Language and Gender Theorists

Language and Gender Theorists

1. Robin Lakoff

   • 1975
   • Women's subordinate role in society may cause them to display difference to men
   • Women use more tag questions ("Isn't it?")
   • More indirect polite forms ("Could you possibly..?")
   • Intensifiers ("Really" / "Ever so")
   • Generally weaker lexis ("Oh that's lovely")
   • Feedback support / minimal responses ("Hmm" / "Yeah")
   • Hypercorrect grammar
     • Standard verb forms
       • In order to claim higher status
   • Avoid strong swear words
   • Indirect request forms "Would you mind..?"

2. Zimmerman and West

   • Carried out a language experiment
     • Subjects all white, middle class and under 35
   • Evidence of 31 segments of conversation in 11 conversations between men and women
     • Men used 46 interruptions and women only 2
       • Therefore it was suggested that 96% of interruptions came from men
   • They concluded that since men interrupt more often, they are either dominating or attempting to do so
   • FLAW; not enough variables, though in that particular societal microcosm it may be relevant

3. Geoffrey Beattie

   • Recorded 10 hours of tutorial discussion
     • Made note of 557 interruptions - far more than Zimmerman and West
   • Found that Males interrupted 34.1 and females 33.8
     • He concluded that while in this experiment men did appear to interrupt more, the margin was so slight it could not be statistically significant

4. O'Barr and Atkins

   • 1980
   • Recorded in courtroom cases, particularly witness' speech
   • Their findings challenged Lakoff's view
     • They coined the term "Powerless language"
       • Differences in language are based on situation-specific power and not gender

5. Jennifer Coates

6. Dale Spender

7. Pamela Fishman

8. Deborah Cameron