Gender and Language Theorists Flashcards
What did Peter Trudgill’s Norwich study (1972) identify?
Women use linguistic forms associated with the prestige more frequently than men. One reason for this is that working-class speech has favourable connotations for male speakers. Patterns of sex differentiation deviating from the norm indicate that a linguistic change is taking place: standard forms are introduced by middle-class women, non-standard forms by working-class men.
What did Julia Stanley (1973) look at within the English language?
Julia Stanley looked at sexism in the English language during the 1970s. In 1973, she claimed that there was a marked inequality in the number of words for a sexually promiscuous females and males. The results were: 200 words for sexually promiscuous female and 20 for males. Most of the ‘female’ marked terms had negative connotations. In 1977 Stanley found that women occupy negative semantic space due to marked forms, for example, ‘lady doctor’ and ‘female surgeon’.
What did Peter Trudgill (1974) identify in terms of prestige and hyper correctness?
Found that men were less likely to use the prestige pronunciation of certain speech sounds. Women aimed for higher overt prestige speech, appearing higher class than observed, tending towards hyper correctness. Men often used low prestige pronunciation, thereby seeking to be covert prestige by appearing ‘tough’ or ‘down to earth’. Covert is the prestige that people who do not identify with the standard dialect have.
What did Robin Lakoff (1975) identify?
Claims that females are inferior in speech, through examples such as, hedge, use super polite forms, use tag questions, speak in italics, use empty adjectives, use hypercorrect grammar and punctuation, use direct quotations, have a special lexicon, use question intonation in declarative statements, speak less frequently, overuse qualifiers, avoid using coarse language or expletives, use indirect commands and requests, use more intensifiers, lack a sense of humour, use modal constructions, Apologise more
What did Eakins and Eakins (1976) identify?
They conducted a study of ‘verbal turn taking’ by faculty members. The study was focused on gender and interruptions. When conducting the experiment, it was found that the chairman was interrupted the least overall; a woman was interrupted the most overall, the men’s turns ranged from 10.06 seconds to 17.07 seconds and that the women’s ranged from 3 to 10 seconds. Men had more frequent turns, spoke for greater durations of time, interrupt others more and were interrupted less. Women are more likely to express agreement or ask for another opinion and are less likely to interrupt others.
What did Esther Blank Greif (1979) identify in terms of sex differences?
His study examined sex differences in the use of two conversational management techniques, interruptions and simultaneous speech, during conversations between parents and pre-school children. There were no significant differences between boys and girls in the use of these two conversational techniques. However, fathers interrupted more and spoke simultaneously more than mothers did. Further, both parents were more likely to interrupt their daughters and to speak simultaneously with their daughters. Results were discussed in relation to the power differences between men and women, and in reference to the socialisation of children into gender roles.
What was Pamela Fishman’s (1980) ‘Conversational Insecurity’?
Women use three times more tags but not because of uncertainty but because they were trying to keep the conversation going. Women used ‘you know’ five times more than men, not because of uncertainty but because of conversational work.
What did O’barr and Atkins (1980) identify within their ‘Courtroom Study’?
Studies into courtroom speech for 30 months found that females; interrupted, challenged and showed assertiveness, everything which was thought to be typical of males. Found that witnesses of both genders used what Lakoff thought to be a ‘weak’ female language. Concluded that weak language is actually a ‘powerless’ language rather than ‘female’ language. O’Barr and Atkins tried to emphasise that a powerful position ‘may derive from either social standing in the larger society and/or status accorded by the court’.
What does Dale Spender (1980) argue ‘Man Made Language’ is?
Argued that society is described using language that is biased towards women. Her argument is based on the idea that men have had the social power and superiority in society in history. This led to the gender biased used in society. She introduced the idea of ‘male as norm’ – women are extensions of men. For example, men are always introduced first (Mr and Mrs).
What does Carole Edelsky (1981) argue the ‘floor’ is?
In a work environment, men usually speak for a longer time whereas women were usually pressured into speaking for a shorter time and be much briefer. Women are more likely to begin new topics however men have ‘the floor’ much more often. Floor one was much more prevalent whereas floor two, people are more likely to be cautious of the time they spend dominating the floor.
What did Geoffrey Beattie (1982) contradict?
Contradicted Zimmerman and West’s view on interruptions. Claimed that some interruptions reflected interest and involvement, not dominance. Zimmerman and West’s study was not accurate because their sample size was far too small. Beattie’s study uses ten times as many participants and states that men and women interrupt with equal frequency.
What does Pamela Fishman (1983) comment on within ‘Interaction: The Work Women Do’?
States that mixed sex conversations fail due to the lack of male response and not because of any female speech features. Instead, she proposes that females use them for the conversational power they have and is the male’s fault that they provide inadequate responses. Claims that in mixed sex conversations, men speak for twice as long as women. Women are left to do the ‘conversational shitwork’ – if they do not do it, then the conversation would fail.
What did Woods (1989) identify?
In three-way asymmetrical conversations between business colleagues, the male speakers controlled the floor, regardless of their occupational status. Women use supportive strategies, even to subordinates.
What does Muriel Schulz (1990) identify within ‘The Semantic Derogation of Women’?
Schulz points out that while we cannot tell how much language effects the culture that we live in, we do know that language reflects the culture that constructs that language. For this reason, Schulz contends, by examining language regarding women we can learn a great deal about the fears and prejudices men have about women. Historically men have made language for many reasons. Schultz is asserting that these are male biases that have been handed down through the generations. Terms used to describe women have become more negative over time. Schulz calls this semantic derogation, for example, ‘spinster’.
What does Judith Butler (1990) identify within ‘Gender Trouble’?
Argues that it is a mistake to reinforce a binary view of gender and to assert that ‘women’ are a group with common characteristics and interests. She believes that gender is often ‘performative’: people ‘playing a role’. she doesn’t believe that we are biologically designed in a certain way with regards to speech.
What does Janet Holmes (1992) identify in terms of imagery?
Animal imagery is one example where the images of women seem considerably less positive than those for men. Animal imagery which refers to men often has at least some positive component. Women may also be described or referred to in terms of food imagery, which is equally insulting. They illustrate a common evolutionary pattern in the meanings of words referring to women. Terms which were originally neutral or affectionate eventually acquire negative connotations as they increasingly refer only to women, and as their meanings focus on women as sexual objects.
What did Jane Pilkington (1992) identify within same sex conversations?
Pilkington found that women in same sex conversations were collaborative and used positive politeness strategies. She also found that men were a lot less collaborative, less complementary and less supportive than women.
What does Coates and Jones (1998) argue women’s oral culture consists of?
They comment on Deborah Jones’ 1990 study of women’s oral culture, which she calls gossip and categorises in terms of ‘House Talk’, ‘Scandal’, ‘Bitching’, and ‘Chatting’.
What does Julie Blake (2006) argue on the use of expletives and marked terms?
Women swear twice as much in single sex conversations. Young people use marked terms as part of a feminist backlash. Older people use market terms, middle aged people use more unmarked terms, however.
What does Deborah Cameron (2008) criticise within ‘The Myth of Mars and Venus’?
Criticised the idea that there are innate differences in men and women speech. Cameron argues that the belief that men and women use language in different ways and for different reasons ‘is one of the great myths of our time.’ She fundamentally doesn’t see language differences as being polarised due to gender and biological differences - instead she believes the speakers construct and perform gendered identities for themselves which may either draw upon or challenge the stereotypes. She sees gender as more of a conscious choice and something that we ‘do’. she also sees gender as being just one factor which can affect our speech.
Helene Cixoux (1975) identify within women’s writing?
She believed that women’s writing as a writing style provides women with a way of creating their own identities outside the conventional writing styles owned and dominated by men.
What is ‘covert marking’?
Marking that is understood, for example in the antonyms young and old, young is the marked and old the unmarked.
What is a ‘diminutive suffix’?
Ess, ette, enne, makes the word smaller and less significant, E.g., Waitress, Actress, Princess
What is ‘folk linguistics’?
Attitudes and assumptions about language that have no real evidence to support them, for example in the assumption that women are generally more ‘chatty’ or prone to gossip than men.
What are ‘gender address terms’?
Miss, Mrs, Ms Mx vs Mr and Master.
What is a ‘hedging device’?
A linguistic device used to express uncertainty.
What is lexical asymmetry?
King and Queen, Bachelor and Spinster.
What is ‘overt marking’?
Marking that takes place through affixation or modification.
What is ‘semantic derogation’?
The negative connotations associated with female derivatives of words which do not have equal value in terms of social status.
What are ‘tag questions’?
A group of words that turn a declarative into an interrogative, for example ‘It’s cold, isn’t it?’
