AQA Language and Gender

AQA English Language Paper 2

Types of gender theories

Dominance

Deficit

Difference

Tannen ‘vs’ theory

• Advice vs understanding

• Conflict vs compromise

• Independence vs intimacy

• Info vs feelings

• Orders vs proposals

• Status vs support

Zimmerman and West

96-100% of interruptions come from men (1975)

Socialisation

process by which individuals' behaviours are conditioned and shaped.

Marked Form

form which stands out as different from the norm.

Covert marking

marking that is understood and less obvious- e.g. young/old or lord vs lady

Overt marking

marking that takes place through affixation or modification - e.g. master vs mistress

Covert prestige

high status given to non-standard forms.

Trudgill

Studied people in Norwich to see how they pronounce the suffix 'ing'. Men tended to use more non-standard pronunciation. (1974) - also region*

Jenny Cheshire

Studied teenagers in Reading. Boys used more non-standard forms. She thought this was because boys were part of denser social networks. (1982)

Lakoff's deficits

domestic lexis, precise colours, weak expletives, 'empty' adjectives, tag questions, polite euphemisms, hedges, intensifiers.

Semantic Derrogation

The negative connoted meanings that some lexical items have attached to them.

Semantic deterioration

the process by which negative associations become attached to lexical items.

Tautology

The reason why the term, 'family woman' is not a recognised expression.

Collocation

Words that occur regularly with others: e.g. nagging wife.

Folklinguistics

Popular myths about language: e.g. women talk more than men.

Vocal fry

Low, staccato vibrations occurring towards the end of an utterance, previously an aspect of male speech but now used extensively by women. It is thought to have the effect of making the person sound serious.

O'Barr and Atkins 1980

Disputed Lakoff, said that it was males and females of low social status who used these linguistic features.

More about powerless language than gender

Beattie

Questioned Zimmerman and West's theory that men's interruptions were a sign of dominance. Study used x10 as many participants and found both interrupt equally

Coates

'Women's talk' falls into four categories

1) Bitching

2) Chatting

3) House Talk

4) Scandal

Difference theorists

Pilkington - Men’s ‘locker-room’ talk, insults and taboo language created bonds in all male groups

Tannen - Male = report, Women = rapport

Millett - ‘The tones and ethos of men’s house culture is sadistic, power-oriented and latently homosexual, frequently narcissistic in its energy and motives’

Dominance theorists

Spender - Male as norm (man-made, his-tory, Mr first)

Stanley - 220 words for promiscuous woman, only 20 for male

Holmes - Women referred to as food/animals (infantalise)

The Bechdel Test

If a piece of entertainment (book/show/film) has:

• Two women

• Who talk to each other

• About something other than men

Deficit theories

Jesperson - Women’s language littered with non-fluency features because they speak before thinking

ESRC (Econ and social research council) - Women use ‘fuck’ 50x more often than pre-1990

Lakoff - hedging/ back-channelling, weak adjectives etc