language and gender Flashcards
what are marked terms + example
words that reveal a person’s gender e.g. ‘wife’ ‘policeman’
what is sexist language
Language that insults, patronises or ignores people on the basis of their gender. There is more sexist language about women than men.
what is a feminising suffix + example
words that are marked by a feminising suffix, e.g. ‘usherette’, ‘actress’, implies that the male version is the norm/original and so it seems superior to the female version
what are unmarked terms + example
don’t reveal the persons gender e.g. ‘police officer’ and ‘spouse’
what is a generic term + example
When a marked term is used to refer to both men and women. It’s mostly always a masculine term which is used to mean people in general.
e.g. ‘mankind’
what is the negative affect of generic terms on women
- can make females feel invisible by being ignored
- when this occurs, women are said to be occupying ‘negative semantic space’
what is negative semantic space
using unnecessary words
what is lexical asymmetry + example
pairs of words that appear to have a similar meaning, but aren’t equally balanced
e.g. ‘bachelor’ and ‘spinster’
what are patronising terms + example
words used by speakers that imply superiority over the person they’re talking to
e.g. ‘girls’ and ‘love’ (term of endearment)
who theorised the deficit model
Robin Lakoff
briefly explain the deficit model
- women’s use of speech is inferior to males
- women are less assertive and certain in their speech style
what are some of women’s speech features according to Lakoff
- swear less
- super-polite forms
- hedges
- empty adjectives
- apologising more
- tag questions
- use of special lexicon
- hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation
- speak in italics
what theorist supports Lakoff and what do they say
Jespersen 1922
- women’s language is a projection of their deficiency compared to the male norm
what theories criticise Lakoff
- O’Barr and Atkins
- Janet Holmes
what did Janet Holmes discover that criticises Lakoff’s theory
that there are several uses of tag questions, not just lack of authority
what did O’Barr and Atkins discover that criticises Lakoff’s theory
- observed both men and women using ‘women’s language features’ in a courtroom setting and discovered that high status females didn’t use these features
- while lower class males did
- they concluded that the use of ‘women’s language features depend partially on social status
who theorised the Dominance model
Dale Spender
briefly explain the dominance model
- women have a powerless position in society in comparison to men, so subsequently, their use of language is not seen as powerful
- women and men learn appropriate language behaviour according to gender expectations
other theorists who support the dominance model
- Zimmerman and West 1975
- Fishman 1980s and 1990s
how does Zimmerman and West support dominance model
In mixed-sex conversations, men are more likely to interrupt than women. Men are therefore more dominating (or trying to dominate) the conversation.
what are the criticisms of Zimmerman and West
- very small study and subjects weren’t varied
- didn’t count interruptions in same-sex conversations
- Beattie 1982
a larger study and found that men and women interrupt with more or less frequency
how does Fishman 1980s support dominance model
- Women put more work into a conversation due to their inferior position in society
- Mens dominant position in society means they’re more reluctant to do ‘shitwork’
how does Fishman 1990s support dominance model
women ask more questions, use attention-getting phrases, give minimal responses and supportive noise to show interest and support
who theorised the difference model
Deborah Tannen
briefly explain the difference model
- Tannen believes that the sexes were socialised into seeing themselves as having very different roles and positions in life
- and this trained them into using different linguistic strategies in interactions
- men and women have different conversational goals when they speak and neither sex is deficient
give some examples of Tannens ideas on the difference in conversational goals
- advice v understanding
- conflict v compromise
- status v support
- independence v intimacy
- orders v proposals
other theorists who support the difference model
- Coates
- Locke
how does Coates support the difference model
looked at single sex, all male talk and characterised male talk as…
- preferring impersonal topics
- ‘holding the floor’
- verbal sparring
- lack of overlapping
