Language Variation

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  • Created by: S.L.S_10
  • Created on: 09-04-15 20:30

Robin Lakoff - "Women's Language" (Dominance)

Feminist perspective - Language and a Woman's place (1975)
America, conducted work in 1970's

Affective adjectives = describe feelings and emotional responses e.g. "a charming house."
Emphatic stress = exaggerated pitch or volume stress e.g. "I said STOP." "That car is AMAZING."
Hedges = "you know" "sort of" "yeah" "it seems like it"
Hypercorrect grammar = use standard forms more often e.g. "I do not like my tea at all."
Precise colour terms = a wide variety of descriptive terms for one colour e.g. "red" --> "scarlet"
Rising intonation = rise of pitch at the end of an utterance "Is it really(?)"
Superpolite terms = using euphemisms "I'm going to the bog" --> "I'm going to use the ladies" 
Tag questions = the addition of "do you?" or "shall we" at the end of utterances
The intensifier "so" = adds strength to meaning "That is just so weird"
Vocabulary of women's work = "dart" was a term for dressmaking 

Wh- imperatives = "Why don't you open the door?"
Modal constructs = "should" "could" "may" e.g. "Should we go out tonight?"
Use indirect commands or requests = they want to acheive something but they do not want to ask for it directly e.g. "It's very cold in here" --> requestiong for someone to close the window.

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