Gender Flashcards
DOMINANCE vs DIFFERENCE
Define the dominance model
Men are naturally more dominant
DOMINANCE vs DIFFERENCE
Define the difference module
Men and women are different, and therefore use different language
OTTO JESPERSON 1922
What did Jesperson say about the frequency of women’s language?
Women talk alot
OTTO JESPERSON 1922
What type of sentences do women use?
Half finished sentences
OTTO JESPERSON 1992
Are women more emotional or grammatical with their language?
Emotional
OTTO JESPERSON 1922
What do women frequently use?
Adjectives and hyperboles
OTTO JESPERSON 1922
Do women have a smaller vocabulary than men, and if so what does this lead to?
Yes, meaning they are better at speaking it fluently
OTTO JESPERSON 1922
Who does Jesperson say are responsible for adding new words to the English Language?
Men
O’BARR and ATKINSON
What do these linguists say about language differences?
They are power specific rather than gender specific
O’BARR and ATKINSON
What did these linguists study?
A variety of courtroom cases
O’BARR and ATKINSON
How long did they study courtroom cases for?
30 months
O’BARR and ATKINSON
What were these linguists examining?
Lakoff’s deficit model
O’BARR and ATKINSON
What did they discover?
Lakoff’s proposed differences were not necessarily being a woman but of being powerless
O’BARR and ATKINSON
What was the proof they found?
- 1st man and woman both spoke with a high frequency of ‘woman’s language’
- Doctors and Police offices who testified using ‘men’s language’, even if they were female, higher position in society
ZIMMERMAN and WEST
What did these linguists find about mixed sex conversations?
Men are more likely to interrupt than women
GEOFFREY BEATTIE
What did Beattie find about interruptions?
Women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency
GEOFFREY BEATTIE
Why was Beattie critical of Zimmerman and West’s investigation?
Sample size
PAMELA FISHMAN
What does Fishman argue about conversations between men and women?
They fail due to how men respond
PAMELA FISHMAN
What does Fishman question?
Lakoff’s view that tag questions demonstrate female hesitancy
PAMELA FISHMAN
What does Fishman claim?
In mixed sex interactions men speak twice as much as women
JENNIFER COATES 1986
What does Coates theorise?
Girls and boys develop largely different styles of speaking due to interactions in same sex groups
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
Define sex
Biological differences between men and women
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
Define gender
Behaviour and roles that are a result of societal expectations
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
What is the socialisation process?
Individuals have their behaviour conditioned and shaped
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
Language shapes the way we think, and therefore what we think about
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
Define anthropomorphism
Projecting human behaviour onto the animal world
LANGUAGE AND GENDER
What is lexical marking?
Adding the suffix, -ess, to distinguish between gender
PAUL BAKER
What did Paul Baker investigate?
The extent of marked language in a range of gendered texts
PAUL BAKER
What did Paul Baker find?
‘Girl’ is more likely to be used in a derogatory way
IS ENGLISH A SEXIST LANGUAGE?
What is lexical priming and who investigated it?
Hoey 2005, where words are ready made for certain meanings due to habitual use, such as ‘ok guys’ opposed to ‘ok everyone’
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
What did Lakoff conclude?
Women were disadvantaged by adopting language which made them sound more passive and unconfident
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
Give examples of ‘women’s speech’ in the deficit model
Intensifiers, polite forms, tag questions, emphatic language, hypercorrect grammar, lack of humour
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
Give examples of ‘men’s speech’ in the deficit model
Frequent imperatives, interrupt more, swear more, tell more jokes, simplified vocabulary, use more non-standard forms
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
What does Lakoff’s deficit model suggest?
The male way of speaking is normal and women diverge away from the norm
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
Give two explanations for why women and men speak differently
Social class, and societal expectations of women
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL Why does social class encourage men and women to speak differently?
More important to women than men, the speech qualities they use such as hypercorrect grammar is indicative of class.
ROBIN LAKOFF: THE DEFICIT MODEL
Why do societal expectations of women cause them to talk differently?
Women expected to behave better than men, ‘boys will be boys’
DEBORAH TANNEN
What did Tannen find?
Men understand men, and women understand women
DEBORAH TANNEN
What do women focus on?
Overlapping
DEBORAH TANNEN
What do men focus on?
Interrupting
DEBORAH TANNEN
What does Tannen claim about why women overlap and men interrupt?
Women want to agree or encourage, men want to control and asset status
DEBORAH TANNEN
What leads to a breakdown in communication?
Men and women could say the same thing but mean completely different ideas
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define status vs support
Men use language to show power, women to agree
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define independence vs intimacy
Men use language to show they don’t rely on others, women connect
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define advice vs understanding
Men offer solutions but women offer empathy
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define information vs feelings
Men tend to use more factual language, women stem from emotions
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define orders vs proposals
Men command using imperatives, women tend to be more suggestive
DEBORAH TANNEN
Define conflict vs compromise
Men use language to argue, women to negotiate
BEHAVIOUR OVER AN ENTIRE DAY
Who ran this study and when?
Mehl et al, 2008
BEHAVIOUR OVER AN ENTIRE DAY
What did the study research?
- The average amount of words spoken by men and women each day
- Aimed to discover which sex was the most talkative
BEHAVIOUR OVER AN ENTIRE DAY
What were the findings?
The average for both men and women was around 16,000
BEHAVIOUR OVER AN ENTIRE DAY
How did the study tackle Lakoff/Tannen?
Equality in speech between men and women, but conducted over30 years later
BEHAVIOUR OVER AN ENTIRE DAY
Define three issues with research methods
Small demographic (30 students), extreme talkers may not have signed up for the experiment, pps aware they were being recorded
JANE HOLMES
What did Jane Holmes say about tag questions?
A sign of politeness rather than uncertainty \
