Language and Gender

Question 1

Jespersen (Dominance approach)

Answer 1

Claimed that women didn’t know many words and that they couldn’t understand complex language. He also said that women cannot read as quickly as males.

Question 2

Fishman

Answer 2

States that women frequently use tag questions when following a thought or suggestion. She argues women use questions to gain conversational power. Fishman says that questions do not signal uncertainty or powerlessness but are instead one of a variety of tools used by women as a means of keeping the conversation going.

Question 3

Lakoff (Deficit approach)

Answer 3

Women’s language is ‘weak’ in comparison to men’s or to the male norm. Women’s language lacks any real authority. She proposed that women’s language was weak because…

• They use precise cleaning terms
• Specific colour names
• Weak expletives - ‘oh dear’
• Empty adjectives - ‘nice’, ‘lovely’
• Tag questions - ‘isn’t it?’
• More polite forms and apologies - euphemism
• Hedges - vague expressions ‘sort of’
• Intensifiers - ‘so’, ‘very’, ‘really’
• Indirect commands requests - ‘It’s cold in here’
• Avoid slang, expletives and threats

Question 4

Hyde (Diversity)

Answer 4

Men and women are more alike than they are different. A few notable exceptions are some aspects of sexuality, which show large gender differences, and aggression (which shows a moderate gender difference). Gender differences can vary substantially at different ages and depend on the context in which measurement occurs.

Question 5

Zimmerman and West

Answer 5

The findings supported the Dominance Model as data from their findings show that most interruptions or overlaps in conversations are made by men especially in cross-sex conversations. However in same sex conversations interruptions and overlaps are very balanced between the speakers. This suits the dominance model as it gives the impression men obtain power and authority in conversation.

Question 6

Kuiper

Answer 6

Kuiper found that in all male talk amongst members of a rugby team, men were likely to pay less attention to the need to save face and instead used insults as a way of expressing solidarity.
Similar findings on all male talk have also highlighted this difference in cooperation amongst all make grouped.

Question 7

Tannen

Answer 7

Tannen suggested that males and females miscommunicate. Cross cultural communication. Men and women have different ways of communicating.

Question 8

Coates

Answer 8

Coates’ theory also examined the functionality of the language development of both genders. She makes comparisons between different age groups, coming to the conclusion: “Men pursue a style of interaction based on power, while women pursue a style based on solidarity and support”

Question 9

Beattie

Answer 9

He recorded some 10 hours of tutorial discussion and some 557 interruptions.
Beattie found that women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency (men 34.1, women 33.8)

Question 10

O’Barr and Atkins

Answer 10

These theorists are best known for developing the idea that language is specific, depending on who has the authority and power rather than the gender.
A simple example to explain their theory may be that in an interview situation if a man were interviewing a woman then perhaps the man would be more assertive in the conversation, not due to gender but due to the fact he has more authority and power.