P2 Section A (Gender Theory) Flashcards
Reclamation
Reclamation is the reclaiming of a slur by a particular social group
Pejorative
A pejorative is word that gains negative connotations
Ameliorative
ameliorative is a word that gains positive connotations
marked terms
a marked term is a word that has been fit with a gender e.g policeMAN.
unmarked term
an unmarked term is a word without a gendered identity e.g ATHLETE (there is no man or woman)
folk linguistics
folk linguistics is the attitudes and beliefs about language that have no real evidence to support them
overt prestige
overt prestige is respect gained from speaking in a socially acceptable manner e.g RP
covert prestige
covert prestige is respect gained from a non standard form of language or dialect e.g Yorkshire accent is respected for being hardworking and friendly
declarative
declarative is a word that gives information
interrogative
interrogative is a question
imperative
imperative is a word that commands
4 main branches of gender theory
the four main beaches of gender theory are deficit, dominance, dynamic and difference.
what is the deficit approach
the deficit approach is the theory that all women’s communication skills and behaviour are handicapped and in need of remediation.
How are men viewed in the deficit approach
in the deficit approach men are viewed as the norm.
what is the responsibility of the woman in the deficit approach
the responsibility of a woman in the deficit approach is to become bilingual in both male and female language in order to communicate effectively.
what did Otto Jespersen say for the deficit approach
For the deficit approach, Otto Jespersen said women talk a lot as they have smaller vocabulary (so do not waste time picking the perfect words), women’s novels were far easier to read so their language must be poorer and women are less fluent in conversation as they speak without thinking so use more non-fluency features such as filler and pauses
what are the criticisms of otto jespersen’s deficit approach
the criticisms of otto jesperson’s deficit approach are that his work was based on fictional writing, literature and travellers and he had no studies for evidence.
what did robin lakoff believe about the deficit approach
in favour of the deficit approach, the female linguist robin lakoff believed women’s language was deficient as they had a lower social standing.
what are criticisms of robin Lakoff about deficit approach
criticisms of robin Lakoff about the deficit approach are that she admitted in her book, “Language and Women’s Place” that she only studied certain ages and classes to prove women’s language is poor, so not all women may be the same.
what is the dominance approach
the dominance approach is the focus on how men seem to dominate mixed-sex conversations
what was the study conducted by zimmerman and west (dominance approach)
zimmerman and west analysed 11 conversations between students at UC Santa Barbara College.
what did zimmerman and west find from the UC Santa Barbara study? (dominance approach)
from the UC santa barbara study, zimmerman and west found that interruptions in same sex conversations were distributed fairly evenly but in mixed-sex conversations (across 11 conversations) they found 46/48 interruptions were by men which goes against belief that women talk more.
what are the criticisms of Zimmerman and west dominance approach study
the criticisms of Zimmerman and wests dominance approach study was that it didn’t count the amount of interruptions in same-sex conversations (so cannot be compared to mixed sex) and the participants were all white and middle-class, so results cannot be generalised to the whole population.
What was Geoffrey Beattie’s study to criticise Zimmerman and West? (Dominance approach)
Geoffrey Beattie’s study to criticise Zimmerman and West was he recorded 10 hours of tutorial discussion and 557 interruptions (compared to 55 by Zimmerman and west).
what were Geoffrey Beatties findings in his study against zimmerman and west? (dominance approach)
Geoffrey Beatties findings in his study against Zimmerman and West were that women and men interrupt with similar frequency (men were 34.1 and women were 33.8) so men interrupted more but not a by a statistically significant amount.
what is the dynamic approach?
the dynamic approach says that gender is performed and language is situation-specific determined by the power someone has in a situation
what did O’barr and Atkins’ study for their dynamic approach
O’barr and Atkins study studied courtroom cases for 30 months looking at 3 pairs speech (one female midwife and male ambulance driver) and (one policeman and doctor) and another man and woman for their dynamic approach
what did O’barr and Atkins find from their 30 month courtroom study for the dynamic approach
O’barr and Atkins found that less powerful people such as a the midwife and ambulance driver spoke with more components of women’s language, the police man and doctor spoke with little women’s language as they experienced power in their jobs and the man and woman fell in between both pairs in terms of frequency of women’s components.
O’barr and Atkins’ concluded speech patterns from the courtrooms were…
o’barr and atkins concluded that the speech patterns in the courtrooms “were neither characteristics of all women, nor limited to only women”.
what is the difference approach
the difference approach is the belief that men and women socialise in different ways and are inherently different.
what does deborah tannen say in the difference approach?
Deborah Tannen says in the difference approach that men and women have different “speech styles” - report and rapport
how does Deborah Tannen sum up the difference between men and women’s language?
Deborah Tannen sums up differences in language in a series of contrasts - e.g. information vs feeling and advice vs understanding For example, men see a complaint as a challenge to find a solution whereas women will provide comfort
what are deborah jones’ house-talk features of women’s speech style? (difference approach)
deborah jones’ house-talk features of women’s speech are bitching (to vent anger), scandal (talking about behaviour of others) and chatting (intimate form of gossip).
what is victoria bergvalls criticism of the difference approach?
victoria bergvalls criticism of the difference approach is that discussing the differences in language supports the view that such differences exist.
what is deborah cameron’s criticism of the difference approach?
deborah cameron’s criticism of the difference approach is that the idea of women having a separate language can lead to discrimination in the workplace eg a women couldn’t be a police officer or run a company.
criticism of the difference approach
A criticism of the difference approach is that it leads people to believe that women and men have conflicts due to speaking in different language styles.
what is semantic derogation
semantic derogation is words that have gained negative connotations as time passes, like mistress that has connotations of prostitution.
Onella’s criticism of Otto Jespersen’s deficit approach
Onella criticises Otto Jespersens theory as she found that with masters students, men and women had a very similar mean length of utterance (average time span of a piece of speech)
how did KIRA HALL support ROBIN LAKOFF’s deficit argument?
KIRA HALL supported Robin Lakoffs deficit argument by studying phone sex workers and found that they made use of Lakoffs ‘women’s language components’ as a way to appear more feminine.
What are Deborah Tannen’s two types of talking? (difference approach)
Deborah Tannen two types of talking are Rapport talk which is used by women to build relationships and Report talk used by men to directly report on something.
what type of speakers are women according to Deborah Tannen (difference approach)
Deborah Tannen says that women are high-considerateness speakers as they speak more slowly and avoid talking over someone else.
what type of speakers are men according to Deborah Tannen (difference approach)
men are high involvement speakers according to deborah tannen as they take a very active role in conversation either by leading it or back channeling (with words like yup, uh huh and ok)
What did O’barr and Atkins analyse in their dynamic approach study of courtroom conversation
O’barr and Atkins analysed speakers for Lakoff’s 10 components of women’s language including hedges, politeness and apology in their dynamic approach study of courtroom conversation
