Uchidas When Difference Is Dominance Under the Microscope: Language Analysis

In an attempt to accomplish better understanding of the academic register, this paper

seeks to analyze the language of the sociolinguistic journal article When difference is
dominance: A critique of the anti-power-based cultural approach to sex differences through
the Language Analysis Features identified by Swales and Feak in their book Academic Writing
for Graduate Students (Uchida, 1992, Swales & Feak, 2004).

In the very beginning of Uchidas article, she stated This article analyzes the
dichotomization of two opposing (Uchida, 1992, p. 547). We can analyze the language used
in this statement in two ways. First, it is noticed that the author intends to draw more emphasis
on the work itself by referring to the article as the subject of the sentence, rather than using the
first-person pronoun I as the sentence subject. Second, since this sentence shows the purpose of
the article, the writer used the active voice to guarantee the direct understanding of the reader to
an essential rhetorical element of her article.

In the authors attempt to show exigence, she wrote I propose that the relationship
between where she used the first-person pronoun to indicate the uniqueness of the work and
how she, as an individual, proposes a new notion on studies that have been previously conducted
in the field. The author continued to show the high level of academic register These studies
have been regarded as the main proponents of (Uchida, 1992, p. 550). The use of passive
voice by the author here can be analyzed as the writers attempt to avoid wordiness of repeating
the studies mentioned previously in the paragraph, as well as to avoid difficulties readers may
encounter following the authors point.

Swales and Feak (2004) emphasized that indirect questions are more common in
academic writing, although direct questions can be very effective in particular instances. Uchida
has used both direct and indirect questions in her article. She used an indirect question in the
statement it is argued why it is important to make cross-cultural comparison to reach the
high level of the academic register in this particular sentence (Uchida, 1992, p. 561). The writer
also used direct questions several times. For instance, she stated but how accurate is this
really? Uchida used the direct question as an effective means to attract the readers attention to
this point (Uchida, 1992, p. 561). The direct question here is also used as a hook since it appears
at the very beginning of a new paragraph.

It is remarkably noted throughout the paper that Uchida consistently avoided addressing
the reader as you, but instead used the passive voice to draw more emphasis on the work itself,
rather than emphasizing the audience as noted by Swales and Feak to be untypical in academic
writing (Uchida, 1992, Swales & Feak, 2004). Examples of this point include Womens speech
was seen as and the influence can most clearly be seen in where Uchida attempted to
emphasize the importance of the content (Uchida, 1992, pp. 547, 550).

The use of integrated and non-integrated citations is clearly seen throughout the article.
The high frequency of using past tense is noted in integrated citations, although the present
simple and present perfect have been used in certain occurrences. The APA system was used in
referring to previous work, as it is the primary citation method used in the field of linguistics.

Although the terms gender and sex seem to not be specific terms of Sociolinguistics, they
were accurately identified by the author in this article. Sex is used to refer to the use of female-
male dichotomy as a category from birth, while the term gender is used to signify that the
female-male dichotomy is socially constructed (Uchida, 1992). There also have been several uses
of the word patriarchy, with the writer not providing a definition to this term, assuming it will be
easily identified by the intended audience interested in the subjects of male-female use of
language within the field of Sociolinguistics.
References

Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and

skills. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Uchida, A. (1992). When "difference" is "dominance": A critique of the "anti-power-based"

cultural approach to sex differences. Language in Society, 21(4), 547-568.