Language And Gender Flashcards
What is Robin Lakoff theory called and what is it ?
-the deficit model
-her book doesn’t have any statistical evidence
-she says women tend to use:
1. Hedges
2. Empty adjectives
3. Apologise more
4. Tag questions
5. Use of intensifiers
6. Indirect requests
Links:
-Otto Jesperson
Views:
-womens language is weaker than mens
-her examples show that womens lang is less powerful than mens
What is Jenny Cheshires (1982) theory?
-deficit model
-she looked at grammatical variations in the speech of young children
-she found:
-boys used the non standard forms more than girls did
-In boys speech variation is governed by norms that are central to the vernacular culture
-In girls speech variation is governed more by personal process and ales rigidly by vernacular norms.
What is Pamela Fishmans (1983) theory and what is it called?
-the dominance model
-She looked at tag questions:
-listened to 52 hours of pre recorded conversations between young American couples
-found that women use tag Qs 4x more than men
She concluded that tag questions were used to start conversations with males.
Women use tag questions to gain conversational power.
Women are the one who are trying to initiate the conversation and keep it going which Fishman labels as “Conversational Shitwork”
Males are reluctant to do this “shitwork” because of what they perceive to be their dominant role .
What is Deborah Tannens theory and what is it called?
-the difference model (the theory that men and women do speak differently)
6 CONTRASTS TO SHOW THE DIFFERENCE:
-Status vs Support- men use lang to show power and dominance in convos.-Women tend to use lang choices that support and agree with other
-Independence vs Intimacy- Men use lang to show they don’t need to rely on others. Women use lang as a way to connect with other ps and maintain closeness
-Advice vs Understanding- Men will offer solutions to a problem through lang. Women will show empathy and understanding to a given situation
-Information vs Feelings- Men are more likely to be factual in their lang. Women will use less factual lang and stem for a more emotional viewpoint
What is Jennifer Coates (1989) theory?
-The Difference model
-All female language is cooperative, views tag questions and use of modal verbs helpful in making womens language more cooperative and supportive.
What is Jane Pilkington (1992) theory?
-Difference model
-all female talk is more collaborative than all make talk
-Women use more positive politeness strategies when talking to other women
-Men speaking to men are less complimentary and supportive
What is Koenraad Kuiper (1991) theory?
-Difference Model
-in all male talk, men are likely to pay less attention to the need to save face and instead use insults as a way of expressing solidarity
What is Deborah Cameron (2008) theory?
-Questions both difference and deficit
- criticises the idea that there are differences in male and female speech
-Her work focuses on how speakers construct and perform gendered identities for themselves
What is Judith Butler (1990) theory?
-Questions both difference and deficit model
- there is no difference between male and female language
- we perform a role because it’s what’s expected from us
-‘performativity’- we perform playing gendered role
What was Peter Trudgill (1974) theory?
- deficit model
- men use more non standard pronunciation and language no
- they attach covert prestige to non standard forms
-Women use more standard forms
What was Janet Holmes (1992) theory?
-Deficit model
- type questions are not just about uncertainty they can be used to keep the discussion going or to just be polite
- challenged the idea that women’s language is insecure, showed hedges and fillers have many functions not just to show uncertainty in women
What is William O’barr and Bowman Atkins (1980) theory?
- deficit model
- features of uncertain speech are more dependant on power relations than gender
- found these features in low class men as well as women
What is Zimmerman and West (1975) theory?
- dominance model
- men interrupt more than women in mixed sex conversations
- reflects power balance, also found parents interrupts their children
What is Janet Hyde (2005) theory?
- questions both deficit and difference model
- proposed a ‘gender similarities hypothesis’
- there are more similarities than differences in male and female language
- where there are differences it could be due to other variables such as age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics and so on
