Language and gender

• Main Approaches:


  1. Difference - males and females converse differently

  2. Dominance - situations people face result in difference

  3. Deficit - much of woman language lacks authority compared to mansard woman language has certain features

  4. Diversity
• Difference Model


  Deborah Tannen. Men and women converse differently. This difference strain childhood, where parents use more words about feelings to girls and us more verbs to boys. Men and women belong to different sub-cultures and preferences. Avoids blaming men for being dominant, and avoids suggesting woman speech as inferior.

  Tannen came up with 6 contrasting ways men and women speak
• Tannen's 6 main differences in male and female speak:

  1. Status vs. Support - men see language as means of asserting dominance; women see it as a way of confirming/supporting ideas

  2. Independence vs. Intimacy - men 'go it alone', women seek support

  3. Advice vs. Understanding - men see language as problem solving; women see it as a means of empathy

  4. Information vs. Feelings - males are concerned with the facts; women with emotions

  5. Orders vs. Proposals - me use imperatives; women use hidden directives

  6. Conflict vs. Compromise - men will argue; women will try to find middle ground
• Rapport versus Report Talk

  Tanned noted women end to use rapport talk whereas men use report talk.

  Women build relationships and exchange their feelings, overlapping and talking asymmetrically, whereas men confit themselves are to necessary details, take turns and speak symmetrically
• John Gray


  'Folk linguistics' - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus/ Claims men are women are different species
• Jennifer Coates


  We speak differently because girls and boys tend to belong to same-sex friendship groups. All female talk is cooperative and support each other, features not found in mens conversations.

  Tendency of girls to stick to playing in smaller groups, maybe with just one or two other girls where their relationship is based predominantly on talk whereas boys will adhere to play in larger, hierarchical groups which are based on join activity, where there is often an undisputed 'boss'. Groups of women are more supportive, expressing affection and concern. Coates labelled these features Women's Cooperative Discourse.
• Women's Cooperative Discourse - Coates

  1. Topic - discuss people and feelings rather then things

  2. Hedges - encourage people to talk and avoid challenging/threatening

  3. Questions - encourage participation

  4. Minimal response - active listenership and support signalled subtly

  5. Turn-Taking - overlapping conversation aids and topic development
• Koenrad Kupie


  Studied all ale rugby team and food they use insults regularly and feel no need to save face. Females try to avoid conflict through positive politeness strategies
• Jane Pilkington


  Female talk is collaborative and positive politeness strategies are used. Men are less supportive .

  Women are more concerned with using positive politeness strategies than men.
• Dale Spender


  Women who talk like men are urged differently and harshly. A woman invading the men realm of speech is often considered unfeminine, rude or bitchy
• Cheshire


  Women more likely to adopt SE whereas men prefer non-standard English so they appear 'tougher
• Keith and Shuttleworth


  Women: talk more than men, talk too much, indecisive, complain and nag

  Men: swear more, dome talk about emotions, talk about women and machines in the same way, competitive in conversation
• Cameron


  Boys respect male dominance, girls do not like female dominance and see it as 'bitchy
• Goodwin


  Studied children's play, noticed hierarchy in boys with presence of 'alpha male', girls do to demonstrate this unless faced with a parent-child role play situation
• Criticisms of Deborah Tannen and Difference Model

  Her observations are largely anecdotal and cannot be said for all conjugal conversations let alone mixed-gender interactions as a whole
• Dominance Model


  Zimmerman and West. If there is a difference in language it is because males have always dominated in the home and workplace and females have had to play the domestic role. A power imbalance between men and women
• Zimmerman and West


  Looked at how frequently male and females interrupt. Produce in evidence 31 segments of conversation. In 11 conversations between men and women men used 46 interruptions but women only used 2. Men and women do not hold equal conversation rights. Also studied interactions between parents and children and found that parents interrupted and assumed power in the same way that men did in mixed talk.

  All subjects were white, under 35, middle-class. You might simply have one very voluble man which has a disproportionate effect on the total. Very small study
• Fisherman


  In mixed gender interactions men speak on average for twice as long as women and interrupt more. Dominance is not down to inferiority of women but of the dominant style that men have been taught by society. Women have to do the majority of the conversational 'shitwork' because men are more dominant and less concerned to do so. Women sue tag questions to gain conversational power rather than lack of conversational awareness. Questioning is required by females when speak with males as men often do not respond to a declarative statement/only respond minimally
• Stanley


  Marked terms are created for women e.g. Doctor becomes 'Lady Doctor
• Mary Talbot


  Gender is socially constructed. People acquire characteristics which are perceived as 'masculine' or 'feminine'. Language is just one characteristic
• Deficit Model


  Robin Lakoff. Power associated with male conversation behaviours, so women are excluded from power. If women talk like ladies they are powerless and weak. If they talk like men they are 'unladylike'. Lakoff came up with a specific list of woman language features.
• Lakoff's Womans Language Features

  - specific colour terms

  - weak expletives

  - emotional intensifiers

  - tag questions

  - hedges

  - indirect
• Lakoff Criticisms


  Very outdated in terms on lexis. People use adjectives to fit in with groups, not to do with gender. Based on anecdotes rather than scientific research. Layoff's theory cannot argue that all women use certain features in language because women come from different places
• Research that goes against Lakoff

  Zimmerman and West - Women's language isn't weaker, men deliberately dominate

  Dubois and Crouch - men use more tag questions

  Fishman - tag questions are a way to gain control, don't show uncertainty

  Janet Holmes - woman's tags are most likely to be facilitative

  Cameron et al. - men and women use same amount of tag questions

  O'Barr Atkins - looked at courtroom language. Power more important than gender. Courtroom experience had impact on language. Female pathologist who had lots of experience in court used more 'man's language', whilst male ambulance driver with no experience used more 'women's language'. Suggested the term 'powerless language' was more accurate than 'woman language
• Otto Jesperson


  Woman have limited vocabulary. They are easily offended by swearing. They use indirect language
• Janet Holmes


  Society expects better behaviour of when, for them to be more 'lady like'. Women are subordinate to men and must avid offending them, so they speak in standard forms. Large businesses and organisations are still dominated by men, suggesting that they hold the most instrumental power, whilst women use their dialect as a way to gain status.

  In the US congress women hold 83/435 seats in the House of rRepresentatives. 21% of senators are female
• Deborah Cameron


  There can be as many differences between two women as between a man and a women. We should be moving away from notions of masculinity and femininity. People speak differently for different reasons, but it is not necessarily that men and women speak differently. Men rarely directly ask something, instead they will to imply something through an indirect question. Disagrees with the general theory that men and more competitive in speech and women do not challenge each other. Both genders gossip about others and women can use it as a source of power to talk about others.
• 5 Claims Cameron Rejects

  1. language and communication matter more to women than to men, women talk more than men

  2. women are more verbally skilled than men

  3. Men's goal in language is transactional and to get things done, whereas women are more about connections to other people. Men more about things and facts - women about relationships, people and feelings

  4. Men's way of using language is competitive reflecting general interest of acquiring and maintaining status, women's use of language is cooperative, reflecting preference for equality and harmony

  5. These differences lead to miscommunication between the sexes, misinterpretation of intentions, causing problems where men and women regelmassig interact - besonders in heterosexual relationships