Language and Gender

• What are the four models of Language and Gender?

  The Deficit Model

  The Dominance Model

  The Difference Model

  The Dynamic Model
• Who came up with the Deficit Model?

  Dr Robin Lakoff
• What year was the Deficit Model created?

  1972
• Who came up with the Dominance Model?


  Zimmerman and West
• What year was the Dominance Model created?


  1975
• Who came up with the Difference Model?

  Dr Deborah Tannen
• What year was the Difference Model created?

  1990
• Who came up with the Dynamic Model?

  Dr Janet Hyde
• What year was the Dynamic Model created?

  2005
• What was Lakoff's book called?

  Language and Women's Place
• What did Lakoff suggest?


  Differences in the way women speak created a "women's language." This makes women appear weaker.
• What did Otto Jespersen argue in 1922?


  Male language forms were the "norm."
• Give an example of a characteristic women have in their language according to Lakoff?

  Women don't swear

  Women use more colour terms

  Women are more polite

  Women use more tag questions

  Women use more intensifiers

  Women tend to avoid slang
• Why is Lakoff's book being published in 1972 important?

  The ideas Lakoff put forward can be considered outdated as they written during the second wave of feminism.
• What can we question when evaluating Lakoff?

  The Methodology
• How else can we evaluate Lakoff?


  Her remarks on humour are harder to quantify.

  It is possible to view these features differently.

  Gender is only aspect of a persons language, there are many different factors that can affects one's language.
• What did Dubious and Crouch investigate regarding Lakoff's research?

  The claim that women use more tag questions in conversational situations and are used to signify an avoidance of commitment.
• Explain the research that Dubious and Crouch carried out

  They looked at tape recordings of a small meeting and had 25 people then 15 later. They found men used 33 tag questions whereas women used none.
• How can the research of Dubious and Crouch be evaluated?

  They only used a small sample size.
• What did Bock do in 1996?

  He conducted a poll of 122 American college students on the question, "Women use more tag-questions than men." Less than 41% agreed, 17.2% disagreed and 41% were undecided.
• What was the name of Jennifer Coates Book published in 1993?

  Women Men and Language
• How does Jennifer Coates challenge Dr Robin Lakoff?

  She said hedges are a sign of co-operation to avoid face-threatening acts. Also, she said that tag questions are a sign of co-operation, rather than submission.
• What did O'barr and Atkins investigate?

  Courtroom language
• What year were O'barr and Atkins doing their research?

  1980
• How does O'barr and Atkins conflict the ideas of Dr Robin Lakoff?

  They found that in the court, men from lower class backgrounds used many of the characteristics Lakoff believed were attributed to women's language. This led them to believe that the characteristics Lakoff said are not relevant to gender but rather to power.
• How can you evaluate O'barr and Atkins?

  It could be argued that men use this type of language to please judges in the court.
• Who came up with the "Face Theory?"

  Goffman
• What did the linguist Goffman believe?

  All people have a "face" and it was everyone's goal to show the most positive images of themselves in public in order to communicate in life.
• Define Positve Face


  Our need to be liked and understood.
• Define Negative Face


  Our need not to be imposed upon.
• What are the Positive Face Needs?


  To pay compliments or support their own most positive self-conception of themselves.
• What are the Negative Face Needs?


  Making indirect requests or giving out a variety of options.
• Define Face-Threatening Acts


  An act that threatens someone's positive or negative face.
• Define Prescriptivism


  The belief there are correct and wrong ways to use language.
• Define Descriptivism


  The belief books about language should decide how language is really used.
• Define Linguistic Relativity


  The proposal the language one speaks influences the way one thinks on reality.
• What type of people were used in Zimmerman's and West's study?

  People that were white, middle class and under 35.
• What did Zimmerman and West find in their research?

  In 11 conversations between men and women, they found that men used 46 interruptions whereas women only used two interruptions.
• What did Zimmerman and West conclude?

  Men are more dominant in mixed sex talk than women.
• How can the people selected by Zimmerman and West be evaluated

  As they all came from similar social backgrounds, this means that the characteristics shown in the study by Zimmerman and West must be the result of gender.