In sociolinguistic studies, researchers state that there is such a thing as gendered language. These studies looked at gendered language in discourse and came up with a list of stereotypical...Show moreIn sociolinguistic studies, researchers state that there is such a thing as gendered language. These studies looked at gendered language in discourse and came up with a list of stereotypical linguistic characteristics used by women and men. In other words, certain linguistic features such as emotional adjectives and tag-question are more feminine, whereas judgemental adjectives and directives are said to be more masculine. However, the findings are divided and do not always give a common consensus on the reason behind the phenomenon. The differences could stem from social norms, personal preferences, inherited schemata, or the social setting in which the discourse occurs. For example, specific situational settings could be more likely to induce gendered language than other settings. James Bond movies present settings that are potentially more likely to induce gendered language due to the sexually charged nature of the relationship between James Bond and his women. In these situational settings, men are more likely to behave like stereotypical men, and women are more likely to behave like stereotypical women. Therefore, this thesis will look at the specific sociolinguistic context of the potentially sexually charged relationship between James Bond and various female characters and investigate if the characters use stereotypical feminine versus masculine linguistic features and, therefore, contribute to the sociolinguistic corpus of gendered language and its origin. In addition, it looks at the change over time, taking into account the changing Western society in regard to social norms and gender roles. To summarize, this thesis will look at whether the language in discourse found in the movies reflect findings in previous studies, whether the use of linguistic features changes over time, and if the changes can explain the nature of gendered language. This thesis is divided into five chapters the introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and last but not least, the conclusion. In chapter one, the introduction will give a brief overview of the significant sociolinguistic theories present, their relation to gendered language, what research has been done regarding James Bond movies, and how this research contributes to current discussions of feminism. Chapter one also includes a literature review, which goes into depth about the aforementioned sociolinguistic studies. Last but not least, it will give an overview of the research question. Chapter two will discuss the methodology, how social and linguistic factors were chosen, and which difficulties were encountered. Chapter three displays the results found with the help of graphs and figures. Chapters four and five will discuss the findings, their relevance to the ongoing discussion of sociolinguistics and gendered language, and the study’s main takeaway.Show less
