Language And Gender Flashcards
Jennifer Coates
Women collaborate, men compete.
Men and women simply converse differently, but topics tend to be similar.
Report talk
Used by men to be direct in conversation.
Rapport talk
Used by women to create and sustain relationships.
Zimmerman and West
1975
Studied conversations on 11 subjects (who were white, middle-class, under 35 year olds) and stated that men interrupted 96-100% more than women.
Who can challenge Zimmerman and west?
Beattie
Geoffrey Beattie
He discovered that there is an equal number of interruptions by men and women and is more valid than Z and W because he studied over 10 times as many people.
Robin Lakoff deficit theory
1975
She made a list of features of spoken language that makes women’s language seem ‘weak’ e.g
Hyper correct grammar, less swearing , tag questions (…aren’t you?) and over-apologising.
Drawbacks of Robin Lakoffs deficit theory
Lack of statistical evidence, wasn’t a long term study and subjective (doesn’t represent every woman).
Validity of Robin Lakoffs ideas in the 21st century
Women feel safer to call out men on misogyny more than in the 70’s. Gender is more fluid than it has ever been. Did she ever test/examine men’s speech?
Who can challenge Robin Lakoff?
O’Barr and Atkins
O’Barr and Atkins
1980 They found that in a courtroom setting the lower class men used Lakoff’s language features (powerless language). This implies that it is potentially not to do with gender, but power
Deborah Jones
Researched gossiping amongst women and called it ‘house talk’ which comes in 3 categories:
Scandal, Bitching and chatting.
Difference models
These have the idea that men and women are simply inherently different.
Deborah Tannen
Defined 6 clear continuum’s of difference between the genders
Advice vs understanding
Men would rather find a solution
Orders vs ?
Proposals
Status vs support
Men desire to be in control
Information vs
Feelings
Independence vs ?
Intimacy
Conflict vs ?
Compromise
Dominance theory, dale spender
He believes there is a culture of ‘male as the norm’ because they’re always introduced first- ‘mr and mrs’, ‘lord and lady’ and ‘mankind’
Otto Jesperson
1922
Researched that women speak without thinking and so use more non-fluency features.
Peter Trudgill
1974
Regardless of social class, women are more likely to pronounce the final ‘g’ to seek acceptance through this pronunciation because they’re more status conscious. This is the opposite for men because they want to seem more down to earth.
Limitations of Peter Trudgill’s ideas
It wasn’t only women who were conscious about social status, but men too. Peter Trudgill was middle class and interviewed working class people which may have influenced how the working class spoke.
Validity of Peter Trudgill’s work
He acknowledges factors other than gender to be influential.
Janet Hyde
2002-modern and well-researched!
Conducted a meta analysis of gender differences. She stated that genders are more similar than different. The differences she observed were nearly non-existent. She also thinks that factors beyond gender are more influential in shaping someone’s speech pattern and behaviour.
Jenny Cheshire
1982
Overall boys use more non-standard forms more frequently than girls and she concluded that ‘variation is controlled by both social and linguistic factors’.
Deborah Cameron
2007-the myth of Mars and Venus
She challenges John Gray’s book and believes that the differences may have biological, rather than social causes.
What book did John Gray write?
‘Men are from Mars, women are from Venus’
The book states that most common relationship problems between the sexes are a result of psychological differences.
Did John Gray have any training?
No, he had no evidence and no psychological knowledge or training.
