gendered language Flashcards
4 main points of gender
- dominance
- deficit
- difference
- diversity
dominance theory
examines language use in respect to men being more dominant
schulz and lakoff
conducted research into the terms in which women and men are reformed to
suffix -ess
marks out a feminine equivalent
semantic derogation
where words have gained negative connotations as time has progressed
eg. masters female equivalent is mistress which has connotations to prostitution
stanley
found 220 insults to describe a promiscuous woman vs 20 for men
honey
asked people in the streets how they would describe a woman who had slept with 30 men and a man who had slept with 30 women - women labelled as ‘slut’ and men as a ‘lad’
holmes
looked into the way in which women are referred to in affectionate names and noted most of names used for women were from the semantic field of food and animals
spender
believes there is a culture of ‘male as norm’ where men are the dominant models and women are add ons
greer
tried to reclaim ‘cunt’ in an attempt to remove the negative connotations attached to the female genitals
interruptions
zimmerman
found men interrupted women 96-100% of the time
pamela fisherman
discovered that conversations between men and women often fail because of how men act - men use a 3rd of the number of questions as women and gave minimal responses - women doing the ‘conversational shitwork’
deficit theory
states that women’s language is weak or contains weak traits
otto jespersen
investigated features like pauses, research details that women speak without thinking and so use more ono fluency features
deficit model - features of weak women’s language
lakoff
- hypercorrect grammar
- over apologising
- empty adjectives
- tag questions
- overuse of intensifiers
- special lexicon
- less swearing
- lacking a sense of humour
