Genderlect

• Difference model


  Associated with Deborah Tannen and Jennifer Coates, argued that men and women have different agendas when interacting with each other
• Rapport-talk


  More concerned with building and maintaining relationships
• Report-talk


  More concerned with conveying information
• Deborah Tannen -1990 (difference)


  Tannen argues that where women speak and hear language of connection and intimacy, men speak and hear language of status and independence.

  Speak different genderlects

  Report v Rapport

  Rapport- talk is more concerned with building relationships. modality, speaker support…

  Report- factual+ declarative. less speaker support
• Challenges of Deborah Tannens study


  Lack of mix sex work within study
• Jane Pilkington- 1992 (difference)


  Researched the features of gossip in all male and all female settings.

  Methodology- recorded 2 different all male and all female groups

  Results- Female (cooperative talk) little pauses, positive feedback, minimal responses m

  Male (uncooperative)long silences, sudden topic shifts, disagreements

  Conclusion- behave different when gossiping however have the same goals for interaction
• Marjorie Goodwin- 1980 (difference) 


  Directives are used differently

  methodology- recorded boys and girls in same sex interactions. Boys used direct orders and use face threatening acts.

  Boys used aggravated directives

  However, female participants used mitigating imperatives and politeness marker. modality and inclusive pronouns

  challenges- small study
• Jennifer Coates- 1989 (difference) 


  Methodology- recorded a group of female friends. Found that the main goal in women's language is to maintain a good social relationship.

  Conclusion- women’s use of minimal responses, rage questions and hedging devices in general has been interpreted as a sign of weakness. Subordinate position to men
• 4 aspects of cooperative style language according to Jennifer Coates


  • Topic development- don’t seek dominance. More cooperative. Turn taking
  • Minimal responses- Speaker support. Shows active attention . Tends to show agreement
  • Simultaneous speech- overlaps are positive and supportive. Collaborative
  • Epistemic modality- level of modality. Not to impose actions on others directly ‘perhaps’
• The dominance model


  Dominance model theorists Zimmerman and west, Robin Lakoff and Pamela Fishman saw males and females as being different in terms of power in conversation
• Robin Lakoff- 1975 (dominance)


  Context- second wave feminism

  Robin Lakoff identified ‘womens language’ as a form of language that reinforced women’s subordinate status in a patriarchal society.

  She claimed that women were more polite then men and used more tag questions such as ‘isn’t it’.

  Employed hedges such as ‘perhaps’ made their statement less certain.

  Women were often interrupted by men and unfunny

  Lakoff identified these differences as being due to the childhood socialisation process
• Challenges to Robin Lakoff dominance model


  The sample isn’t statistically diverse or significant. Language is context bound. Doesn’t consider culturally determined language
• Zimmerman and West- 1975 (dominance) 


  • Focused on simultaneous speech and minimal responses in spoken interaction
  • 31 conversations: 10 women, 10 men, 11 mixed sex
  • Men rarely interrupt each other only interrupt women
  • After overlaps speakers tend to fall silent
  • In mixed sex conversations men often delayed minimal responses which could show lack of understanding or interest
• Minimal responses


  'mhm', 'yeah' - way of indicating a speaker's positive attention
• O’Barr and Atkins - 1980 (diversity)


  Research of language variation in a specific institutional context- American courts

  O’Barr and Atkins used information by practice lawyers

  Findings-

  • Some women adopted Lakoffs ‘women’s language’
  • Men also exhibited women’s features
  • Some female witnesses were the opposite
  • The use of women’s features is closely linked to social position
• Conclusion of O’Barr and Atkins research 


  Many feature of women’s language is more closely related to social position and specific context
• Deborah Cameron (diversity) 


  Deborah Cameron’s theory believed that difference is a myth.

  Camerons research focuses on the relationship between language and Gender and how it is affected by society

  Challenges the belief that men and women speak different languages and believe that any difference are due to expectations placed upon us by society
• Judith Butler (diversity) 


  Butler suggested the idea of gender performative.

  This refers to the notion that gender can be preformed and someone’s gender identity is a result of recurrent behaviours that emulate gender roles and norms

  Gender is constructed throughout language we choose to use

  Language we use is not determined by biological sex

  There isn't a difference between men’s and womens language