Language and Gender

Question 1

What is the definition of ‘sex’?

Answer 1

Biological making / making of a human, male or female.

Question 2

What is the definition of ‘gender’?

Answer 2

How you identify yourself / can be more than just male and female.

Question 3

What is the definition of ‘socialisation’?

Answer 3

The process by which individuals behaviours are conditioned and shaped by the society in which they live

Question 4

What is the definition of ‘marked term’?

Answer 4

Pairs of words which seem to be equal, e.g. Sir/Madam, often are not, with the female term having been degraded in some way.

Question 5

What is the definition of ‘social construct’?

Answer 5

The idea that we’re not born thinking we’re male or female or that should act differently, instead society teaches us this.

Question 6

What is the definition of ‘generic form’?

Answer 6

words used for general use. For example, male pronouns are used for generic use.

Question 7

What is the definition of ‘semantic derogation’?

Answer 7

Mills (1995), Cameron (1990) and Schultz (1975) considered lexical pairs where the male term has positive attributes and the female word has negative connotations, e.g. Master and Mistress.

Question 8

What is the definition of ‘prestige’?

Answer 8

Wide spread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality.

Question 9

What is the definition of ‘covert prestige’?

Answer 9

Adapting your language to fit in with a particular group or community

Question 10

What is the definition of ‘overt prestige’?

Answer 10

Respected/admired for someone’s use of language.

Question 11

What is the definition of a ‘non-binary gender’?

Answer 11

Someone who identifies themselves as something over than male or female.

Question 12

What are ‘address terms’?

Answer 12

Men are usually only ‘Mr’, whereas women can be ‘Mrs’, ‘Ms’ or ‘Miss’ - why doesn’t men’s marital status matter for their names?

Question 13

What are ‘diminutive suffixes’?

Answer 13

Using ‘ess’ or ‘ette’ on the ends of words to make them ‘feminine’ e.g. actor/actress

Question 14

What are ‘generic terms’?

Answer 14

‘Man’ and ‘he’ are used to mean all people, e.g. ‘man breastfeeds his young’; ‘a customer may complain to the manager if he is not satisfied’

Question 15

What is ‘lexical asymmetry’?

Answer 15

Pairs of words which seem to be equal (e.g. sir/madam) often are not, with the female term having been degraded in some way

Question 16

What are ‘semantic fields’?

Answer 16

.Terms for women often derive from items of food, clothing or animals

Question 17

What is the ‘difference approach’?

Answer 17

The theory that men and women speak differently through variation. Some suggest men and women belong to different sub-cultures and pressures.

Question 18

What are the key ideas in ‘O’Barr and Atkins (1980)’ theory?

Answer 18

• Investigate claims made by Lakoff.
• Suggest women are unconfident.
• Studied a series of courtroom transcripts, then identified when anyone (male or female) used Lakoff’s features.
• Found that both men and women used them and the features by Lakoff = powerless language, regardless of gender - that whether they used these features was more to do with their power position (or lack of power) as opposed to their gender

Question 19

What are the key ideas in ‘Jespersen (1922)’ theory?

Answer 19

• Took deficit model approach.
• Uses very stereotypical ideas due to patriarchal society in the 1920’s.
• Suggests such things like women talk a lot, women have a smaller vocabulary range, men are responsible for introducing new words into the language.

Question 20

What are the key ideas in ‘Lakoff (1975)’ theory?

Answer 20

• Uses outdated stereotypes and is possibly reinforcing old stereotypes onto women in newer society.
• Suggests things like women use hedge phrases, e.g. sort of and kind of, women use tag questions a lot more, e.g. ‘you’re going to dinner, aren’t you?’, women apologise more, e.g. ‘I’m so sorry’.
• Research criticised = not based on statistical evidence, just based on general observation.

Question 21

Jenny Cheshire (1982)

Answer 21

Looked specifically at certain grammatical variations in the speech of young children. Discovered that boys used the non-standard forms more frequently than girls did. Concluded that ‘variation is controlled by both social and linguistic factors. In boys’ speech, variation is governed by norms central too the vernacular culture, and are transmitted through the peer group. Variation in girls’ speech appears to be a more personal process.

Question 22

Morgan (1986)

Answer 22

Notes number of qualities associated with males and females in Western society. Males = rational, logical and competitive. Females- submissive, emotional and nurturing.

Question 23

Sex Discrimination Act (1975)

Answer 23

Illegal for job advertisements to be gender biased, as implies only people of one gender can do job. Gender non-specific terms of address now used eg Nanny - Childminder, Waitress/er - food and hospitality worker..