Language and Gender - Paper 2

Language and Gender - Paper 2

1. Robin Lakoff (1975) - argues that women's language lacks authority compared to men - listing assumptions of main features.

   • 1 - Hedges, phrases such as 'sort of'.
   • 2 - Empty Adjectives, such as 'divine' and 'lovely'.
   • 3 - Super Polite, phrases like 'would you mind if..?'
   • 4 - Lack of general sense of humour.
   • 5 - Less frequent speech, avoiding coarse and expletive language.
   • 6 - Tag questions, such as 'isn't it?' show a lack of confidence.
   • 7 - Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation.
   • 8 - Indirect requests, such as 'I'm thirsty', looking for a drink.

2. Pamela Fisherman opposed Lakoff's theories.

   • Tag questions were used to start conversations with males.
   • Men do not reply to declaratives - hence the use of tag questions in conversation more regularly. This gains them conversational power.
   • However, Fisherman does admit this is mainly due to male dominance in conversation

3. Zimmerman and West men are much more likely to interrupt women, than women were men.

   • Suggests truth about patriarchy in language.
   • These findings support the dominance model - meaning men are more dominant in speech
   • Beattie disagrees with the ideas from Z & W.
     • Interruptions from males can be supportive and show good listening skills.

4. Jenny Chesire (1982) specifically looked at the difference between young boys and girl grammar.

   • Overall, boys used non standard forms much more frequently than girls.