Gender Theorists

Question 1

Who did a study in 1975

Answer 1

Robin Lakoff

Question 2

What did Lakoff find

Answer 2

The main features of female speeches

1. Hedges
2. Empty Adjectives
3. Super-polite forms
4. Apologise more
5. Speak less frequently
6. Avoid course language or expletives
7. Tag questions
8. Hypercorrect grammar
9. Prestige grammar
10. Indirect request

Question 3

Who did a study in 1982

Answer 3

Jenny Cheshire

Question 4

What was Jenny Cheshire looking into?

Answer 4

The frequency of children using non-standard forms

Question 5

What was Cheshire’s findings?

Answer 5

Boys used non-standard forms more frequently than girls
‘Variation is controlled by both social and linguistic factors’
Boys are governed by norma central to the vernacular culture, girls by a more personal process and less rigidly controlled by norms

Question 6

Who did a study in 1922 as part of the Deficit Model

Answer 6

Otto Jespersen

Question 7

What did Jespersen argue?

Answer 7

Male language were norms and women’s language were deficient

Question 8

Who did a study in 1983 as part of the Dominance model?

Answer 8

Pamela Fishman

Question 9

What did Fishman conclude?

Answer 9

Tag questions are commonly used by women, not for uncertainty, but to initiate and sustain conversations.
Men do not always respond to declaratives, women use tag questions to gain conversational power. Fishman call this ‘conversational shitwork’
Male dominance means they are reluctant to do ‘shitwork’ as perceived to be dominant
Majority of research for dominance model during 1970’s and 80’s focuses on how men are dominant in speech

Question 10

Who did a study in 1990 as part of the Difference model?

Answer 10

Deborah Tannen

Question 11

What does Deborah Tannen argue?

Answer 11

Neither sex’s speech is deficient or dominant but different

She was worried the desire to affirm sex equality had made researchers reluctant to show they are different

Question 12

What did Jennifer Coates argue?

Answer 12

Women’s works words - Men prefer topics that allow participants to take turns at being the expert. Women are more personal
Tag questions - Men use questions to seek information from each other
Minimal responses - women make well-placed minimal responses but men made them too late, indicating lack of interest and support which led to women falling silent

Question 13

What did Zimmerman and West find?

Answer 13

Interruptions- 98% of the interruptions were men and they interrupted women more than same sex conversation. Women also interrupt other woman more than they do men.
Overlaps - Men overlap with women more
Silences - Single sex conversation - 1.35 secs / Mixed sex conversations - 3.21 secs
Women kept being interrupted and so spoke less

Question 14

What contrasts did Deborah Tannen make between men and women’s language?

Answer 14

Status vs Support
Independence vs Intimacy
Advice vs Understanding 
Information vs Feelings
Orders vs Proposals
Conflict vs Compromise

Question 15

What did Kuiper find?

Answer 15

Difference model - 1991
Found in all male talk between a rugby team, men used insults as a way of expressing solidarity and were less likely to feel the need to save face

Question 16

What did O’Barr and Atkins find?

Answer 16

Language differences situation-specific relying on who has the authority and power in the conversation rather than gender of people involved, after 30 months of courtroom studies

Question 17

Who did a study in 1995?

Answer 17

Deborah Cameron

Question 18

What did Deborah Cameron find?

Answer 18

Men and women face normative expectations about the appropriate speech for their gender. Women have been instructed into the proper ways of talking just as with other ‘feminine behaviour’

She claims ‘verbal hygiene’ is a way to make sense of language and represents a symbolic attempt to impose order in society

Question 19

What does Julia Stanley claim?

Answer 19

Due to affixation of marked forms, women are unable to move into the positive space occupied by men because they will always carry a mark of femaleness and inequality with them

Question 20

Who presented a problem with Zimmerman and West’s theory in 1982?

Answer 20

Beattie

Question 21

What did Beattie argue?

Answer 21

Interruptions can be supportive and show the person is listening e.g repeating what the speaker is saying or saying things like yes or mmm

Question 22

What does Janet Holmes argue?

Answer 22

Says women are more polite than men
Based research on Face theory
Women use more positive face whilst men use more negative face
Men use language as a tool to give and receive information (referential function of language
Women use language as a means of keeping in touch (social function)
Tag questions, hedges and fillers are a device to maintain discussion and politeness rather than uncertainty

Question 23

Spender

Answer 23

Dominance Model
Language is a result of males maintaining dominance
Androcentric language has a built in bias towards men
“Language was built by men because men controlled society

Question 24

Insulting usages

Answer 24

There are many negative words for women often with no male equivalents e.g comparing women to animals (‘cow’ ‘bitch’ ‘dog’) and many have sexual associations (‘slut’ ‘slag’ ‘whore’)

Question 25

Order of precedence

Answer 25

Placing the male word first in phrases suggests an assumption that men are of higher status: ‘he’ or ‘she’, ‘his’ or ‘hers’, etc. This convention was strengthened by the grammarian of previous centuries, who decreed putting male first was ‘natural’ and ‘proper’

Question 26

Inclusive usages

Answer 26

Gender-specific words such as ‘policeman’, ‘fireman’ have been replaced with gender neutral terms: ‘police officer’, ‘firefighter’. Person has been used to replace man - chairperson etc