Blurb:

Chapter 2 focuses on the very complex issue of the relationship between language and gender to examine how discursive choices result from people's interactions in different social practices. The focus of the chapter is on an analysis of a discourse from one area of the SFL perspective introduced in Chapter 1 - the Ideational Metafunction. Topics include: 2.1 Introduction: defi ning ‘gender’;2.2 The Brain Sex discourse; 2.3 The Brain Sex discourse: processes and participants; 2.4 Summary: the Brain Sex discourse; 2.5 Sample gender discourse: ‘Melanie Speaks’