LANGUAGE AND GENDER Flashcards
What are the three theories to language and gender?
the deficit model
the dominance model
the difference model
Lakoff - theory
saw female language as deficient
female language is ‘weaker’ suggests women to be inferior and less powerful
Examples of Lakoff ‘female’ language features
hedges
empty adjectives
super-polite forms
apologies more
speak less frequently
avoid swearing
tag questions
mitigated imperatives
speak in italics
Theories against Lakoff
Atkins and O’Barr courtroom study
- language difference isn’t a result of being a woman but rather a result of being powerless
- Lakoff’s language features are features of the ‘powerless’ not gendered
Fishman
- tag questions are used to gain conversational power
- against Lakoff’s idea that suggests tag questions represent uncertainty or tentativeness
O’Barr & Atkins: Courtroom Study
least amount of Lakoff’s language features used in both men and women of unusually high status
Language differences isn’t a result of being a woman but rather a result of being powerless
Fishman: tag questions
Tag questions used to gain conversational power, to sustain and create conversation
Against Lakoff’s idea that suggests tag questions represent uncertainty or tentativeness
Coates - tag questions
Women use tag questions and modality to cooperate and be supportive
Jespersen - theory?
Male language as the ‘norm’
Believed men more verbally skilled whereas women more likely to speak before thinking therefore left sentences unfinished and non-fluency features
Deficit theory
Problems with Jespersen theory
His research based on word of mouth and published in 1922
Zimmerman and West - theory?
In mixed conversations men are seen to interrupt the most
A way to dominate or attempt to do so
Dominance Model
Zimmerman and West: ‘doing gender’
language choices are constructed to meet societal expectations, gender is omnipresent and therefore subconsciously affects language, we talk according to learnt acceptable behaviours
Problems with Zimmerman and West theory
Only tested on a small number of people who were all white, middle class and aged between 25 and 35
Spender - theory?
‘man made language’
Men are the ones who made the rules of language
This is why we have male linguistic terms such as ‘man made’ ‘mankind’
Creates a gender biassed language where women feel left out
Dominace Theory
Who agrees with Spender?
Tannen
‘male as norm’
‘women are treated based on the norms for men, men speak to women as they would other men’
Fisherman - Theory?
‘Conversational shitwork’ done by women to initiate conversation which men tend not to do
Conversation between men and women sometimes fail due to how men respond or dont respond
Women feel the need to do the ‘shitwork’ as men reluctant to do so due to their perceived dominant role
Dominace Theory
