Gender and Identity

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  • Created by: Tashie7
  • Created on: 20-03-16 11:57
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  • Gender and Identity
    • How men talk
      • Direct, blunt, stay on topic, use less face saving techniques, interrupt, swear more, use simple vocabulary.
    • How woman talk
      • Tag questions, rising inflection, hedge, save face, listen more, use phatic expressions, polite and use empty adjectives.
    • Sara Mills 1995.
      • Theorises that the male term suggests more positive connotations than the negative one.
        • E.g. Bachelor vs. Spinster.
        • Suggests that "lady" has undergone semantic deterioration through the term "dinner lady". However, it is seen as the equivalent to a "Lord".
      • Many of the female equivalents are marked as sexually promiscuous.
    • Marking
      • Lexical items are often marked for females to distinguish from those used to describe males.
        • Covert marking- marking that is understood and accepted; slightly hidden. E.g. Lord and Lady.
        • Overt Marking- an obvious stating of a norm where the word  deviating from the norm is flagged by the addition of a suffix. E.g. Actor/Actress.
    • Stanley 1997- Negative Semantic Space.
      • Theorises that woman are unable to move into the positive space occupied by men due to describing females in marked term and this therefore causes inequality.
        • E.g. Lady Doctor.
    • Generic Terms
      • The use of masculine pronouns as generic pronounds when the gender referent is unspecified is no longer acceptable and could be considered as exclusive.
    • Trudgill 1974- Norwich Study- Ing.
      • Found that across all social classes men tended to use more non-standard pronunciation.
      • Men thought they use non standard forms even if they didn't.
    • Cheshire- the study of Reading
      • Found that in most cases, boys used more non-standard forms than girls do and suggested that boys are members of a much denser social network.
    • The Deficit Approach
      • The idea that woman's speech is deficient in relation to the male norm
        • Lakoff 1975
          • Suggested that woman are 'more polite' and have a 'poorer sense of humour' and the specific linguistic features marked the powerlessness of woman arguing woman are socialised intro a subservient role to men.
      • Precice colour terms, tag questions, weak expletive terms, empty adjectives, intensifiers and missing the point in jokes.
    • The Dominance Approach
      • Zimmerman and West 1975 found that 96% of all interruptions were made by men suggesting woman have limited linguistic freedom and that men use power and status to impose explicit constraints.
      • Coates 1989 built on Tannen's tendencies and theorised all female talk is cooperative, speakers negotiate discussions and speakers support each others rights.
      • Pilkington 1992 found woman aim for more positive politeness strategies.
      • Koenraad Kulper 1991 found men pay less regard to the need to save face and use insults as a way of expressing solidarity.
    • The Difference Approach
      • Men and woman belong to different sub-cultures and preferences.
        • This avoids 'blaming men' for being dominant and avoids suggesting woman's speech is inferior.
      • Deborah Tannen's tendencies towards conversation
    • Fairclough 2001
      • Described the relationship between adverts and the public as synthetic personalisation.
  • Lakoff suggested that socialisation ensured female language remained less assertive and more insecure when compared to men.
    • The differences are socially constructed rather than biologically based.
    • Lakoff 1975
      • Suggested that woman are 'more polite' and have a 'poorer sense of humour' and the specific linguistic features marked the powerlessness of woman arguing woman are socialised intro a subservient role to men.

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