Langauge And Gender

Question 1

Deficit theorists

Answer 1

Lakoff (1975)

Jespersen (1922)

Question 2

Dominance theorists

Answer 2

Zimmerman and West (1975)
Deborah Tannan (1992)

Question 3

Difference theorists

Answer 3

Keith and Shuttleworth (1990)
Tannen's diff. model (1990)
Komarovsky (1962)
Janet Holmes (1984)
Fishman (1980)
Robin Lakoff (1975)

Question 4

Modern theories

Answer 4

Deborah Cameron (2008)
Jane Hyde (2005)
Mary Talbot (2010)

Question 5

Lakoff (1975) - deficit

Answer 5

“women’s vocabulary includes trivial words…they are relegated to decisions on unimportant subjects”

Question 6

Lakoff (1975) - deficit

Answer 6

"”a woman will include tag questions, intensifiers and qualifiers to add uncertainty to her speech and avoid opinion”

Question 7

Jespersen (1922) - deficit

Answer 7

“there is a danger of the language becoming vague and insipid if we are to content ourselves with the language of women”

Question 8

Zimmerman and West (1975) - dominance

Answer 8

“men dominate by interrupting. 31 conversation snippets, 46 interruptions male, 2 women. Women kept being interrupted so spoke less”

Question 9

Deborah Tannen (1992) - dominance

Answer 9

“men assume role of information giver because this reinforces strength and status”

Question 10

Deborah Tannen (1992) - dominance

Answer 10

“women see listening as supporting which is essential for bonding, this is why they dominate less”

Question 11

Deborah Tannen (1992) - difference

Answer 11

“men use imperatives to come across as an authoritative figure. Women do the same but cloak the imperative, eg, lets go downstairs instead of go downstairs”

Question 12

Keith and Shuttleworth (1990) - difference

Answer 12

Common differences in language used by each gender.
Women - polite, indecisive, supportive.
Men - interrupt, swear, talk about sport, no emotion

Question 13

Tannen’s difference model (1990)

Answer 13

“support vs status / intimacy vs independence / understanding vs advice. Conforms to individual evolutionary functions”

Question 14

Komarovsky (1962) - difference

Answer 14

58 working class couples speaking.
Men = business, money, sport.
Women = Family and personal matters.

Question 15

Janet Holmes (1984) - difference

Answer 15

“women use 75% facilitative tags, men use 61% modal tags. Modal tags = seek info. Facilitative tags = draw listener in”

Question 16

Fishman (1980) - difference/dominance

Answer 16

“women use 3 times more tags than men and say ‘you know’ 5 times more often. This isn’t to express uncertainty but to keep the conversation going”

Question 17

Robin Lakoff (1975) - difference

Answer 17

“women are more likely to comply to grammatical rules than men”

Question 18

Deborah Cameron (2008) - modern theory

Answer 18

“the idea that men and women use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time”

Question 19

Jane Hyde (2005) - modern theory

Answer 19

“there are more similarities than differences between male and female languages. Differences often stem from age, class, education, occupation or sexuality”

Question 20

Mary Talbot (2010) - modern theory

Answer 20

“gender is socially constructed. People will acquire characteristics that are either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ and their language will reflect this”