LANGUAGE AND GENDER

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Who proposed the Deficit Model in 1975?
Robin Lakoff
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What did she identify?
A "women's register" - a list of characteristics of women's speech such as hedges, tag questions and empty adjectives
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Men in contrast...?
Likely to use more definite forms of language such as deontic modal verbs "must"
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How does Lakoff describe male language?
More desirable and stronger than women's, who are represented as less confident and indecisive in conversation presumably due to their lack of authority
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What else did Lakoff suggest?
Women are socialised into behaving differently to men, perhaps due to the patriarchal society that once originated, precluding them from being powerful within language
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Why does the Deficit model bear no relevance to a modern day society?
Proposed over 40 years ago therefore social roles have changed significantly due to greater equal demand, decreasing the validity of Lakoff's claims
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Who criticised and contrasted Lakoff's theory?
O Barr and Atkins (1980)
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What did they suggest?
Findings indicated that language associated with women's register were used by both genders of a low social class in an American courtoom
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What conclusion has this led to?
Deficient language is more linked with power, or the lack of it, rather than gender, suggesting "powerless language" is more accurate
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What does the Dominance Model assert?
Women are inferior in mixed-sex conversations, implying that the female gender is a subordinate group whose speech style is a consequence of male supremacy and patriarchal order
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Men's topics are more pursed whereas women...
play a more 'supportive' role in conversation
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What theory can we relate this to?
Zimmerman and West (1975) study
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What did their research show?
96% of interruptions and overlapping were made by men
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What does this suggest?
Men are attempting to assert their dominance, ignoring the face needs of women with whom they're interacting with
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Who criticised the Dominance Model?
Geoffrey Beattie
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What did he suggest?
Z&W's sample was small and unrepresentative. Implied that interruptions do not always reflect dominance but because people desire to be involved, to show support and interest
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What did Beattie find in his own study?
women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency, men having 34.1 interruptions whilst women had fractionally less with 33.8.
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What theorist is linked to the Difference Model?
Deborah Tannen (1992)
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What did she suggest?
Men and women possess essential differences that contribute to what she terms each person's 'genderlect'
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How does she attempt to explain these differences?
Classified into six main categories, including status vs support
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Explain status vs support
Due to the world being a competitive place, men use language to build and maintain status however women use language to seek and offer support, seeing the world as a network of connections
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How can women support one another with conversation?
Back channelling with interjections such as "yes" and "I see"
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How do men show status in conversation?
Frequent interruptions to take control and hold the floor
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What else did Tannen suggest in gender communication?
Male speech is known as "report" talk to negotiate and maintain status whereas women's "rapport" talk is used to make connections and establish intimacy/community
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What did American psychologist Sarah Bem say?
Societies tend to define masculinity and femininity as polar opposite genders
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What does this suggest?
Male-acceptable behaviour within conversations such as interruptions and topic management are considered inappropriate for women as it goes against the social norms and beliefs we follow
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Who opposes to Tannen's theory?
Deborah Cameron -
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What did she suggest?
Gender differences are misleading and that there are in fact more differences within genders rather than between them
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What else did she suggest?
Different language is merely a myth perpetrated by theorists such as Tannen
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What study does Cameron relate to?
Janet Hyde's Similarities Hypothesis
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What is this and what are the results?
men and women are in fact more similar to each other than different in terms of most psychological variables, including language, through her meta-analysis. The results for each difference are indicated that the differences were small/close to zero
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What further idea did Cameron suggest?
Language is affected by environmental factors rather than their gender
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What did she identify?

Back

A "women's register" - a list of characteristics of women's speech such as hedges, tag questions and empty adjectives

Card 3

Front

Men in contrast...?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

How does Lakoff describe male language?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What else did Lakoff suggest?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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