Language and Gender

Language and Gender

1. Gender Theories

   • Morgan (1996)
     • MEN; Logical, rational,exploititive , strategic, independent, competative, leader, decision-maker. WOMEN; Intuitive, emotional, submissive, spontaneous, nurturing, co-operative, loyal.
   • Herriman (1998)
     • COBUILD CORPUS; Collection of language texts all all genres- 50 million words analysed- Words for physical attractiveness correlated towards women and words correlating toward height, personality and ability more frequently correlated towards men.
   • Sarah Mills (1995)
     • Mills claimed that language reserved for women are 'marked' ir have a different meaning than the male equivalent (the unmakes term). Mills pointed out that many terms have undergone semantic derogation, i.e. terms have gained a negative meaning over time.
   • George Keith & John Shuttleworth (2000)
     • WOMEN: Talk more than men/ talk to much/ are indecisive or hesitant/ complain or nag/ more polite/ ask more questions/ support each other. MEN: Interrupt more/ give commands/ dominate conversations/ swear more/ talk talk about emotions/ talk about women and machines in the same way/ competitive in conversations.
   • Peter Trudgill (1974
     • Studied social class accents- found that womens pronunciation is closer to RP (received pronunciation) - usually seen as prestigious.
       • RP gives a person OVERT PRESTIGE- respectable/ well off. (Women seek this. Non-standard english gives COVERT PRESTIGE- being rebellious/ cool- men seek this more.
   • Jenny Cheshire (1982)
     • Studied adolescent girls and boys and found boys used more non-standard grammatical forms; i.e. 'ain't'
   • O'Barr & Atkins (1980)
     • Court room languages- found that those who were inexperienced in this area showed many of the linguistic features that Lakoff related to females
   • Janet Holmes (1992)
     • Suggests tag questions, rather than being a sign of uncertainty, can be used as a device to maintain discussion or be polite- they are multifunctional. She introduces two terms; POLITENESS PRINCIPLE & BOOSTING DEVICES.
   • Robin Lakoff (1975)
     • Female Speech-The use of specialised vocabulary centred around domestic chores. Precise colour terms; i.e. Magenta or Mauve. Weak expletive terms. 'Empty Adjectives'; i.e. "Charming, Sweet, Nice". Tag Questions to show uncertainty; i.e. "Isn't it?", "does't she?". More polite forms than men; i.e. euphemisms. Use of hedges; i.e. "Sort of". Apologetic requests; i.e. "I'm sorry but could you...". Indirect Questions; i.e. "Its hot in here" meaning open the window.
   • Deborah Tannen (1990)
     • Information VS Feelings\ Oders VS Preposals\ Independence VS Intimacy\ Status VS Support\ Advice VS Understanding\ Conflict VS Compromise.
       • WOMEN:RAPPORT TALK: Women are more comfortable with private speaking, Rapport talk establishes relationships.
         • MEN:REPORT TALK: Men are more comfortable with public speaking, men are more likely to tell jokes in public- another way of being centre of attention and proving their abilities. "Most male talk is primarily a means to preserve independence, negotiate, and maintain status in a hierarchal order.
   • Don Zimmerman and Candice West (1975)
     • Men are 96% more likely to interrupt than women. Men deny women as equal conversational partners. Men behave uncooperatively so to keep in control of the conversation.
   • Jennifer Coats & Deborah Jones (1989)
     • Building on Tannen's ideas; House talk exchange of information and resources in exchange of female roles. SCANDAL; Judging other people based on activities. BITCHING; Overt expression of anger- expressed to women by women only. CHATTING; Most intimate form of gossiping- women use to their advantage.
   • Beatie (1982)
     • Questioned Zimmerman and West's key to show understanding/ interruptions could be supportive as opposed to dominance.
   • Konraad Kuiper (1991)
     • Found that in all male talk; man were less likely to employ face saving techniques and instead use insults and friendly jibs to communicate and express less solidarity.
   • Maltz and Borzer (1998)
     • Males and females- Different sub-cultures/ different rules or values that govern behaviour. Some features in males and female speech are the same yet some are judged differently; i.e. tag questions. MISCONCEPTIONS: non comital uses of phonological features of language.
   • Dubois & Crouch (1975)
     • Their data suggested men use more tag questions than women, although they were not suggested to be less confident.

2. Stereotyping

   • Assigning a basic set of characteristics to represent a group as a whole.
   • Can be positive or negative
   • Depending on how they are used to make judgments or on how they maintain ways in which we expect groups of people to behave they can lead to prejudice.
   • Stereotyping can also lead us to believe that certain roes are normal and that member ought to conform to these roles and behavioural expectations.

3. General Studies

   • Grice's Maxims
     • Four Maxims people follow when speaking co-operatively .
       • QUALITY/ QUANTITY/ RELEVANCE/ MANNER
     • Worked on conversational implicature- how hearers work out complete message when speakers mean more than they say "Have you got any money on you?"
     • How conversations work with shared knowledge and assumptions (CO-OPERATIVE PRINCIPLE). Helps with analysis of 'ambiguous' conversations.
   • Leech's Politeness Principle
     • Found we often use politeness to establish and maintain relationships/ harmony
       • TACT/ GENEROSITY/ APPROBATION/ MODESTY/ AGREEMENT/ SYMPATHY
     • First used the term "face" in terms of social identity:
       • Positive Politeness
         • Complimentary and Gracious
       • Negative Politeness
         • Mitigates the imposition- Using hedging, pessimism, deference, apology, impersonalising instead of 'coming out with it'
   • Brown and Levinson's Face Theory
     • Developed from Leech's politeness principle.
     • Suggest that each of us want to maintain 'face' but this is threatened in everyday communication by 'face threatening acts'. We continually choose strategies to avoid losing face/offending others.
     • BALD ON-RECORD- Does nothing to minimise threats to hearers face; i.e. "give me those!", "Put that away."
     • OFF-RECORD INDIRECT- Try to avoid FTA by being intentional vague/indirect "It's so hot in here…"
     • POSITIVE POLITENESS- Friendly approach, acknowledge hearer wants to be respected; i.e. hedging to avoid offense.
     • NEGATIVE POLITENESS- Recognise hearer and that you are imposing in some way "I know your busy but…", "Sorry…"

4. Pragmatics

   • The study of 'meaning behind the words'.
     • How sense can be made of certain texts even when the text seems to be incomplete or ambiguous- this is directly related to the context in which language is used.
     • The context of a texts production -this will affect the recpetion by the reader.
   • Studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interactionnand the effects our choices on others, also what can happen when the wrong choice is made for a situation.
   • Stems from the idea that semantic meaning is not enough when analysing communication.

5. Semantic Derogation/Deterioration

   • DEROGATION- The sense of negative meaning or connoatation that some lexical items have attached to them.
   • DETERIORATION- The process by which negative connotations become attached to lexical items.
   • It has been claimed that some terms in English are reserved for use when referring to women, have a strong negative connotation attached to them when compared to the corresponding term used to refer to men.
   • Sarah Mills (1995)/ Deborah Cameron (1990)/ Murial Schultz (1995)
   • Mills pointed out that many of the female equivalents are marked as indicative of sexual promiscuity (i.e. Courtesan). Whilst bachelor retains positive connotations of a free-spirited, independent lifestyle, as in bachelor pad, yet spinster has a more negative connotation.
   • Julie Stanley (1977) marked inequality for the number of works for a sexually promiscuous female (200) compared to those to describe males (20).

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