Gender Terminology Flashcards
Address terms
Words that are directed at an individual group.
Marked Expressions
Terms that bring attention to the persons gender ‘Lady Doctor, Actress, Male Nurse’
Generic term
Gender specific terms being used to refer to an unspecified gender.
Lexical Asymmetry
When a female and male version of a term do not share the same status ‘Master and Mistress, Knight and Dame’
Deficit theory
Focus on women’s lower status reflected by language use.
Dominance theory
Focus on men’s higher status reflected by language use.
Difference theory
No focus on status, instead focuses on the differences and misunderstandings between men and women.
Dynamic theory
Focuses on how other factors and variables effect language alongside gender.
Deborah Tannen - Theory
Deborah Tannen believed that men and women had different approaches to language use:
Men: Women:
Status Support
Independence Intimacy
Advice Understanding
Information Feeling
Orders Proposals
Conflict Comprise
Robin Lakoff - Theory
Lakoff proposed a Deficit theory,suggesting the language women can use gives them a lack of power. She suggested women use various methods which cause this lack of power: Hedging Super Polite Forms Tag Questions Speak in Italics Empty Adjectives Hyper correct grammar and pronunciation Question Intonation in declarative statements Imperative Speak less frequently Overuse qualifiers Apologies more Use modal construction Avoid coarse language Indirect commands Intensifiers Lack a sense of humour
You do not need to know all of these, obviously.
O’Barr and Atkins (1980)
Looked at courtroom cases and witnesses’ speech, suggested from their research that the ‘powerless language’ women use is only applicable to certain situations focusing on authority not gender.
Zimmerman and West (1975)
Recorded conversations involving white middle class people under the age of 35, 11 conversations between men and women, men interrupted 46 times! Women only interrupted twice. However one loud person made most of these interruptions.
