help me uderstand

Question

hello,Please could you help me to uderstand the definition below? This is a definition of silence in a formula, I'm not sure whta the word charging means in this context. It was originally in quotaion marks. what would be a synonym for charging?Silence- calculated as a ratio by "charging" silence to the speaker to the speaker who has just finished.thank you

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

I think the word charging can be replaced by the word attributing, but there's something suspect about the sentence, so I'm not sure. "to the speaker to the speaker"??? What's that about?

Marius Hancu · Answer

yogi:

Pls make us a favor next time and post the link of the page from which you're quoting, to spare us the work of searching for the full context.

It's the last para here:
---------
Men's and Women's Language
*** Differentiated Roles in Conversation

West and Zimmerman (1977) conducted an analysis of naturalistic and
experimental conversation between men and women and people of the same
***.

Deep interruption - cutting off the last two words; in 7 same-***
conversations, there were 10 interruptions, with no difference between
male and female pairs; in 11 conversations, males interrupted 46
times; females 2 times

Silence - calculated as a ratio by "charging" silence to the speaker
who has just finished, and expressing silence in the conversation as
the ratio of least silence charged (men) of the to most silence
(women). Interruptions and silence lead to topic control by men.

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~sngynan/slx13.html
----------

Marius Hancu · Answer

yes, similarly to CJ, I think the meaning for charging are: attributing, assigning

Kajjo · Answer

I think it means "to direct" here. One speaker answers with silence instead of talking, he is "throwing/charging/directing" only silence, not words to the other one. Probably it is felt a little bit like an attack or insult if someone does not reply -- at least that would go well with the complete issue of interruptions and silence.

Kajjo

CalifJim · Answer

Kajjo,

I'm sorry, but this is not correct. It has nothing to do with attacking or insulting and nothing to do with throwing or directing.

The word "charge" is used in the context of measurements in an experiment. How silence is charged has to do with how silence is counted or measured. The sentence as a whole describes how the researchers decided to measure/count/charge silences. The space of silence in the conversation is charged to men in some cases. That is, it is counted as a silence by a man - so many seconds of silence. The space of silence is charged to women in other cases. That is, it is counted as a silence by a woman.

The use of the word charge comes from the terminology for charge accounts or credit cards.

CJ

Kajjo · Answer

Hi CalifJim,
yes, you are right, that makes sense!
Kajjo

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