P2 Section A (Gender Theory)

Question 1

Reclamation

Answer 1

Reclamation is the reclaiming of a slur by a particular social group

Question 2

Pejorative

Answer 2

A pejorative is word that gains negative connotations

Question 3

Ameliorative

Answer 3

ameliorative is a word that gains positive connotations

Question 4

marked terms

Answer 4

a marked term is a word that has been fit with a gender e.g policeMAN.

Question 5

unmarked term

Answer 5

an unmarked term is a word without a gendered identity e.g ATHLETE (there is no man or woman)

Question 6

folk linguistics

Answer 6

folk linguistics is the attitudes and beliefs about language that have no real evidence to support them

Question 7

overt prestige

Answer 7

overt prestige is respect gained from speaking in a socially acceptable manner e.g RP

Question 8

covert prestige

Answer 8

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

Question 9

declarative

Answer 9

declarative is a word that gives information

Question 10

interrogative

Answer 10

interrogative is a question

Question 11

imperative

Answer 11

imperative is a word that commands

Question 12

4 main branches of gender theory

Answer 12

the four main beaches of gender theory are deficit, dominance, dynamic and difference.

Question 13

what is the deficit approach

Answer 13

the deficit approach is the theory that all women’s communication skills and behaviour are handicapped and in need of remediation.

Question 14

How are men viewed in the deficit approach

Answer 14

in the deficit approach men are viewed as the norm.

Question 15

what is the responsibility of the woman in the deficit approach

Answer 15

the responsibility of a woman in the deficit approach is to become bilingual in both male and female language in order to communicate effectively.

Question 16

what did Otto Jespersen say for the deficit approach

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what are the criticisms of otto jespersen’s deficit approach

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

what did robin lakoff believe about the deficit approach

Answer 18

in favour of the deficit approach, the female linguist robin lakoff believed women’s language was deficient as they had a lower social standing.

Question 19

what are criticisms of robin Lakoff about deficit approach

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

what is the dominance approach

Answer 20

the dominance approach is the focus on how men seem to dominate mixed-sex conversations

Question 21

what was the study conducted by zimmerman and west (dominance approach)

Answer 21

zimmerman and west analysed 11 conversations between students at UC Santa Barbara College.

Question 22

what did zimmerman and west find from the UC Santa Barbara study? (dominance approach)

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

what are the criticisms of Zimmerman and west dominance approach study

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

What was Geoffrey Beattie’s study to criticise Zimmerman and West? (Dominance approach)

Answer 24

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).

Question 25

what were Geoffrey Beatties findings in his study against zimmerman and west? (dominance approach)

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

what is the dynamic approach?

Answer 26

the dynamic approach says that gender is performed and language is situation-specific determined by the power someone has in a situation

Question 27

what did O’barr and Atkins’ study for their dynamic approach

Answer 27

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

Question 28

what did O’barr and Atkins find from their 30 month courtroom study for the dynamic approach

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

O’barr and Atkins’ concluded speech patterns from the courtrooms were…

Answer 29

o’barr and atkins concluded that the speech patterns in the courtrooms “were neither characteristics of all women, nor limited to only women”.

Question 30

what is the difference approach

Answer 30

the difference approach is the belief that men and women socialise in different ways and are inherently different.

Question 31

what does deborah tannen say in the difference approach?

Answer 31

Deborah Tannen says in the difference approach that men and women have different “speech styles” - report and rapport

Question 32

how does Deborah Tannen sum up the difference between men and women’s language?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

what are deborah jones’ house-talk features of women’s speech style? (difference approach)

Answer 33

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).

Question 34

what is victoria bergvalls criticism of the difference approach?

Answer 34

victoria bergvalls criticism of the difference approach is that discussing the differences in language supports the view that such differences exist.

Question 35

what is deborah cameron’s criticism of the difference approach?

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

criticism of the difference approach

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

what is semantic derogation

Answer 37

semantic derogation is words that have gained negative connotations as time passes, like mistress that has connotations of prostitution.

Question 38

Onella’s criticism of Otto Jespersen’s deficit approach

Answer 38

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)

Question 39

how did KIRA HALL support ROBIN LAKOFF’s deficit argument?

Answer 39

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.

Question 40

What are Deborah Tannen’s two types of talking? (difference approach)

Answer 40

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.

Question 41

what type of speakers are women according to Deborah Tannen (difference approach)

Answer 41

Deborah Tannen says that women are high-considerateness speakers as they speak more slowly and avoid talking over someone else.

Question 42

what type of speakers are men according to Deborah Tannen (difference approach)

Answer 42

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)

Question 43

What did O’barr and Atkins analyse in their dynamic approach study of courtroom conversation

Answer 43

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