Difference

• Difference Approach - men and women use language differently due to their different cultures.
• Jane Pilkington (1990): women in same-sex talk are more collaborative than men were in all-male talk. Whereas women aim for more positive politeness strategies in conversations with other women, men tend to be less complimentary and supportive in all-male talk.
• Tannen stated that differences in male and female attitudes and values are cultural, that men and women come from two different 'cultures' and that they grow up with completely different ideas about themselves, their place in the world and the functions of conversation.
• Jenny Cheshire (1982) concluded that variation is controlled by both social and linguistic factors. In boys' speech variation is governed by norms that are central to the vernacular culture, and are transmitted through the peer group.
• Cheshire concluded that variation in the girls' speech appears to be a more personal process, and less rigidly controlled by vernacular norms.
• Cheshire concluded that young females used more standard prestige forms than young males, suggesting differences were already evident in childhood.
• Cheshire concluded that boys and girls tend to belong to same-sex friendship groups when growing up, and subsequently develop different styles of speaking.
• Koenraad Kuiper (1991): in all-male talk amongst members of a rugby team, men were likely to pay less attention to the need to save face and instead used insults as a way of expressing solidarity.
• Deborah Cameron (2008) could challenge the difference approach as she criticises the notion that there are innate differences in male and female speech.
• Judith Baxter (2002) could challenge the difference approach as she identified elements of both cooperative and competitive talk in adolescent single-sex conversations.