Locating Exclusion in Male Peer Talk

Abstract

This paper seeks to locate the phenomenon of exclusion within the domain of language: specifically male peer conversation. Essential gender differences in male and female styles of communication have been studied from various socio-psychological and linguistic perspectives in the twentieth century. However, male intra-gender communication is a much more nuanced process than the listing of a few essential characteristics might indicate. Within the complex dynamics of the male peer group, how is identity established, contested and re-contextualized is what this paper will examine. In the process, it is expected to highlight the contextual negotiations by which language performs both group solidarity and individual exclusion in the establishment of identity. This performative aspect of exclusion during talk in interaction will be underscored through an analysis of male peer group talk in this paper.