Speaking Like a Man: Linguistic Convergence of Female Dota 2 Gamers
Abstract
Language practices adapt to the domain and culture of their users. This mixed-method research aims to investigate the role of language in a MOBA game called Dota 2, examining the speech convergence of female gamers towards male linguistic features. Three theories are used; Men's Language Framework by Mulac and Mehl and Pennebaker to categorise the male linguistic features; Women’s Language Framework by Lakoff to draw distinctions; Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) by Giles to analyse motives of convergence. 2 questionnaires were given out to 10 female and 10 male participants to investigate their opinion on convergence and perception towards it respectively. Findings revealed that female players do converge towards male linguistic features, noting their positive and negative implications. Data also shows that male players perceive the convergence with a mix of familiarity and acceptance. Results suggest that convergence occurs even within the gaming community, and its culture plays a big role in dictating the language practices and perceptions. This sheds light on how sociolinguistics theories can extend into digital platforms even when the social status or hierarchy is virtual.
Keywords: linguistic convergence; male linguistic features; gendered language; female gamers; gaming community
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Alshami, I. (2019). Language and linguistics. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331454003_Language_and_linguistics
Benito-Ostolaza, J. M., Hernández, P., & Sanchis-Llopis, J. A. (2016). Do individuals with higher cognitive ability play more strategically? Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 64, 5 -11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2016.01.005
Crawford, M. (1995). Talking difference: On gender and language. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
DeFrank, M., & Kahlbaugh, P. (2019). Language Choice Matters: When Profanity Affects How People Are Judged. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 38(1), 126-141. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X18758143
Donner, F. (2024). Structures that tilt: Understanding “toxic” behaviors in online gaming. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241270446
Fu, D. (2019). A Look at Gaming Culture and Gaming Related Problems: From a Gamer’s Perspective. https://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/gaming.pdf
Giles, H., & Ogay, T. (2007). Communication Accommodation Theory. In B. B. Whaley & W. Samter (Eds.), Explaining communication: Contemporary theories and exemplars (pp. 293–310). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Hilte, L., Vandekerckhove, R., & Daelemans, W. (2020). Linguistic Accommodation in Teenagers’ Social Media Writing: Convergence Patterns in Mixed-gender Conversations. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 29(2), 241–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2020.1807853
Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and Woman's Place. Language in Society, 2(1), 45-80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4166707?origin=JSTOR-pdf
Love, R., Dembry, C., Hardie, A., Brezina, V., & McEnery, T. (2017). The Spoken BNC2014: Designing and building a spoken corpus of everyday conversations. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 22(3), 319-344.
McElvain, G. (2022). Adult Immigrant English Learners’ Perceptions of Their Multilingual and Multicultural Identities [Bachelor’s thesis, Hamline University]. School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=5554&context=hse_all
McEnery, T., Brookes, G., Hanks, E., Gerigk, K., & Egbert, J. (2023). Swearing, discourse and function in conversational British English. Journal of Pragmatics, 213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.05.017
Mehl, M., & Pennebaker, J. (2003). The sounds of social life: A psychometric analysis of students' daily social environments and natural conversations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4). https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.857
Michel, K. (1994). Conversation on-line: girls' rapport talk and boys' report talk. Women and
Language, 17(1), 30+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A16617844/LitRC?u=anon~6829a01f&sid=googleSchol
&xid=4fa45cec
Mulac, A. (2001, January). Empirical support for the gender-as-culture hypothesis. An intercultural analysis of male/female language differences. Human Communication Research, 27(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hcr/27.1.121
Müller-Braune, F. (2018, October 25). The Unknown Player: Accommodation Behaviour in Real-Time Strategy Gaming Communities. https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/60198?show=full, 6-14.
Ningrum, I. A. F., Padmadewi, N. N., & Utami, L. P. (2023). The Analysis of Language Features Used by Male and Female Fitness Influencers in Tiktok Videos. Jurnal Sosial dan Humaniora, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.31940/soshum.v13i2.182-192
Ningrum, S., & Crosthwaite, P. (2020). Gender-preferential language use in L1 and L2 argumentative essays? Evidence against lists of ‘gendered’ language features. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v10i1.25100
Pakzadian, M., & Tootkaboni, A. (2018). The role of gender in conversational dominance: A study of EFL learners. Cogent Education, 5(1), 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2018.1560602
Setiawan, S., & Fatimatuzzahroh. (2018). Swear Words among Males: The Social Functions and Pragmatic Meanings. In Proceedings of the 2nd Social Sciences, Humanities and Education Conference: Establishing Identities through Language, Culture, and Education (SOSHEC 2018). Atlantis Press.
https://doi.org/10.2991/soshec-18.2018.71
Sharif, N. A. M., Saffarudin, S., Ab Aziz, A. A., Juned, A. M., Md Shah, N. K., & Yatim, A. I. A. (2023). The Differences in Linguistic Forms Used by Men and Women. In M. Rahim, A. A. Ab Aziz, I. Saja @ Mearaj, N. A. Kamarudin, O. L. Chong, N. Zaini, A. Bidin, N. Mohamad Ayob, Z. Mohd Sulaiman, Y. S.
Chan, & N. H. M. Saad. (Eds.). Embracing Change: Emancipating the Landscape of Research in Linguistic, Language and Literature, vol 7. European Proceedings of Educational Sciences (pp. 512-520). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epes.23097.46
Suman. (2016). Anger Expression: A Study on Gender Differences. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 3(4). 10.25215/0304.140.
Taw, L. W., Paramasivam, S., Libert, A., Moskovsky, C., Jalaluddin, I., & Darmi, R. (2022). Managing virtual rapport on TripAdvisor: discourse in hotel responses to negative online reviews. 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 28(3), 128-148.
Wade, L. (2020). The Linguistic and The Social Intertwined: Linguistic Convergence Toward Southern Speech [Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania]. Scholarly Commons. https://laceywade.github.io/Wade_Dissertation_PDF.pdf
Yousef, G. M. A. (2018). Untypical Linguistic Features of Males and Females and Gender Linguistic Crossing [Master’s Thesis, Middle East University]. Middle East University Repository. https://meu.edu.jo/libraryTheses/5adc57935c5b4_1.pdf
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2025-3104-01
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
eISSN : 2550-2247
ISSN : 0128-5157