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English Language: Gender, ◆ Common use of tag questions (‘You don't…
English Language: Gender
Theorists
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Robin Lakoff
- Hedges (phrases such as ‘sort of’ or ‘kind of’) - More frequent apologies (‘I’m sorry, but I think that…’) - Common use of tag questions (‘You don't mind, do you?’)
relates to the gender deficit model,
proposing that women’s speech can be distinguished from that of men
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Studies
Janet Holmes (1992) challenged Lakoff’s reading of tag questions, claiming they were multi-functional.
Dubois and Crouch (1975) found that men used tag questions more than women and that it wasn’t a sign of weakness.
Zimmermann and West’s study in 1975 on interruptions revealed that in 11 conversations, men used 46 interruptions and women only two. However, Geoffrey Beattie (1982) contradicted this. Using a much larger sample of material, he found that the difference between the number of interruptions made by men and women was minimal.
In 1974, Peter Trudgill discovered that men were less likely to use prestige pronunciation of certain speech sounds than women. Women were more likely to hyper-correct.
Jenny Cheshire (1982) supported Trudgill. Analysing the talk of teenagers in Reading, she found that nearly all boys used non-standard terms more than girls.
Janet Hyde (2005) proposed a ‘gender similarities hypothesis’, claiming there are more similarities than differences between male and female language.
Judith Butler (1990) coined the term “gender performativity”, whereby speakers perform a gendered role, rather than there being innate differences between the genders.
Key Terminology:
Socialisation – the acquisition of a shared system of reference about what we consider masculine and feminine. This is not knowledge in the sense of ‘facts’, but more a pragmatic awareness of how we function within society. It is acquired from early childhood.
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Default assumption - what we tend to assume about gender roles unless we are told otherwise. For example, that a surgeon is a man.
Marking - The marked form is that which stands out as different from the norm: e.g. a female doctor. The unmarked form is the norm: e.g. doctor.
Lexical asymmetry - a pair of words with a similar meaning but not equally balanced – e.g. bachelor/spinster.
Feminising suffixes – Suffixes which make it clear that a role is carried out by a woman, for example an actress.
Semantic deterioration - the process by which negative connotations become attached to lexical items over time.
Semantic derogation - the negative meaning or connotation that some lexical items (words) have attached to them.
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◆ Common use of tag questions (‘You don't mind, do you?’)