Language & Gender

Language & Gender

1. 3 Key Theories

   • Difference Theory
     • Deborah Tannen
       • Begins at childhood when parents use more verbs with boys and more emotive language with girls
         • 'Cross-cultural communication'
           • DIFFERENCES
             • Advice vs Understanding
             • Status vs Support
             • Independence vs Intimacy
             • Information vs Feeling
             • Orders vs Proposals
             • Conflict vs Compromise
     • MEN & WOMEN CONVERSE DIFFERENTLY
   • Dominance Theory
     • WOMEN'S LANGUAGE IS THE RESULT OF SUBORDINATION
     • Robin Lakoff
       • Combined elements of dominance and deficit
         • Claims women...
           • hedge more
           • use super polite forms
             • complying to grammatical rules
           • use more prosodic features
           • use more empty adjectives
           • use more modal verbs
           • overuse qualifiers (I think that...)
           • use more minimal responses
           • avoid expletives
         • Believed women used these features because they were uncertain, non-committal and didn't want to impose their views
         • Women's language features show their inferior social status
           • Comes from living in a patriarchal society
             • Weak compared to men's so stops them being taken seriously
     • Zimmerman & West
       • 96% of interruptions are by men
   • Deficit Theory
     • WOMEN'S LANGUAGE IS ASSUMED TO BE WEAK
     • O'Barr & Atkins
       • Found witnesses of both genders had the same language features when in court
         • More to do with feeling powerless than gender

2. Sexism

   • Julia Stanley
     • 220 derogatory terms for women & only 20 for men
       • Society has become ANDROCENTRIC
         • Built-in bias towards men due to a patriarchal society
   • Some argue sexism is just a reflection of how society is
     • Some people have sexist attitudes therefore there is sexist language
     • Others argue the existence of sexist language helps create sexist attitudes
       • Reducing the use of sexist language will improve the perception of women in society
   • Lexical Asymmetry
     • Male & female equivalents of words are often unequal in their connotations
       • Marked/Unmarked Terms
         • Added suffix of '-ess' or '-ette' to the male term
           • Now less common - sign of change in attitudes
         • Suggests male position is higher or more important as it is unchanged
       • e.g. 'spinster' and 'bachelor'
         • SAME DENOTATION, DIFFERENT CONNOTATIONS
   • Patronising Terms
     • Several compare women to food
       • e.g. 'tart', 'sweetie', 'honey'
         • Suggests that a woman is there to be desired and consumed by men
     • Female Inanimate
       • Referring to objects as 'she/her'
         • Can be affectionate
         • Can imply male ownership
   • Man & Mankind
     • Man sometimes refers specifically to males
       • And can be used generically to reference the whole human race
         • Mankind is always generic
         • Criticised as they imply men are the most important
           • 'Humankind' is becoming more common

3. Prestige

   • Overt
     • Greater use of SE or RP to appear respectable
       • Sought by women
         • Perhaps to combat their inferior position or to meet behavioural standards
   • Covert
     • Use of more non-SE to seem rebellious
       • Sought by men
         • Already have a higher status or to seem down to earth/traditionally masculine

4. SEE LANGUAGE & POWER FOR EXAM TECHNIQUE

   • Some changes to context in the intro but otherwise identical