Deficit

• The Deficit Approach - female language seen to be weaker and a lesser version of male language.
• Otto Jesperson (1922) evaluated women's language as less effective and needing remediation due to a less extensive vocabulary than men, the use of less complex sentence constructions, little prior thought and leaving sentences unfinished.
• Jesperson stated: "There can be no doubt that women exercise a great and universal influence on linguistic development through their instinctive shrinking from coarse and vulgar expressions and their preference for indirect expressions."
• Lakoff described male language as stronger, more prestigious and more desirable. She argues that women are socialised into behaving like 'ladies' and that this in turn keeps them in their place because being 'ladylike' precludes being 'powerful' in our culture.
• Robin Lakoff - Language and Women's Place (1975) proposed that women's speech can be distinguished from that of men in a number of ways:

  1. Hedges
  2. Empty adjectives
  3. Polite forms
  4. Apologise more
  5. Speak less frequently
  6. Avoid coarse language or expletives
  7. Tag questions
  8. Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation
  9. Indirect requests
  10. Speak in italics
• Jenny Cheshire (1989) could challenge the deficit approach as she stated that young females used more standard prestige forms than young males.
• Janet Holmes (1990) could challenge the deficit approach as she stated that hedges are multifunctional depending on situation, context and intonation.