Language And Gender

Question 1

Define sex

Answer 1

Biological distinction

Question 2

Define gender

Answer 2

Behavioural characteristics linked to social and cultural influence

Question 3

Terms about a males sexual behaviour are often…

Answer 3

Euphemistic (e.g. bit of a lad, playing the field)

Question 4

Terms about a women’s sexual behaviour is often…

Answer 4

Derogatory, they tend to refer to women as sex objects or as promiscuous (e.g. tart, slag, tramp)

Question 5

When were the following new words entered into Chamber’s dictionary and what did they describe?
‘Bingo-wing’
‘Muffin-top’
‘Munter’

Answer 5

They were entered in September 2006 and all describe someone physically unattractive, mostly used to describe women

Question 6

In comparison to the new terms entered in the Chambers dictionary for women what term was entered to describe men?

Answer 6

In September 2006 the new word entry to describe men was ‘metrosexual’ meaning ‘an urban heterosexual male given to enhancing his personal appearance’

Question 7

What did a survey by Herriman in 1998 confirm?

Answer 7

That language shows we do expect typical gender characteristics
Words for physical attractiveness are most often associated with a ‘woman’
Terms to describe height, abilities, personality often collocated with a ‘man’

Question 8

What does the act of marking suggest?

Answer 8

Deviation or difference from a norm - the unmarked item

Question 9

Why are lexical items used to describe women often marked?

Answer 9

To distinguish them from those used to describe males (e.g. actor = actress

Question 10

Marking is overt in the context of gender. The addition of the suffix -ess or -ette is common. What are these suffixes known as?

Answer 10

Diminutive suffixes as they draw attention to the fact that the term is different from the norm and therefore inferior

Question 11

What is an alternative way of marking?

Answer 11

By adding ‘male’ or ‘female’ (e.g. male nurse)

Question 12

What does Dale Spender’s research in 1980 highlight?

Answer 12

Spender’s ‘Man Made Language’ research highlights the semantic rule of ‘male-as-norm’ with females seen as the ‘negative’ or ‘abnormal’

Question 13

Is lexis used differently to refer to men and women?

Answer 13

There is often a difference in the words chosen to refer to men and women:
- In terms of endearment
- To describe an attractive person
- Pejorative or derogative

Question 14

In discourse how are men and women referred to differently?

Answer 14

Women are often referred to in terms of their appearance, their clothes, their age, as daughters, wives, mothers
Men are often referred to in terms of their status, jobs, actions

Question 15

What is co-constructed speech?

Answer 15

When more than one person contributes to a point

Question 16

Define a conversation

Answer 16

Any interactive spoken exchange between two or more people

Question 17

What are the two types of conversation?

Answer 17

Face to face interactions
Non-face to face interactions

Question 18

Which sentence types are most common in conversations?

Answer 18

• Fillers
• Adjacency pairs
• Back channelling
• High frequency lexis

Question 19

What are prosodic features?

Answer 19

Intonation, volumes, stress

Question 20

What are paralinguistic features?

Answer 20

Body language

Question 21

Define pragmatics

Answer 21

The study of social contexts and how they affect language use

Question 22

When do overlaps occur?

Answer 22

When utterances are made at the same time

Question 23

Define turn-taking

Answer 23

Basic rule of conversation - people take it in turns

Question 24

The pairing of utterance and then response is known as…

Answer 24

Adjacency pairs

Question 25

What is positive politeness?

Answer 25

It shows you recognise that your hearer has a desire to be respected. It also confirms that the relationship is friendly (e.g. ‘You must be tired. How about a quick nap?’)

Question 26

What is negative politeness?

Answer 26

This recognises that you are in some way imposing on someone (e.g. ‘I don’t want to bother you but…’ or ‘I was wondering if…’)

Question 27

Define hedges

Answer 27

Hedges are used to lessen the impact of an utterance (e.g. just, quite, a few, sort of, like)

Question 28

Define fillers

Answer 28

Spoken pauses (e.g. er, erm, um)

Question 29

When are conversations interactional?

Answer 29

When you are trying to maintain a relationship

Question 30

When are conversations transactional?

Answer 30

Where a result is the outcome (often acquiring goods or services)

Question 31

What is the Maxim of Quality?

Answer 31

• Do not say what you believe to be false
• Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

Question 32

What is the Maxim of Quantity?

Answer 32

• Make your contribution as informative as possible (for the current purpose of the exchange)
• Do not make your contribution more informative than required

Question 33

What is the Maxim of Relevance?

Answer 33

• Speakers contributions should relate clearly to the purpose of the exchange.
• Be relevant

Question 34

What is the Maxim of Manner?

Answer 34

• Speakers contributions should be clear, orderly and brief, avoiding ambiguity

Question 35

Give an example for Flouting the Maxims (Quality)

Answer 35

• If someone has an accident says, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’
• If you are not a doctor, and you get up and say, “I’m a doctor,” you’re violating the Maxim of Quality - in other words, you’re lying.

Question 36

Define phonology

Answer 36

The study of sound

Question 37

Define genderlect

Answer 37

Speech based on gender

Question 38

Women - especially lower to middle class women in formal context tend to…

Answer 38

Move towards overt prestige form, upwards converge and hypercorrect

Question 39

According to Dale Spender, men in formal contexts…

Answer 39

Move towards non-standard forms with covert prestige as a form of social bonding (downwards convergence)

Question 40

Define overt prestige

Answer 40

Being posh / over the top

Question 41

Define upwards convergence

Answer 41

Moving upwards to sound posher

Question 42

Define hypercorrect

Answer 42

Trying to show you how to use speech correctly

Question 43

Define downwards convergence

Answer 43

Trying to sound less posh, more working class, emphasising accent

Question 44

When and what did Robin Lakoff research?

Answer 44

In 1975 Lakoff published a set of basic assumptions about what marks out the language of women. For example:
- Use of hedges
- Using super polite forms (e.g. ‘would you mind’ etc)
- Using empty adjectives (e.g. divine, lovely)
- Speaking less frequently

Question 45

What did Peter Trudgill’s research find in 1947?

Answer 45

Men use non-standard features to fit in with friends. Women use standard pronunciation and higher prestige so they appear more upper class

Question 46

What did Jennifer Coates research find?

Answer 46

She looked at all female conversation and argues that they all fall into one of the following:
- House talk
- Scandal
- Bitching
- Chatting
This supports the difference model

Question 47

What did Deborah Tannen’s research in the 1990s research find?

Answer 47

Men are competitive and women are cooperative

Question 48

What did O’bar and Atkins research find in 1980?

Answer 48

They did a study in a courtroom and found men use deficit language. They suggested it is more about powerless language than it is about gendered language. People of a low social class had the characteristics Lakoff found

Question 49

Give an alternative explanation of the deficit model

Answer 49

Jennifer Coates (1989)
Hedges are used to avoid fact threatening acts and therefore is a sign of cooperation and support

Question 50

What did Zimmerman and West find from their research?

Answer 50

In a study between mixed sex conversations, 95% of interruptions were made by men due to their dominance in society. This supports the dominance model.

Question 51

What is the dominance model?

Answer 51

Language is more about power and status than gender

Question 52

What is the deficit approach?

Answer 52

Women’s language is different so inferior to men’s

Question 53

What is the difference model?

Answer 53

Men and women use language differently as they belong to different subcultures

Question 54

Define highbrow

Answer 54

A sophisticated audience

Question 55

Define middlebrow

Answer 55

Middle class - working class audience

Question 56

Define lowbrow

Answer 56

Lower class audience