Language and Gender

Question 1

Marked Term

Answer 1

The unusual form of a term, often shown by an additional suffix e.g. ladette. The unmarked term would be the regular form e.g. lad.

Question 2

Rapport Talk

Answer 2

Attempting to build relationships through speech. Typically associated with female speech.

Question 3

Pejorative Term

Answer 3

A judgemental term that usually implies disapproval or criticism.

Question 4

Up Talk

Answer 4

Rising intonation used at the end of declarative statements.

Question 5

Verbal Hygiene

Answer 5

The effort to improve or correct speech and writing to arrest change in language.

Question 6

Hegemonic Masculinity

Answer 6

Language and behaviour associated with an idealised male group that is seen to have the most power and status within society.

Question 7

Hedging

Answer 7

A word or phrase that makes a statement less forceful or assertive.

Question 8

Filler

Answer 8

A seemingly meaningless word, phrase or sound that marks a pause or hesitation in speech.

Question 9

Genderlect

Answer 9

The particular dialect used by men and women depending on their gender.

Question 10

Hypercorrection

Answer 10

A pronunciation, word form or grammatical construction produced by mistaken analogy with standard usage in a desire to be correct.

Question 11

Minimal Response

Answer 11

Short sounds or words that are used to maintain a conversation. Shows the listener is listening.

Question 12

Social Constructivism

Answer 12

Places importance on social interaction as constructing identity and people coming together to create a shared construction of the world.

Question 13

Semantic Reclamation

Answer 13

Where a group of individuals reclaim the negative meaning of a word in attempts to make it more positive.

Question 14

Deficit Model

Answer 14

The belief that language used by women is inferior to the language used by men.

Question 15

Dominance Model

Answer 15

The belief that the differences in language use by men and women can be explained by the hierarchical dominance of men within society.

Question 16

Difference Model

Answer 16

The belief that men and women have innate differences in the style and function of their speech and writing.

Question 17

Diversity Model

Answer 17

The belief that gender is not the only thing influencing men and women’s language use, rather their language behaviours are affected by the groups they belong to.

Question 18

Lakoff on Gendered language

Deficit

Answer 18

Women are socialised into behaving like ‘ladies’ (linguistically and within society) and that this subordinate position within society stops them being powerful.

Question 19

Features Lakoff found which made womenspeak sound inferior

Answer 19

Hedge: using phrases such as “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”, etc.​

Use (super) Polite forms: “Would you mind”, “I’d appreciate if”, “if you don’t mind”.​

Use Tag Questions: “You’re going to dinner, aren’t you?”​

Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation.​

Use “Wh” imperatives: “Why don’t you open the door?”​

Speak less frequently​

Apologise more​

Use Modal Constructions: Such as can, would, should, ought to.​

Question 20

Dale Spender on Gendered Language

Answer 20

Believes that a male dominated society has structured and regulated language to reflect men’s best interests.

Question 21

Zimmerman and West study on Language and Gender

Answer 21

Men are more likely to interrupt women in a mixed sex conversation, suggesting their dominance.

Question 22

Beattie’s criticism of Zimmerman and West’s study

Answer 22

Critical of Zimmerman and West. In his own study found that whilst men interrupted more it was by such a slight margin that it wasn’t statistically significant.

Question 23

Pamela Fishman on women in language

Answer 23

Women do more of the conversational work, due to their inferior position within society.

Question 24

Deborah Tannen on language and gender

Answer 24

Women use language differently from men not out of inferiority, but because they have been socialised differently and have different conversational goals. They are aiming to keep a conversation going through their use of tag questions.

Question 25

6 differences identified by Tannen

Answer 25

Status vs. support ​

Independence vs. intimacy ​

Advice vs. understanding ​

Information vs. feelings ​

Orders vs. proposals ​

Conflict vs. compromise

Question 26

Jennifer Coates identify on gender differences in language

Answer 26

Found that boys and girls tended to belong to same sex friendship groups and subsequently developed different styles of speaking.

Question 27

Deborah Jones’s categorisation on women’s talk

Answer 27

Categorised women’s talk into four main groups; house talk, scandal, bitching and chatting.

Question 28

differences Jane Pilkington identified in gendered language

Answer 28

Women in same sex conversations are collaborative and used positive politeness strategies. Men in same sex conversations were less collaborative, less complimentary and less supportive than women.

Question 29

Penelope Eckert on Gendered language

Diversification

Answer 29

Suggested that we need to explore other reason for language variation such as class.

Question 30

Deborah Cameron on gendered language

Diversity

Answer 30

The gender ‘template’ doesn’t fit everyone; suggesting that there can be as many differences in communication between two men as there could be between a man and a woman.

Question 31

Janet Holmes’ research identified

Diversity

Answer 31

Researched tag questions; discovering they could be used to express solidarity, or that they could weaken a command or criticism.

Question 32

O’Barr and Atkins Courtroom study

Answer 32

Studied courtrooms and the speech of witnesses. Found that language differences are based on situation specific authority or power, rather than gender.

Question 33

Judith Butler’s Gender Performitivity

Answer 33

The way we present ourselves, such as our speech and body language, and continually repeat these presentations, constructs our gender rather than reflecting it.

Question 34

Jenny Cheshire on prestige

Answer 34

Males are more susceptible to covert prestige, but social attitude is more of a determining factor than gender.

Question 35

James Pennebaker on number of words spoken by each gender

Answer 35

In mixed sex conversation the average number of words spoken by men and women were about the same. There was more difference noted within genders than between them.