Deficit

• Deficit Model by Robin Lakoff (1975):

  • Claims that females are inferior in speech
  • Women hedge, use polite forms, tag questions, speak in italics, use empty adjectives, hypercorrect grammar, direct quotation, special lexicon, question intonation in declarative statements, “wh-” imperatives, speak less frequently, overuse qualifiers, apologise more, use modal constructions, avoid coarse language, use indirect commands and requests, more intensifiers, lack a sense of humour
• Otto Jespersen (1922):

  • One of the earliest theories about gendered language
  • Women talk a lot, use half-finished sentences, link sentences with ‘and’, use adjectives and adverbs excessively, have a smaller vocabulary, prefer veiled and indirect expressions
  • Men introduce new words into the language