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Gender Theorists - Coggle Diagram
Gender Theorists
Zimmerman and West
The Dominance Approach - Men are seen as controlling and dominant in mixed-sex interactions.
In a small study, 96% of interruptions in mixed-sex conversations were made by men.
Limitations of Z and W:
70s, lack of validity - contemporary society has changed, as well as the development of opinion/role of women
Use of tape recorders - not reliable as a limited amount can be stored on them
Small sample (representative) of students (age, ideologies)
Wide spread comments - general. Significant generalisations based on a small amount of data
Julia Stanley
Found a marked difference in words used to describe sexually promiscuous females (200) compared to males (20)
The Dominance Approach
Z and W reported that in 11 conversations between men and women, men used 46 interruptions, but women only two
Dale Spender builds on this. She identifies power with a male patriarchal order in this society, and states that language embodies structures that sustain male power
Beattie
Beattie found that women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency.
Men did interrupt more, but by a margin so slight as not to be statistically significant
Yet, Beattie's findings are not quoted as often as those of Zimmerman and West
'The problem with this is that you might simply have one very voluble man in the study which has a disproportionate effect on the total... Why do interruptions necessarily reflect dominance? Can interruptions not arise from other sources? Do some interruptions not reflect interest and involvement?' - against Z and W
Robin Lakoff
Stated that women's language consists of a prevalence of these methods in conversation:
Hedges e.g. 'sort of'
Super polite forms e.g. 'Would you mind...'
Tag questions e.g. 'Isn't it?'
Empty adjective e.g. 'lovely' or 'nice'
Deborah Tannen
For men, the world is a competitive place where language and conversation is used for dominance.
For women, the world is a network of connections and the use of language and conversation is used to seek and offer support
6 components for difference theory:
- Status v. Support
- Advice and Understanding
- Information v. Feeling
- Orders v. Proposals
- Conflict v. Compromise
- Independence v. Intimacy
Keith and Shuttleworth
Women - talk more than men; talk too much; are more polite; are hesitant; ask more questions; complain and nag; are more co-operative
Men - swear more; don't talk about emotions; talk about sport more; talk about women and machines in the same way; are competitive in conversation; insult each other frequently
Trudgill 1974
Study of how male and female speakers pronounce suffix 'ing'.
Across all social classes, men tended to use more non-standard pronunciation
When asked about their speech, men reported they used non-standard pronunciation more than they actually did, women did the opposite
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Biber 2001
Women focus on 'informational production' rather than 'invoked production'
- Informational production: women have a set idea of the information they want to relay
Invoked production: men are more likely to wait to be 'invoked' into conversation without forward planning
Narrative v. Non-narrative approach
Women are more likely to tell a narrative through their conversation
Men are more likely to stick to facts and not create a 'story'
Abstract v. Non-abstract approach
Women are more likely to talk about abstract ideas
Men are more likely to have conversations rooted in real life
Use of private verbs like - 'feel' or 'think'
Women are more likely to use verbs of actions that one can personally experience
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Janet Holmes 1922
When all necessary reservations and qualifications have been taken into account, women are more polite than men.
Women use more positively orientated politeness whereas men use more negatively orientated politeness.
She suggests that this is due to having different perceptions on what language should be used for: Men use language as a tool to give and obtain information (referential function) , Women use language as a means of keeping in touch - social function
Women show an expression of concern for others feelings and show this through compliments and apologies.
Women pay and receive more compliments as they see them as positive and affective politeness devices whereas men consider them less positively as seen as face threatening or not as unambiguous in intentions
Women use compliments to build a connection , Men use compliments to make evaluative judgements
Cameron
Pointed towards other aspects being at play e.g. status
'The basic trend, especially in formal and public contexts, is for higher status speakers to talk more than lower status ones, The gender pattern is explained by the observation that is most contexts where status is relevant, men are more likely than women to occupy high-status positions'
Looked at the gaps in previous research that helped establish the binary oppositions of language use of men and women. Highlighted more robust evidence (e.g Hyde) that showed the gender difference was negligible when it came to aspects of discourse such as interruption
Mary Talbot 2010
Phonological or graphological differences between the genders is not conducive to the English Language - do not mark for gender in our lexis as blatantly as other European languages
Should be based around progression of the language not realisations
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Jennifer Coates
Boys and girls develop different styles of speaking due to different interactions within their gendered subcultures and friendship groups
Women's voices combine and overlap in conversation whereas men's take it in turns to hold the court/floor
Mary Crawford 1995
Individual women should not be blamed for their 'powerlessness' in conversations as Lakoff suggests
Women cannot be 'trained' to be more assertive, society needs to change
Lakoff blamed women - not their fault. Society needs to accept women speak differently
Jenny Cheshire 1982
Identified 11 non-standard features and measured their frequency of use in boys and girls in a Reading playground, differentiating between those who approved or disapproved of minor criminal activities
'They calls me names'
'You was with me, wasn't you?'
Barker 1982
Boys conversation style is based on competition whereas girls is based on collaboration
Girls:
Criticise others acceptably
Develop and sustain relationships
More able to interpret pragmatic meaning
Boys:
Gain and maintain audience attention
Gain conversational dominance over other speakers
Assert themselves and their point of view
Schnoebelen 2016:
Suggests that in order for the genders to become equal, we need to stop trying to find differences in our language and just get on with life
Otto Jespersen
Found that within women's language they talk a lot, have smaller vocabularies than men and novels written by women use less complex words and so are easier to read
More fluent in speaking and less hesitant than men, due to easy language use
Women use half finished sentences as they start to speak before they think - use of 'and' is more emotional than grammatical
Women have a preference for veiled and indirect expressions which precludes them from being as effective as men
They use 'pretty' and 'nice', often and use adverbs and hyperbole too much