Gender Theory Flashcards
Trudgill Theory
Initially studied land and social class, gender is a part of it Detailed study - spoke in varieties of different situations and read passages of words which tested specific sounds Men less likely to use prestige pronunciation for covert prestige Women use prestige pronunciation for overt prestige (well educated, high class etc)
Cheshire Gender Theory
Analysed teenspeak in Reading
Boys use non-stan more
Boys networks and denser and converge to dialect terms
Controlled by social and linguistic factors
Non-stan s ‘she calls me’
Non-stan never ‘ain’t’
Non-stan what ‘u the boys what hit me’
Lakoff Gender theory
Not statistical; informal anecdotal evidence
Males’ language is the normal, womens’ inferior
Precise colour terms Tag questions Empty adjectives Hyper correct grammar More polite forms
O’Barr and Atkins Theory
Courtroom transcript
Both men and women use Lakoff’s features regardless of gender
More power used mens’ form, less power used female attributes
Pamela Fishman Tag questions Theory
Women use 4x more tag Qs
Tag Qs are to gain power and (conversational shitwork)
Holmes gender Theory
Tag Qs maintain discussion
They are polite
Multi-functional; not just power but solidarity and politeness
Dubois and Crouch Theory
Men use more tag Qs - not to do with confidence
Jennifer Coates epistemic modality theory
Women use epistemic modality ‘perhaps’ ‘sort of’ ‘probably’ to avoid face threatening acts
Co-operation
Mills, Cameron and shultz
Considered lexical pairs
Male positive, female negative
Deficit Theory
Mens’ speech is the norm and womens’ is weak/ inferior
Dominance theory
Men dominate through speaking more, interrupting more et
Fishman Dominance Theory
Tag Qs to gain power
Men talk 2.5 times more (small study)
Zimmerman and West
Small data set
98% interruptions men
women have little linguistic freedom
Men impose dominance through constraints
Women and men don’t hold equality in authority and power
Parents interrupt children in the same way
Beatie Theory
Recorded 10 hours of discussion with 557 interruptions
Men interrupt 34.1
Women interrupt 33.81
Margin is so small it’s insignificant
Difference Theory
Men and women just speak differently through variation
Different sub cultures and pressures
Deborah Tannen Theory
Lakoff’s student
Reason people focused on power is because women had none
Men and women just speak differently.
Women: private contexts, build relations, overlap, speak symmetrically
Men: more air time, speak in public contexts, negotiate status, speak one at a time, speak asymmetrically
