ABSTRACT
One major difference between boys' and girls' speech differences during same-sex peer play was their use of gender-based language. Although boys used a variety of masculine speech forms during same-sex peer play (e.g., as compared to when they were conversing with their mothers), girls tended to use gender-neutral speech during same-sex peer play, except during pretend play, when assuming the roles of older women. Even 3-year-olds used various gender-based linguistic forms (e.g., use of different sentencefinal particles, addressee-reference terms, lexical forms). Analyses of boys' and girls' speech used during same-sex peer interactions showed clear differences in language style. As seen in the dialogues provided, boys used more assertive and adversarial language, such as sentence-final particles such as zo (assertion) and yo (emphasis), whereas girls often used more collaborative language, such as interactive particles such as ne (requesting or giving confirmation) and no (requesting or giving explanation).
