedges, questions, swear words, overlapping speech and topics in mixed-gender and same-gender conversations. Nine conversations between ten different contestants of the reality TV show Big Brother were randomly selected, transcribed and analyzed. The results of this master’s thesis reveal that women use more hedges and minimal responses than men. There are, however, no gender differences in the placement of minimal responses. Both men and women produce the majority of minimal responses at non-transition relevant places. Furthermore, women swear less than men and use milder swear words. Men, on the other hand, are more inclined to use competitive overlapping speech. They also ask more expressive style questions than women, whereas women ask more relational questions than men. Lastly, there are no significant differences in topic choice between men and women.
Keywords: gender, conversational style, reality TV, hedges, minimal responses, swear words, questions, overlapping speech, conversational topics
Published in DKUM: 19.07.2019; Views: 1266; Downloads: 136
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