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关键词： 语言与性别，《欲望都市》，语言策略
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii1 Introduction 1
2 General Features of Female Language 4
2.1 Topic Development 4
2.2 Hedges and Tag Questions 5
2.3 Stress, Booster and Attention-getters 5
2.4 Swearing and Taboo Language 6
2.5 Minimal Response 6
3 Linguistic Features in Sex and the City 8
3.1 Charlotte Yorker 8
3.2 Carrie Bradshaw 11
3.3 Miranda Hobbes 14
3.4 Samantha Jones 16
3.5 Linguistic Comparison of the Four Characters 19
4 Self-exploration of Female Language in Sex and the City 21
4.1 Feminist Tendencies 21
4.2 The Influence of the Show 22
5 Conclusion 25
Bibliography 27
Appendix 28
104 Valley of the Twenty-something Guys 28
105 The Power of Female Sex …... 29
109 The Turtle and the Hare 31
601 To Market, To Market33
602 Great Sexpectations 37
605 Lights, Camera, Relationship 41
1 Introduction
Four single thirty-something women living in the charming city of New York, Manhattan. Each one has a great career: sex columnist, gallery director, owner of a public relations firm, high powered attorney. Each one is beautiful and sexy in her own way — two blondes, a brunette, and a redhead. It is obvious that the famous American TV series Sex and the City is being discussed here. The show, which is adapted from Candace Bushnell’s book of the same title from 1996, went on air for the first time in 1998, and has ever since caused a great deal of controversy. Some fans declared that the TV series is a representation of modern women due to its focus on fashion, relationship and feminism, whereas other people found it a groundbreaking show because it portrayed 30-something women in a way which had never occurred in the American media before. The show is an urban story of four protagonists in their 30s and 40s: Carrie, a writer looking for Mr. Right; Charlotte, an art dealer on the quest for the knight in the shiny armor; Miranda, a corporate lawyer whose experiences with men have left her cynical; and finally Samantha, a flirty PR executive looking for Mr. Right Now. The show revolves around the main protagonist, Carrie. Carrie writes a weekly column for the New York Star under the assumption that romance is dead. Her research is based on her and her friends’ experiences with love, sex and relationships in the city.
Language, of course, is considered as one of the most salient factors that sets Sex and the City apart from a great number of other American sitcoms dealing with the same themes. The language of the four female main characters has raised a few eyebrows. As is known to all, there exists essential distinction among four protagonists in terms of their words and behaviors.
But are there any rules for how women are allowed to speak in Sex and the City? And what linguistic means are drawn on to make the viewers construct this image of the female protagonists? Another major point of interest in analyzing television is of course to see how the action on the screen reflects the real world. Does the language in Sex and the City reflect how women conventionally talk, or is there something truly revolutionizing about language as it is used on this particular show?
The paper aims to explore the characteristics of female language based on the theories of language and gender. The analysis will enable people to have a bigger picture and better understanding of the influence that gender has brought to language, which turns out to improve interpersonal relations, especially the relations between men and women.