Gender Theory Flashcards
What is “Markedness”
‘Marked’ words indicate explicitly the gender of a person while ‘unmarked’ words don’t.
What did Geoffrey Leech say about suffixes?
Use of ‘-ess’ and ‘-ine’ implies inferiority of women.
Who pointed out the difference in amount of words referring to promiscuous men and women?
Julia Stanley
What did Hines address?
The use of dessert metaphors to refer to women.
Who came up with the semantic derogation of women?
Muriel Schulz (1975)
What was Robin Lakoff’s deficit approach?
The belief that women’s language is inferior to men’s
What features make women’s language inferior to men according to Lakoff?
Lack of Taboo
Intensifiers
Tag Questions
Hedges
Euphemisms
Which theory disproves Lakoff’s deficit theory?
William O’Bar and Bowman Atkins
Discovered these features occurred for men and women speech in a court room.
What is Otto Jespersen’s deficit theory?
The belief that man’s language is standard and normal
What did Jespensen say about women’s language?
They talk a lot
Use simple words
Use more false starts and unfinished sentences
Exaggerate
Emotional rather than grammatical
What did Jespersen say about men’s language?
They have a larger vocabulary
They establish new words
Use more impressive and significant language
What is Zimmerman and West’s dominance theory?
In a mixed sex conversation, men are more likely to interrupt.
In 1975, in a campus 96% of all interruptions were made by men.
What was Geoffrey Beattie’s response to dominance theory?
Disproved it.
In 557 interruptions men and women interrupt each other the same amount.
What were Deborah Tannen’s six contrasts?
Status vs support
Independence vs intimacy
Advise vs understanding
Information vs feelings
Order vs proposals
Conflict vs compromise
What was Jennifer Coates’ difference approach?
All female talk is cooperative and support each others right as speakers
What did Jane Pilkington add to the difference approach?
Positive politeness strategies
Intending to avoid giving offence by highlighting friendliness.
Who argued that men are less likely to save face?
Koenradd Kuiper (1991) after observing the language of men in an all male rugby team.
What is Deborah Cameron’s denial theory?
Critical of the idea that men and women’s language is different.
Other theorists only used information that supported their points.
