Language and Gender Theorists Flashcards
Muriel Schulz (1975)
-Suggested that all words used in association with women tend to become derogatory: semantic derogation of women.
Anne Bodine (1975)
-Suggested the idea that the English Language is an Androcentric Language – focused or centred on men.
-Focuses on the generic use of man – implying men of more importance and that women occupy negative semantic space.
-Generic use of man labelled as the False Generic – usage of a single gender to generically represent both.
Geoffrey Leech (1968)
-Trivialising suffixes – use of ‘ess’ or ‘ine’ to language that refers to females e.g. ‘actress’ or ‘heroine’, which suggests the inferiority of women.
-To trivialise = make seem less important, significant that it really is.
-Suggests male roles are more important or that that female role is deviant because the standard unmarked term is used to refer to the
male version.
Otto Jespersen (1922)
Deficit Theorist
-Language: its Nature, Development and Origin (1922) included chapter called ‘The Woman’, explored only women’s language, with no corresponding chapter for men, implying men’s language was the ‘norm’.
-Offered observations about women’s conversational strategies – women break off without finishing their sentences, as they begin talking without thought out what to say.
-Women’s language could be defined as ‘lively chatter’ since their roles consisted of cooking, cleaning, washing, which required no ‘deep thought’.
-Findings were ethnographic: based on participant observations.
Robin Lakoff (1973)
Deficit Theorist
Dominance Theorist
-Language and Women’s place (1975) explained that women’s language is in deficit to men.
-Looked at specific group of women: American, white, middle-class and educated, but findings generalised to ALL women.
- Labelled women’s language as having linguistic features that highlighted uncertainty and powerlessness.
- Implied that women’s language was inferior to that of men and that women used ‘empty adjectives’, ‘a questioning intonation’ and more ‘hedging’.
Pamela Fishman (1980)
Dominance Theorist
-During studies of conversations drew similar conclusions to those of Lakoff.
-Viewed that the ‘work’ women do in conversations (tag questions to engage make speaker and keep conversation flowing etc) is as a result of their inferior status “interactional shitwork”.
Zimmerman and West (1975)
Dominance Theorist
-In mixed-sex conversations, men are more likely to interrupt than women.
-Fairly old study, based off few conversations – subjects were white, middle-class and under 35.
-Findings within 11 conversations: men used 46 interruptions; women used 2.
-Concluded: since men interrupt more often, then they are dominating or attempting to do so.
-Men responsible for 96% of interruptions between men and women.
-Men’s dominance lie in their conversational management (e.g. speaking more, having longer turns, being interrupted less – manterrupting).
Dale Spender (1980)
Dominance Theorist
-Published “Man Made Language” drawing attention to verbal dominance by saying women’s silence was a form of oppression.
-Saw dominance in generic use of ‘he’ and the all-powerful God being male.
Esther Greif (1980)
Dominance Theorist
-Added that parents interrupt daughters more than sons and fathers interrupt more than mothers.
Geoffrey Beattie (1982)
Dominance Theorist
-Critical of Zimmerman and West’s findings:
“May have one very voluble man in study that has a disproportionate effect on the total”.
Also questioned the meanings of interruptions: “Why do interruptions necessarily reflect dominance? Can’t they reflect interest and involvement?”
-Beattie studied 10b hours of conversation and recorded 557 interruptions with more or less equal frequency from men and women (men 34.1 and women 33.8).
Deborah Tannen (1990)
Difference Theorist
-Published “You Just Don’t Understand: Men and Women in Conversation” which highlighted this difference.
-Argued that male-female conversation could be viewed as miscommunication where women see conversation as co-operative and men see it as competitive.
-Cross cultural communication – men and wo men seek different things from conversations due to being raised differently.
-SIX KEY CONTRASTS:
▸Status vs Support
▸Independence vs Intimacy
▸Advice vs Understanding
▸Information vs Feelings
▸Orders vs Proposals
▸Conflict vs Compromise
-Tannen coined the word ‘genderlect’ to describe the difference in men and women’s language.
- Identified two types of interruptions:
Uncooperative overlaps = interruptions used to dominate conversations, associated with male speech.
Co-operative overlaps = used as a sign of enthusiasm to show support or encouragement.
John Gray (1992)
Difference Theorist
-Published “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, states most common relationship problems between men and women are as a result of fundamental psychological differences; metaphor men and women are from different planets and each are acclimated to their own society and customs, not each-others.
- Mars = Roman God of War.
-Venus = Roman God of Love.
Deborah Jones
Difference Theorist
-Built on Tannen’s work, claiming that women’s talk falls into one of four categories:
House Talk = occupational talk, exchange of information.
Scandal = judging of others behaviour domestically.
Bitching = expressing anger towards their inferior status and restricted role.
Chatting = intimate forms of gossip, using nurture of others to their advantage.
O’Barr and Atkins
Difference Theorist
-COURTROOM STUDY.
-Studied sex-related language differences within the courtroom in American trials for 30 months.
-Examined witnesses with the 10 basic differences in men and women’s speech that Lakoff proposed:
a) male paramedic called to give evidence, intimidated by situation, used many of Lakoff’s features typical of women.
b) female coroner, regular in the courtroom, familiar with case, didn’t use any of Lakoff’s features.
-Claimed this was due to the status of the speaker rather than the gender and the features were not necessarily a result of being a woman but being powerless.
-All low-status speakers use these features and suggested the change of Lakoff’s “Women’s Language” to “Powerless Language”.
Judith Baxter
-Professor of linguistics at Aston University, sexist-language perpetuates gender-bias attitudes by defining what we consider as normal for both men women.
-“The language we use not only reflects our culture but also constructs it”.
