Language & Gender ~ Thoeries

(examples in bold)

• Examined lexical pairs and noted how male terms had possitive attributes
  • Lord + Lady
• Many female equivalents are marked as indicative of sexual promiscuity
  • Stud vs Tart
• Semantic deterioration
  • Lady >> cleaning lady, dinner lady
  • Queen >> drama queen
  • Lord remains the same

• Marked inequality for words
  • mistress vs master
  • spinster vs bachelor
• More sexually promiscuous words used for women
  • b*tch
  • sl*t
  • sl*g
  • wh*re
• Women occupy negative semantic space due to marked terms
  • spinster
  • mistress
  • ms
  • lady

• Animal imagery used to describe men suggests they're strong & brave, women = sweet or sexual or bad
  • honey
  • sugar
  • cupcake
• Examined use of tag questions
  • They may not necessarily be a sign of uncertainty
  • In some cases tag questions can be a way of maintaning discussion or being polite

• Focused on phonological and grammatical variation
  • Men use more non - standard pronunciation and attached a form of high status to non - standard forms 
  • 'Covert Prestige'

• Focused on phonological and grammatical variation
  • similar findings to Trudgill Chesire explained these due to male show of linguistic and social solidarity

• Examined epistemic model forms such as 'perhaps', 'sort of', 'probably'
  • Women seemed to use these forms to avoid face threatening acts when talkingto other females
  • Seen as sign of female cooperation and speaker support

• Linguistic study of language used in a courtroom
  • Men from lower class backgrounds used similar features to those identified by LAKOOF
  • Features of uncertain speech mere more dependent on power relations than gender.

Zimmerman & West (1975)

96% of interruptions in mixed sex conversations made by men  

• women = restricted linguistic freedom
• men = impose dominant status through applying explicit contraints in conversations

women ≠ men ~ conversational rights

Parents -> interrupted & assumed power in interactions in same way men do in mixed talk

• idea men + women have different ways of talking in single sex conversations
• men & women -> 
  • different sub-cultures & different attitudes to types of talk =
    • cultural differences & pressures 
• Strengths =
  • focus of linguisitic achievements of women
  • little focus on dominance of men

Jennifer Coates (1989)

• All female talk is cooperative
  • speakers help negotiate discussions and support each other

Jane Pilkington (1992)

• all - female talk more cooperative than male talk
  • women aimed for more positive politeness stategies
  • whereas men were less complimentary and supportive in all- male talk

Koenraad Kuiper (1991)

• Men in all-male talk (members of a rugby team
  • pay less attention to saving face
  • use insults as way of expressing solidarity

Deborah Tannen (1990)

• Used Difference Approach to examine mixed-sex talk
  • outlined six main differences between male and female talk
    • male / female
    • status / support
    • idenpendence / intimacy
    • adive / understanding
    • information / feelings
    • orders / proposals
    • conflict / compromise
  • see http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm#tannen/