Male and Female Differences

Question 1

What is the main difference in men and women’s speech?

Answer 1

Their use of standard speech forms

Question 2

What have reachers found about men and women’s speech and standard forms?

Answer 2

Women tend to use more standard speech forms than men

This appears across all classes and different languages

Question 3

What are two studies which show that women use more standard speech styles than men?

Answer 3

Jenny Cheshire (Reading) -1982
Peter Trudgill (Norwich) - 1983

Question 4

What did Cheshire’s study find?

Answer 4

Looked at speech of adolescences and found similar patterns to those which exist among adults
- Suggests the differences in men and women’s speech is present from a young age

Question 5

Examples of speech differences found:

Answer 5

Men are more likely to:
h-drop
drop final “g” sound (pronouncing ing as in - |ŋ| as |n|)
more use of “ain’t” (women use more of “isn’t”)
use of “seen” and “done” as past tense forms
use of multiple negatives

Question 6

What are the reasons for the differences between men and women’s speech?

Answer 6

Women are more status-conscious
Societies expectations of women
Subordinate role of women
Overt and covert prestige

Question 7

What is the argument for the reason “women are more status-conscious”?

Answer 7

Social status is more important to women 
Speech is an indicator of social class and women make an effort to conform to the standard usage to demonstrate their status and respectability

Question 8

What is the approach for the reason of “societies expectations of women”?

Answer 8

Society expects “better” behaviour from women

• Begins at childhood, boy’s misbehaviour is more tolerated
• Women are expected to act “ladylike”, includes speech
• Women are a more dominant role in child rearing and they need to show a “correct” model of speech

Question 9

What is the argument for the reason of “the subordinate role of women”?

Answer 9

Speech patterns created by subordinate role, which is male-dominated
See Lakoff’s women’s language features
Reflects women’s lack of confidence

Question 10

What is the approach for the reason of “overt and covert prestige”?

Answer 10

Shifts focus towards men: why are they more likely to deviate from SE?
non-standard forms = masculinity and toughness

Question 11

What did Trudgill ask men in one of his studies and what was their reply?

Answer 11

How much non-standard forms they used?
Men said they used more than they actually did, shows that they were proud of using these forms as if there were some kind of prestige linked to it

Question 12

Which type of prestige do men and women prefer?

Answer 12

Women - overt prestige

Men - covert prestige

Question 13

What is Covert prestige?

Answer 13

Prestige that derives from behaviour that goes against the norms of respect

Question 14

What is Overt prestige?

Answer 14

Prestige which attaches itself to respectable and desired behaviour

Question 15

Example of a study which displays these types of prestige:

Answer 15

Cheshire’s Reading study

• boy “Noddy” used most non-standard forms, had reputation for being tough and was respected by his peers
• boy “Kevin” used less non-standard forms was rated low on “toughness” and was often the victim of jokes and excluded from activites

Question 16

What are the six main differences that Deborah Tannen identifies between male and female speech?

Answer 16

Status v. support
Independence v. intimacy 
Advice v. understanding
Information v. feelings
Conflict v. compromise 
Orders v. proposals

Question 17

What does Deborah Cameron suggest about the differences between men and women?

Answer 17

There are more differences within the genders than between them

Question 18

Who’s research does Cameron use to help support her idea that there aren’t significant differences between male and female speech?

Answer 18

Janet Hyde

Question 19

What is Cameron’s hypothesis?

Answer 19

If more research was done focusing on the similarities of men and womens’ speech, they will realise that the differences between them are false

Question 20

What did Hyde’s research consist of?

Answer 20

Reference to existing studies of men and women’s speech over a few decades and evaluating the average percentage of difference between the genders with each type of study

Question 21

Data of Hyde’s research:

Answer 21

Vocabulary - 44 studies - -0.02 to 0.06 % - close to 0 difference
Verbal reasoning - 5 studies - -0.02% - close to 0 difference
Speech production - 12 studies - -0.033% - small difference
Interruptions - 70 studies - 0.15 to 0.33% - small difference
Talkativeness - 73 studies - -0.11% - small difference
Assertive speech - 75 studies - 0.11% - small difference
Smiling - 418 studies - -0.40% - moderate difference

Question 22

Despite Hyde’s supporting information, what does Cameron fear?

Answer 22

Even though there is research proving the differences to be wrong, people will still believe in the streotype