Language and Gender 

?
  • Created by: bethmci
  • Created on: 25-03-17 15:28
View mindmap
  • Language and Gender
    • AO2
      • Robin Lakoff (1975) Language and Women's Place (deficit but pioneeded dominance)
        • Argues that women's language reflected and perpetuated their lower social status. Clasified women's language as powerless
        • Hedging (‘a bit’ ‘sort of’) Empty adjectives (lovely) Elaborate colour terms (mauve) Phrasing statements as questions Super-politeness Avoiding taboo language Use of tag questions to seek approval  Rising intonation
        • Problems with Lakoff: Research based on intuition rather than evidence. Claims disproved. She used her circle of friends for research
      • Peter Trudgill (1974)
        • Studied speech in Norwich. Found women more likely to use standard 'ing' but they said they used it more than they actually did. Men said they used non-standard form more than they actually did
        • Women seek prestige forms of language whereas men seek non-standard forms
        • Men PERHAPS want to appear more manly. Women PERHAPS need language to gain power
      • Konraad Kupier- lockeroom talk
        • Volleyball team were more likely to save face, did insult kept in the lockeroom and deemed mild
        • Rugby team were more likely to insult and use sexual humiliation
      • Baxter and Wallace- builders discourse (women find it difficult to get into industry)
      • Zimmerman and West- 96% of men interrupt in mixed sex conversations- used a small sample size of  white men)
      • JENNY CHESHIRE (I1982) Girls use less taboo and non-standard forms . Boys use non-standard forms to show solidarity.
      • PAMELA FISHERMAN (1982)? DOMINANCE Interaction: the Work Women Do ?She argues that women do the ‘shitwork’ in conversation; 
        • asking questions to facilitate talk and coming up with new topics. ?She also found that in mixed-sex conversations men spoke twice as long as women. ?Women provide ‘support talk’; minimal responses, back-channelling etc.
      • DEBORAH TANNEN (1990)- You Just Don't Understand. Difference approach
        • ?Research links to the socialisation process and she argues that that is what teaches us to talk in male and female ways. 
        • ?Also supported the idea of the ‘male as norm’ and used terms such as ‘mankind’ to justify this.
        • ?Status vs. support ?Independence vs. intimacy ?Advice vs. understanding ?Information vs. feelings ?Orders vs. proposals ?Conflict vs. compromise ?Report vs. Rapport 
      • JANNET HOLMES (1990)
        • Women use tag questions to encourage, be polite and facilitate (CONTRADICTS LAKOFF)
      • DALE SPENDER (1980)- Man Made Language
        • Language is inherently more sexist towards men. Women who speak like men are viewed as negative and 'bitchy'
      • JENNIFER COATES (1993)
        • Female talk is essentially COOPERATIVE. Support each other's rights as speakers
        • ?Women’s interruptions and overlap are a sign of support and encouragement. ?Women’s use of hedging is a way of respecting ‘face’.
      • DEBORAH CAMERON-Questions many of the myths around language and gender and suggests that we need to take into a range of factors to decide if men and women do really speak the same language
      • DEBORAH JONES (1990) HOUSE TALK, SCANDAL,BITCHING AND CHATTING
    • AO1
      • Sex- refers to biological differences
      • Gender- refers to socially expected characteristics
      • Hetronormativity- set of norms or expectations based on heterosexuality
      • Actor-the person 'acting' the verb
      • Affected- person affected by the verb
      • Marked form- waitress or hostess
      • Unmarked form- police officer, fire fighter
      • Covert marking- when the noun is sterotypically male or female
      • Overt marking- openly stating the difference (female doctor or male nurse)
      • Semantic derogation- words take on negative connotations or denotations
      • Semantic deteriotation-a dissaprovement in the the meaning of a word
      • Covert prestige- status given to non-standard forms
      • Overt prestige- status given to RP
      • Tag question- a question converted from a statement e.g. it's nice out, isn't it?.
      • Hedging- avoiding making a definate statement or commitment
      • Expletive- swear word

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Language resources:

See all English Language resources »See all Language and gender resources »