English language theorists

Kuiper

• Difference theory
• Men pay less attention to the need to save face. Instead they use insults to express solidarity

Pilkington

• In all female talk, women aim for positive politeness strategies whereas male talk tends to be less complimentary and supportive

Zimmerman and West

• Dominance theory
• Data showed 96% of all interruptions were made by men
• They concluded that women had restricted linguistic freedom and men impose their dominant status
• Summary - interprets difference in speech in terms of men's dominance and women's subordination

Coates

• Difference theory
• All female talk is cooperative so speakers support each other and help negotiate discussion
• All male talk is competitive so use more non-standard forms to discreetly earn status and look `cool`: covert prestige

Lakoff

• Dominance/deficit theory
• Claimed that women's language lacks authority when compared to men's
• Proposed set of features that characterised women's language as deficient:
  • Empty adjectives, weak expletives, specialist lexis, super polite forms, indirect requests, apologise more, hyper correct grammar, politeness principle e.g. compliments, hedging, tag questions

Tannen

• Difference theory
• Women:
  • Like to be supported
  • Seek comfort and sympathy
  • Build relationships
  • Use politeness strategies to make proposals
  • Compromise to prevent conflict
• Men:
  • See conversation as competition to gain status
  • Seek advice and solutions
  • Communicate information
  • Use direct imperatives
  • Prepared to argue preferences

Wareing

• Political power
• Those with power of law, Held by politicians, police, law courts etc.
• Perosnal power
• Held as a result of occupation or role
• Social group power
• Held as a resul of being part of a dominant social group

Fairclough

• Instrumental power
• Power used to maintain or enforce authority
• Influential power
• Power used to influence or persuade others