Research Symposium

BIO

I am a first-year studying behavioral neuroscience from Fort Myers, Florida. I have varied interests in biology, psychology, and sociology. I look for research opportunities wherever I can and hope to one day find something at the intersection of all three fields!

The Effect of Age of Gender Transition on the Use of Mitigating Phrases in the Speech of Transgender Men

Abstract

Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to social factors such as region, gender, and class. This study focuses on the differences in language used by cisgender men– that is, men assigned male at birth who continue to identify as male– and transgender men– men assigned female at birth who transitioned to male. This study aims to measure both groups’ use of mitigating phrases. These are phrases that purposely imply vagueness, examples being “in my opinion” or “sort of”. Past research has shown that mitigating phrases are more commonly used by cisgender women when compared to their cisgender male counterparts, and that socialization from a young age helps develop these speech patterns; my mentor hypothesizes, then, that transgender men who transitioned socially and/or medically are less likely to use these mitigating phrases than their counterparts who transitioned past the age of thirteen.

Keywords: Languages, LGBT, Sociology