Language and Gender Flashcards
Deficit Model
Attributed to Otto Jepersen who argued that male language forms were the ‘norm’ and the language of others (women) were ‘deficient’
Lakoff - Deficit Model
- Lists features of women’s speech which are represented as weaknesses in women’s language
- Hedges, empty adjectives, hyperpoliteness, more apologetic, speak less frequently, tag questions, hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation, less humorous are all included as features
- HOWEVER, Lakoff’s theory was created in 1975 making her views outdated and not generalisable to contemporary society; less influential
- Furthermore, the features identified were interpreted as signifiers of the power of women’s language in the dominance model
Dominance Model
Men are more dominant in their speech, e.g. speaking more, interrupting, holding the floor and initiating shifting topics
Zimmerman and West (1981)
- Analysis of conversations between college students
- In cross-sex conversations, men were responsible for 96% of interruptions
- In same sex conversations interruptions were distributed fairly evenly across conditions
- Could be seen as ‘men deny[ing] equal status to women as conversational partners… engineer[ing] female silence’
Dale Spender - Language in the classroom
Reviews Zimmerman & West’s study with the comment “any woman who tires to interrupt a man is seen as rude, domineering and bitchy”
Eakins and Eakins - Verbal turntaking (1976)
- Observes ‘verbal turntaking; by faculty members
- Men took more frequent turns, spoke for greater lengths of time with each, interrupted more and were interrupted less
- This supports the original findings of Z&W; concurrent validity
Pamela Fishman - Conversational Sh*twork
- Communication between sexes fails because of how men respond/don’t respond
- ‘Conversational shitwork - women have to do most of the leg work within a conversation and does so with more cooperative means than men
- She concluded that women ask questions in conversation because of power
- This challenges the deficit model Lakoff built upon as tag questions are interpreted by Fishman instead as ways of guiding the conversation rather than conveying hesitancy and insecurity
Deborah Tannen - Difference model
Status vs Support - men use language to show power and dominance in conversations, women are more likely to support and agree with others
Independence vs Intimacy - men use language to show they do not need to rely on others, women use it as a way of connecting with others and maintaining closeness
Advice vs Understanding - men are more likely to offer solutions to a problem through their language choices; women will show empathy and understanding to a given situation
Information vs Feelings - men are more likely to be factual in their language choices; women will use language which stems from a more emotional viewpoint
Orders vs Proposals - men are more likely to be direct and use imperatives; women will avoid using a commanding tone
Conflict vs Compromise - men are more likely to argue their own points, women will use language to avoid conflict and are more likely to negotiate with others to find a compromise
Jennifer Coates (1989)
Girls and boys tend to belong to same-sex friendship groups and subsequently develop different styles of speaking
Sheldon - Double voice discourse
- Women speak with dual orientation
- Speakers negotiate their own agenda whilst also tending towards the viewpoint of the other person
- Involves use of hyperpoliteness and tag questions in delivery to avoid conflict
Janet Hyde - Similarities hypothesis
- More similarities between men and women’s language than differences
- Done a meta-analysis of
