Fishman 1980s

• idea that...

  The patriarchal order is evident in the ways that men and women participate in conversations
• who did fisherman seem to agree with

  Lakoff and spencer
• her research indicated

  Women ask more questions.Women do more of the conversational work (Fishman called it‘conversational sh*twork’) – she felt it was due to women’s inferiorposition in society.Women may speak this way to maintain an inferior position to be inrelationships with men. (But what does this say about men?)
• in the 1990s what did she look at

  questions, minimal responses, attention getters, topic initiation
• what did she find about questions for both genders

  women - Asked 3 times the number of questionsmen - Asked 1/3 the number of questions
• what did she find about minimal responses for both genders

  women - Used supportive minimal noises to show interestmen - Delayed giving or didn’t give minimal responses
• what did she find about attention getters for both genders

  women - Used phrases like ‘you know what’ to get attentionmen - Made little or no use of attention getters