Gender theories Flashcards
DEFICIT MODEL: Robin Lakoff (1975)
she said women’s language is in deficit to men’s because they…
14. Use modal verbs more
15. Avoid coarse language or expletives
16. Use indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn’t it cold in here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)
17. Use more intensifiers: especially so and very
18. Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don’t understand the punch line of jokes.
1. Use more hedging
2. Use (super) polite forms: “Would you mind…"”I’d appreciate it if…
3. Use tag questions more
4. Speak in italics: intonational emphasis - so, very, quite.
5. Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on
6. Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation
7. Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.
8. Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports.
9. Use more uptalk
10. Use more “wh-“ imperatives
11. Speak less frequently
12. Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I think that…)
13. Apologise more: (for instance, “I’m sorry, but I think
that.
. )
DO NOT NEED ALL 18
DEFICIT MODEL: Otto Jesperson (1922)
- women talk a lot
- women use half finished sentences because they speak before thinking of what to say
- women link sentences with “and” because they are emotional and not grammatical
- women use adjectives such as pretty and nice too much
- women use adverbs too much and tend towards hyperbole
- women have a smaller vocabulary than men
- men are responsible for the introduction of new vocabulary into language
DEFICIT MODEL: O’Barr and Atkins (1980)
- Considered Lakoff’s list reductive
- recorded over 150 hours of courtroom trials
-They thought that women’s language is in large part a language of powerlessness, which can apply to men as well as women. - Concluded that Lakoff’s findings were not specific to women, and not experienced by all women
DIFFERENCE MODEL: Deborah Tannen - Rapport versus Report
WOMEN:
- talk too much
- Speak in private contexts
- build relations
- overlap
- speak systematically
MEN:
- get more air time
- speak in public
- negotiate status
- speak one at a time
- speak asymmetrically
