Gender Theorists

• Sex - biological characteristic of humans
• Gender - social construct which is perpetuated by the socialisation process
• Folk linguistics - preconceived ideas of gender which have no evidence to back them up and are often based on stereotypes
• Tape recorders have helped to make modern research more evidence based
• Deficit Model - Lakoff

  • Women's speech reflects their inferiority compared to men's superior speech
  • Found women use features including tag questions, hedges, weak expletives (e.g. oh dear), empty adjectives (e.g. sweet), intensifiers (e.g. I like him so much) and euphemisms
  • Women are forbidden to display anger or express serious opinions which reinforces male power - certain language associated with women can be seen to damage male reputation
  • Their language shows women's lack of assertiveness and authority
  • Ideas based on folk linguistics/social constructions
• Criticisms of Lakoff's ideas

  • Holmes - disagrees as she sees the proposed features of women's language as showing solidarity, a variety in language, politeness and genuine care
  • O'Barr and Atkins (courtroom) - study showed both genders could use powerless language as it depends on the context and sociolinguistic factors (e.g. class and status)
  • Unreliable study - the climate of Lakoff's research was male dominated, based on stereotypes, didn't account for other variables and had a limited corpus
• Dominance Model

  • Zimmerman and West - suggest that the female sex is subordinate and that men are more dominant in male-female conversation. Women have restricted linguistic freedom as men impose their status through constraints. Found 96% of interruptions were made by men.
  • Dale Spender - criticises Lakoff's idea of women's language lacking assertion as English is a 'man-made' language - the patriarchy dictates the way women speak (e.g. generic man)
• Difference Model

  • Tannen - differentiates men and women as belonging to different 'sub-cultures' as they have been told to do so since childhood. Men use a 'report style' of speaking which communicates facts and information. Men are concerned about independence and status so interrupt more. Women use a 'rapport style' of speaking to build relationships through compromise and show understanding and support rather than giving a solution
  • Tannen sees this as a strength - e.g. tag questions can build a rapport
• Criticisms of Tannen's ideas

  • She didn't address power and some assertions were not based on sufficient evidence
  • Cameron - rejects the difference model - e.g. in sexual assault cases as by that logic men couldn't understand women who cannot express themselves clearly
• Diversity Model


  Suggests our biological sex does not make a difference to the language we use, instead our language is influenced by the roles we have in society and they way we interact with others
• Cameron


  • Denounces the concept of men and women speaking inherently differently
  • Argues this is a myth due to women being better at communication because they care about it and men having the different goal of wanting to be competitive
• Assumptions can lead to

  Discrimination
• Butler


  • Argues gender is a social construct as masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but as a result of gender performativity as performing their gender rituals so frequently has ingrained it into their psyche
• Gender performativity is perpetuated by the media as it reinforces gender expectations and stereotypes
• Gender


  Something you do, not what you are - socialisation
• Lavender Linguistics - coined by William Leap to refer to the study of language used by the LGBTQ+ community
• Heteronormativity - belief that is normal/the standard to be heterosexual - e.g. a gay couple should feature a 'masculine' partner and a 'feminine' partner
• Communities of Practice

  • Most researchers agree it is better to examine inter-speaker differences and who is connected to who in a community rather than studying speakers in isolation - e.g. sports clubs, book clubs and parenting groups
• Podesva and Kulik - argue you cannot tell someone's sexuality because of their language
• Paul Baker - speech of gay people uses features like puns and acronyms which only make sense to those in the community - links to Fairclough's members resources