對語言和性別之間的許多可能的關(guān)系、交叉點(diǎn)和緊張關(guān)系的研究是多樣的。它跨越學(xué)科界限，至少可以說，它涵蓋了應(yīng)用語言學(xué)、語言人類學(xué)、會話分析、文化研究、女權(quán)主義者媒體研究、女權(quán)主義者心理學(xué)、性別研究、互動社會語言學(xué)、語言學(xué)、中介文體學(xué)、社會語言學(xué)和媒體研究。從方法論的角度來看，沒有一種方法可以說是“掌握領(lǐng)域”。在語言和性別的研究過程中，討論性、后結(jié)構(gòu)、民族行為學(xué)、人種學(xué)、現(xiàn)象學(xué)、實證主義和實驗性方法都可以在實踐中看到，它們產(chǎn)生和復(fù)制了蘇珊·斯皮爾所描述的“不同的、經(jīng)常相互競爭的、關(guān)于話語方式、意識形態(tài)的理論和政治假設(shè)”。Gy和性別認(rèn)同應(yīng)該被構(gòu)想和理解?！?】因此，這一領(lǐng)域的研究可能最有用地分為三個主要研究領(lǐng)域：第一，對與特定性別相關(guān)的各種言語有廣泛和持續(xù)的興趣；第二，對社會規(guī)范和習(xí)俗有相關(guān)的興趣。產(chǎn)生性別語言使用的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)[2]（與特定性別相關(guān)的多種語言（或社會選擇），有時稱為性別選擇）；第三，有研究側(cè)重于特定語境和當(dāng)?shù)氐男詣e構(gòu)建和操作方式。社會語言學(xué)和性別研究中的性別和語言的研究通常始于羅賓·拉科夫1975年出版的《語言和女人的地位》一書，以及拉科夫早期的一些研究[4]語言和性別研究自20世紀(jì)70年代以來得到了很大發(fā)展。著名學(xué)者包括黛博拉·坦南、佩內(nèi)洛普·埃克特、珍妮特·霍爾姆斯。Mary Bucholtz、Kira Hall、Deborah Cameron等。1995年出版的《性別宣言：語言和社會建構(gòu)的自我》一書經(jīng)常被稱為語言和性別的中心文本。

Research into the many possible relationships, intersections and tensions between language and gender is diverse. It crosses disciplinary boundaries, and, as a bare minimum, could be said to encompass work notionally housed within applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, cultural studies, feminist media studies, feminist psychology, gender studies, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistics, mediated stylistics, sociolinguistics and media studies.In methodological terms, there is no single approach that could be said to 'hold the field'. Discursive, poststructural, ethnomethodological, ethnographic, phenomenological, positivist and experimental approaches can all be seen in action during the study of language and gender, producing and reproducing what Susan Speer has described as 'different, and often competing, theoretical and political assumptions about the way discourse, ideology and gender identity should be conceived and understood'.[1] As a result, research in this area can perhaps most usefully be divided into three main areas of study: first, there is a broad and sustained interest in the varieties of speech associated with a particular gender; second, there is a related interested in the social norms and conventions that (re)produce gendered language use[2] (a variety of speech (or sociolect) associated with a particular gender is sometimes called a genderlect); and third, there are studies that focus on the contextually specific and locally situated ways in which gender is constructed and operationalized.[3]The study of gender and language in sociolinguistics and gender studies is often said to have begun with Robin Lakoff's 1975 book, Language and Woman's Place, as well as some earlier studies by Lakoff.[4] The study of language and gender has developed greatly since the 1970s. Prominent scholars include Deborah Tannen, Penelope Eckert, Janet Holmes, Mary Bucholtz, Kira Hall, Deborah Cameron, and others. The 1995 edited volume Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self[5] is often referred to as a central text on language and gender.