Deficit Model-Lakoff Flashcards
Who is the spotlight theorist for this model ?
Robin Lakoff
What is Lakoff’s main argument ?
Lakoff argues that male language forms were the norm and language of others (women) were deficient
What idea does the theory focus on ?
That women are deficit to the male norm
What are some features from lakoff’s list of female speech ?
- precise colour terms ‘mauve’ ‘magenta’
-empty adjectives ‘charming’
-tag questions ‘isn’t she’ dosen’t she’
-super polite forms: would you mind
-indirect request ‘i’m so thirsty’
What are the 3 main issues with Lakoffs theory ?
-not based on statistical data
-research from 1975 may not be classified as valid anymore
-we can’t compare modern women to those of the 1970s
When did o’barr and atkins study take place ?
1980
What did o’barr and atkins think of lakoffs list ?
Considered lakoffs list to be reductive and rejected it
What did o’barr and atkins study and what did they identify from the study ?
They studied courtroom transcripts and identified when one used the features of lakoff
What did o’barr and atkins find about both men and women in their study?
Found both men and women used said features and they were not just features of womens language
What o’barr and atkins argue the features were instead and when would one use them ?
That they were features of powerless language- if someone has power they will not use these features regardless of gender. If someone has no power they would use said features
When was Cheshires study done ?
1982
What did Cheshires study focus on ?
Focused on social networks
Who did Cheshire analyse and what did she find ?
She analysed tennagers in reading finding boys use more standard forms than girls
What did Cheshire find about boys with denser networks ?
They converged to dialectal terms and that variation was controlled by social and linguistic factors.
What did Cheshire look at the frequency of the children using ?
Non standard do/was/ has
Eg. She done/ She hasnt She was
When did Trudgill conduct his study ?
1970
What was Trudgills study originally focused on but ended up finding ?
Originally focused on language and social class but showed interesting diffrences in gender
What were trudgills subjects for his detailed study grouped in ?
Grouped in social class and sex
What were trudgills subjects asked to do ?
Asked to speak in a variety of situations, then read passage using 1 or other 2 speech sounds e.g talking g dropping -ing
What 3 things did trudgill find ?
-found men less likely and women more likely to use prestige pronunciations of sounds
-women tended towards hypercorrectness
-men use low prestige pronounciation-seeking covert prestige to appear tough.
