Language and gender
Key terms
Dominance model
Deficit model
Difference model
Marked term
Diminutive suffix
Generic term
Address term
Marital status
Lexical asymmetry
Sex
Gender
Semantic derogation
Patronym
Matronym
Face threatening act
Negative politeness
Positive politeness
Phatic talk
Taboo language
Turn taking
Tag question
a semantic shift in which words take on more negative connotations.
The idea that a person's 'face' can be threatened by the language use of another speaker.
A biological difference between men and women
The difference in behaviour and roles that are as a result of social expectations.
A person's situation with regard to whether they are single, married, separated, divorced or widowed.
A term that is not specific but is relating to a group of things or people. Seen as the norm.
A term which stands out as different from the norm e.g. 'male nurse'
A suffix which suggests that something is less good.
A word or phrase used to address or refer to someone or something without using their name.
Pairs of words which mean the same thing, however the female reference of the term is somehow degraded e.g. 'bachelor vs. spinster'
A name derived from the name of a father or male ancestor.
A name derived from the name of a mother or a female ancestor.
A more indirect, hedged approach to politeness which often uses negative constructions e.g. 'you couldn't take the bin out for me, could you?'
An informal approach to politeness that assumes the other participant in the conversation will agree e.g. 'I think that just about wraps it up, don't you?'
Speech that is designed to maintain social relationships and does not carry significant meaning.
Refers to words and phrases that are generally considered inappropriate in certain contexts.
A type of hidden organisation in conversation and discourse where participants speak one at a time in alternating turns.
An interrogative clause added to the end of a declarative to make it into a question; usually encouraging the other participant to agree e.g. 'We're meeting for lunch today, aren't we?'
There is difference between the use of language between males and females.
Women's language is cooperative, whereas males language is competitive.
Neither uses of language are superior, but both are different.
Janet Holmes
Tag questions and fillers are used for multiple purposes and have complex social functions.
Women give and receive more compliments than men. They also regard them as positive politeness devices.
Men tend to consider compliments as less positive than women do and often see them as face threatening.
Deborah Tannen
6 differences in the way that men and women use language.
Orders vs. proposals
Information vs. feelings
Advice vs. understanding
Independence vs. intimacy
Conflict vs. compromise
Status vs. support
Deborah Cameron
Suggests that there has been more focuses on difference in language and gender and that their speech is actually very similar.
Ideas vary from main principle of difference approach.
Cameron believes hat research undertaken by Lakoff, Fishman and Tannen has little evidence to suggest there is a difference in male and female language.
Jennifer Coates
Believes that men and women use language differently due to initiating different topics of conversation.
Women's language is cooperative, whereas men's language is competitive.
Language in same sex conversations is successful as the topic of conversation is agreed.
All female talk is essentially cooperative (1989)
Jane Pilkington
Women use more positive politeness strategies than men (1992)
Janet Hyde
Males and females from childhood to adulthood are actually more alike than different.
Gender similarities hypothesis
Men use language to make women inferior.
Men are focused on controlling and dominating through language.
Zimmerman and West
1975
Study of interruptions
96% of males interrupted.
Problems - there could have been one dominant male (anomaly) which skewed the results / the sample size was not large enough to generalise.
Geoffrey Beattie replicated the study to find little difference between the number of interruptions of males and females.
Pamela Fishman
Women use tag questions to keep a conversation going.
Conversational shitwork
Males are reluctant to do this 'shitwork' due to their dominant role.
Links to Deborah Tannen - difference model (status)
Without effort from women to keep conversations going between mixed sexes, there is no conversational flow, so it is bound to fail.
Dale Spender
Males have more power in conversations than women.
Patriarchal order is formed through language and its structure; not its meaning.
Male = norm
Language embodies structures that sustain male power.
Connection between age and gender in language.
Men will often reject topics of conversation brought on by women, while women will accept topics chosen by men.
Women speak 0.11% more than men.
Peter Trudgill
Men used more non-standard forms than women.
Studied people in Norwich to see how they pronounce the suffix '-ing'.
Interested in how gender affects dialect in each social class.
Robin Lakoff
O'Barr and Atkins
Suggest that the real reasons for the differences Lakoff suggest women face is their powerlessness.
Language differences are situation-specific. They rely on who has the authority and power in a conversation, rather than the gender of the people involved.
People were critical of Lakoff's 1975 work however it had a far-reaching effect on the debate.
Lakoff views women's language to be inferior compared to men's language.
Language and women's place (1975)
List of traits of female language:
Hedges e.g. 'sort of', 'kind of'.
Empty adjectives e.g. 'adorable', 'gorgeous'.
Super polite forms e.g. 'would you mind if..'
Apologies more than males e.g. 'I'm sorry, but I think that...'
Speak less frequently than males
Avoid course language or expletives
Tag questions e.g. 'you don't mind, do you?'
Hyper correct grammar and pronunciation e.g. using prestige grammar and clear articulation.
Indirect requests e.g. 'I'm so thirsty' = asking for a drink.
Uses tone to emphasise certain words (italicise speech / intonation) e.g. 'so', 'very', 'quite'.
Critcisms
Critics would say that this theory cannot be applied to modern language as it is over 40 years old, so is outdated and the roles of women have changed and are now more equal.
She also used phrases such as 'many men' in her findings, which shows a lack of statistical evidence to back up her theory.
Also questionable what the meaning of interruptions actually is, as could be a sign of positive engagement or interest within the conversation.
Research based on courtrooms.
Found that women and working class men conformed with Lakoff's deficits. (1980)
Could suggest that Lakoff's theory is not completely outdated but may also need to consider class as well as gender.
Jenny Cheshire
Studied teenagers in Reading.
Found that boys used non-standard forms more than girls.
Looked at the grammatical variations in the speech of male and female teenagers.
These grammatical variations included: non standard forms of '-s', 'has' and 'was', multiple negation, and the use of 'ain't'.
She believed that the boys used more non-standard forms due to being a part of denser social networks.
They wanted to seem more 'tough'.