Language and Gender Flashcards
This is the idea that the language of men and women is simply different. Neither is superior, it’s just that the style of speech adopted by a female is in contrast to that of a man.
The Difference Model
In contrast to the difference model, a linguist of this view would argue that the language of men is more dominant in society. That is to say the language of men hold’s more power than that of women.
The Dominance Model
This model argues that women’s language is lacking in some form. That is to say that women cannot do certain things that men can because of a lack of “something” in their language. Certain linguists have said women cannot be funny, others have said that women’s language is more emotional than intelligent.
The Deficit Model
This is the idea that suggests sex and gender are different things. Linguists who support this model would also argue that one’s biological sex has no influence on language. Instead, it is society and socialisation that affects our language. In a completely equal society between men and women, there would be no difference between the language used by a man and that used by a woman. This is because a diverse range of factors contribute to language use e.g. social groups, region, etc.
The Diversity Model
Her original work took place in 1980, offering arguments that contest with both Robin Lakoff’s and Dale Spender’s theories [discussed below], and suggested that women: ask more questions; use more backchannel; and do more of the conversational work (or ‘shitwork’).
Questions:
Women - asked 3x the number of questions of men
Men - asked 1/3 the number of questions of women
Minimal Responses:
Women - used supportive minimal responses to demonstrate interest
Men - either didn’t or asked delayed minimal responses
Attention Gestures:
Women - used phrases such as “y’know what?” to grab attention
Men - hardly ever used attention gestures
Topic Initiation:
Women - initiated topics weren’t always taken up in conversation
Men - initiated topics were always taken up and even supported by women
Pamela Fishman
The Dominance Model
In her 1990 book, “Gender Troubles”, she proposed the idea of gender performativity. This, in a nutshell, attempts to describe how gender and biological sex are different. The latter is part of our biology (i.e. what gentiles we have), and the former describes a societally formed idea of who we are. Thus, our gender is essentially “man-made” and a role society expects us to perform. We perform to a gender which is constructed by the dominant societal norms in a society. For example, those born into the male sex are given blue, and then become boys when they accept to perform this role; equally, those born into the female sex are given pink, and then become girls when the accept to perform this role.
This is contrary to the belief that our language is a reflection of our gender. An example of this idea is that, if gender were to be naturally existing, surely everyone all over the world would think of it as the same. But it is not. In China, the idea about what makes a woman is different to in America or Europe. Therefore, the idea of gender is inconsistent and must exist as a product of human categorisation and socialisation. Language is simply the tool that helped people to make sense of the world.
Judith Butler
The Diversity Model
In 1990, this theorist suggests that socialisation (that thing telling us how to be a boy and how to be a girl) begins when we are children. She contrasted men and women’s speech styles in 6 different ways:
status vs support independence vs intimacy advice vs understanding information vs feelings orders vs proposals conflict vs compromise
Another item she discusses is report and rapport. All in all, she calls men’s speech style the former, and women’s the latter.
Report = men –> their language has more “airtime”, they negotiate their status, and speak asymmetrically.
Rapport = women –> their language is more long-winded, they speak in private, and they speak symmetrically.
Finally, she discusses the difference between interruptions and overlaps. Interruptions are more competitive and used as an attempt at gaining control. Overlaps, on the other hand, are used to be more supportive.
Therefore:
Men = high involvement because they have enthusiastic support shown by simultaneous speech.
Women - high considerateness because they choose to not impose on the conversation.
Deborah Tannen
The Difference Model
From Language and Women’s Place in 1973, this theorist tells us that she wanted to study the features of a woman’s language in order to see what effect this would have on their social power. Basically, in work, she proposed that a woman’s language can be easily distinguished from a male’s in a multitude of ways. These are that women:
Hedges e.g. “sort of”, “I think”, “kind of”, etc.
Super-Polite Forms e.g. “Would you mind…?”, etc.
Tag Questions e.g “You like it, don’t you?”
Intonational Emphasis: This could mean speaking in italics to emphasise certain words, such as “very” or “so”, and so on.
Empty Adjectives: Using adjectives to over-describe something, making more emotional evaluations rather than intellectual ones. E.g. “divine”, “adorable”, etc.
Hyper-Correct Grammar: They use correct grammar with very clear articulation.
Direct Quotation: Because men paraphrase more.
Minimal Responses e.g. mmm, yeah, etc.
Use Intonation for Questions in declaratives.
Apologise more e.g. “I’m sorry, but I think that…”
Use a Special Lexicon i.e. women know words for the different types of colours, men sport.
Use euphemisms more than men
Use diminutives more than men: shortened version of words e.g. ‘Nick’ instead of ‘Nicolas’, etc.
Use “Wh-Imperatives” e.g. “Why don’t you open a window?”
Use more modal constructions
Use indirect commands and requests i.e. Off-record Indirect e.g. “Isn’t it cold in here”, wanting the heater to be turned on, for example.
Avoid slang and expletives
Have a lack of a sense of humour: this means that women don’t tell jokes well or understand the punch line of them either.
Robin Lakoff
The Deficit Model
In 1975, at the University of California, two theorists recorded 31 conversations between two people each time. 10 of which were male only, 10 female only, and 11 mixed.
So, what happened in their study? Well, they reported that males interrupted a total of 46 times, usually silencing the speaker, whereas women only interrupted twice. Consequently, they came to the conclusion that women didn’t overlap men, only other women, and that men didn’t let women speak, rarely interrupted other men, and had delayed minimal responses.
Zimmerman and West
The Dominance Model
This theorist didn’t agree with Zimmerman and West’s claims, stating quite rightly that, if there was “one very voluble man in the study [it can have] a disproportionate effect on the total.” So, he conducted his own study and came to his own, quite different conclusions.
He recorded around 10 hours of tutorial discussions amongst university students and discovered 557 interruptions in total. When you compare that with Z&W’s, it’s a pretty large percentage increase.
He found that men and women interrupt with a just about equal frequency. His stats were men 34.1, and women 33.8). This was deemed as statistically insignificant.
Therefore, he concluded that, not only were Z&W wrong about their statistics, but that the claim that interruptions must equal dominance is wrong, too. he claimed that interuptions don’t necessarily have to reflect dominance as they can come out of other situations, but they could instead reflect the interest and involvement of the participant in a conversation.
Geoffrey Beattie
