Difference

Question 1

Difference model

Answer 1

The difference model is concerned with the idea that men and women are simply inherently different.

Question 2

Deborah Tannen first proposed the model, defining six clear continuums of difference between the genders:

Answer 2

Advice vs understanding, Orders vs proposals-Men use more imperatives and women use ameliorated requests, Status vs support, information vs feelings, independence vs intimacy, conflict vs compromise- her book ‘you just don’t understand’ 1990

Question 3

Tannen has looked at speakers in groups and said there are two categories speakers can fall into:

Answer 3

• High involvement speakers (men) tend to take a very active role in the conversation, be this by leading the conversation or backchanneling (not giving direct responses, but comments like ‘yep’, ‘uh-huh’ and ‘ok’). * High considerateness speakers (women) tend to speak more slowly and avoid talking at the same time as someone else.

Question 4

• In addition, Tannen says there are two types of talking –

Answer 4

report and rapport talk.

• Men use report talk, which is direct (like reporting on something).
• Women use rapport talk, which is used to create and sustain relationships.

Question 5

Jennifer Coates

Answer 5

• Jennifer Coates researched all-male and all-female groups and states that they converse differently, although topics of conversation tend to be similar.
• She also states that techniques used by women to maintain conversation aren’t signs of inferiority, but signs of intelligence.

Question 6

Deborah Jones

Answer 6

• Other linguists have looked at what makes up the conversation between all-male and all-female groups.
• Deborah Jones has researched gossiping amongst women and calls this ‘house talk’. This ‘house talk’ comes in three parts:
  
  • Scandal – women discuss the behaviour of others (usually women).
  • Bitching – expression of anger, not because they want something to change, but just as a relief.
  • Chatting – this is an intimate form of gossiping where women mutually self-disclose and nurturing takes place.

Question 7

Support for Deborah Jones

Answer 7

Deborah Jones’ work has been built on by Deborah Cameron. She says that girls bitch because covertly (secretive) dominant behaviour is more acceptable for women.

Question 8

Millet

Answer 8

Kate Millett’s research states that ‘the tone and ethos of men’s house culture is sadistic, power-oriented, and latently homosexual, frequently narcissistic in its energy and motives’.

Question 9

Pilkington

Answer 9

Pilkington’s research looks at the way a ‘locker-room banter’ is created within all-male groups. He found that insults were part of this culture and created bonds.

Question 10

Kuiper’s research

Answer 10

details that men use more insults and expletives (swearing).

Question 11

Dangers with difference

Answer 11

According to Victoria Bergvall, – discussing these so-called differences supports the view that such differences exist.
•Deborah Cameron feels that they can lead to job discrimination – a woman couldn’t be a police officer or run a company. A man couldn’t be a nurse or a counsellor.
•Leads to stereotypes, such as “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, leading to the idea that men and women have conflicts simply due to speaking different languages

Question 12

Limit

Answer 12

Rosalind Wiseman thinks that there can be hidden aggression in all-female groups – and that women are not all nurturers.

Question 13

Deborah Cameron that challenges difference model

Answer 13

Any differences are due to societal expectations of each gender. The way men and women think they are meant to speak is “verbal hygiene” – how we use language to impose order in society.
•She’s backed up by Janet Hyde’s research (2005) – there are only very minor (statistically insignificant) differences.

Question 14

Louann- Women speak more

Answer 14

Brizendine. 2006 published The Female Brain. claim that women are chatterboxes, speaking an average of 20,000 words per day, nearly three times the mere 7,000 spoken by men.

Question 15

Challenge- Pennebaker’s study, 2007

Answer 15

The EAR samples 30 seconds of ambient noise (including conversations) every 12.5 minutes; carriers cannot tamper with recordings. Researchers used this device to collect data on the chatter patterns of 396 university students (210 women and 186 men) at universities in Texas, Arizona and Mexico. They estimated the total number of words that each volunteer spoke daily. The average number of words spoken by men and women were about the same. In terms of statistical significance, Pennebaker says, “It’s not even remotely close to different.” He discovered more differences within genders than between them.

Question 16

Peter Trudgill (1974) - Covert Prestige

Answer 16

study in Norwich involved the study of how male and female speakers pronounced the suffix -ing. He discovered that across social classes men used more non-standard pronunciation than women. When questioned, men reported that they used mostly non-standard forms (even when they did not) whilst women did the opposite. This led him to conclude that male speakers attached a covert prestige to non-standard forms

Question 17

Jenny Cheshire (1982) Covert Prestige

Answer 17

analysed the talk of teenagers in Reading. She found that in nearly all cases, boys used non-standard forms more than girls did. This can be explained by considering the social network of the groups- boys were members of much denser social networks, and therefore their language converged towards the vernacular as a shared show of linguistic and social solidarity.

Question 18

Janet Hyde in 2005 challenges this model

Answer 18

Psychologist actually proposes a ‘gender similarities hypothesis’, claiming that in fact there are substantially more similarities than there are differences between male and female language and that where there are differences, these may be due to a number of other variables such as age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics

Question 19

Kulik challenges

Answer 19

This theorist believes the impression that a homosexual can be “spotted” due to their language is part of folklinguistics and as such is an outdated view. Not all homosexual people will speak the same and speech patterns cannot be called gay or lesbian simply because they speak that way.

Question 20

Problems with Jone’s Research

Answer 20

• It is outdated- her research took place in 1990 and a lot could’ve changed since.
• her views can be seen as stereotypial
and therefore the outcome of the
research could’ve been a projection of
what was expected rather than the true facts.
• Her findings are shown as aboslute
despite the fact that many conversations had by woman do not include these 4 things
• The presentation of her findings could lead to the reinforcement of gender stereotypes which, in turn, could lead to more of this langauge being used (The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)