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¶ … Deborah Tannen and Amy Tan use language as a springboard to discuss gender. In "Marked Women, Unmarked Men," Tannen shows how the English language reflects a patriarchal culture. In "Mother Tongue," Tan demonstrates how her mother's limited English belies her power, strength, and intelligence. Tan is more concerned with ethnicity than Tannen. However, Tannen also understands how "geographical region, ethnicity, class, age and gender" interact. Therefore, Tannen and Tan appreciate the impact of language on gender and the impact of gender on language even while Tan frames her argument in terms of her ethnic identity.
Language and linguistics play an important role in Tan's and Tannen's analyses of gender. Tannen deeply delves into the ways women are more "marked" than men, borrowing her metaphor from the field of linguistics. Whereas the men at the table wore relatively nondescript clothing and hairstyles, each of the women had carefully cultivated her own style. Women are expected, Tannen argues, to mark themselves. Another way women mark themselves is by choosing whether or not to keep their surname after getting married. Amy Tan desists from using the linguistic terms that Tannen uses. However, Tan does note that while linguists point to the role of peers in shaping language skills she believes that the language spoken in the home may be more important to shaping a child's identity. Therefore, Tan and Tanner both use linguistics to prove a different point.
Even though their arguments differ, both Tan and Tannen refer to the ways women become marked. Although Tan does not use the term "marked," she implies that ethnic background is a type of cultural marking. Ethnicity can be a highly visible marker, leading to prejudices and biases. Tan's mother tongue led to her being labeled and marked just as much as her mother was. Tannen could easily have incorporated Tan's ideas about ethnicity into "Marked Women, Unmarked Men" to discuss ways the dominant culture squelches the voices of both females and minorities. Tan is therefore more concerned with how language impacts personal identity, whereas Tannen is concerned with how language influences social roles. Both authors illustrate the power of language in shaping personal identity and social norms.
Works Cited
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Retrieved Nov 16, 2007 at http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm
Tannen, Deborah. "Marked Women, Unmarked Men." Retrieved Nov 16, 2007 at http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm
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