Variation- Gender

What is lexical asymmetry?

When a word that is used to describe a man’s position has positive connotations, but the equivalent word for a woman has negative ones.

Describe ‘markedness’ as a linguistic theory

• Words can be ‘marked’ or ‘unmarked’

• Marked forms indicate explicitly the gender of a person

• Unmarked forms do not

• Usually unmarked forms refer to men and marked forms refer to women

• Marked forms are identified by a suffix, e.g actor and actress

What does ‘markedness’ suggest about gender roles?

Suggests male roles are more important because the standard, unmarked term, is used to refer to them. While the terms for women are simply an add on/extension.

What does Leech (1968) suggest about language and gender?

Trivialising suffixes- the use of suffixes like ‘ess’ or ‘ine’ to language that refers to females (like ‘heroine’, ‘actress’, ‘stewardess’) implies the inferiority of women.

What does Stanley (1977) suggest about language and gender?

• There are 26 nouns that refer to promiscuous men, some have approving connotations.

• Whereas there are 220 nouns for promiscuous women, all of these have disapproving connotations.

What does Hines (1994) discuss about language and gender?

Terms of address for women as metaphors for desserts, e .g sweetie, honeybun, cupcake.

What does Schulz (1975) suggest about language and gender?

All words used in association with women tend to become derogatory: semantic derogation of women.

What are 3 categories of occupational lexis?

• Gender-neutral (e.g social worker)

• Are gender-neutral but DO NOT have a gender-neutral connotation (e.g nurse)

• Gender specific (e.g fireman)

What is the generic use of ‘man’?

People claim that the word ‘man’ can be used in words and phrases to include both men and women, including both sexes.

What are the 4 approaches to language and gender?

• Deficit

• Difference

• Denial

• Dominance

What approach does Lakoff support?

The deficit approach

What is the deficit approach?

• Believes female language is deficient compared to that used by men

• Women’s language lacks real authority

What are 8 characteristics of women’s language as proposed by Lakoff?

• The use of specialised vocabulary centred around domestic chores

• Precise colour terms e.g ‘mauve’

• Weak expletive terms e.g ‘oh dear’

• Empty adjectives e.g ‘charming’

• Tag questions to show uncertainty e.g ‘isn’t it?’

• More polite terms than men like euphemisms e.g ‘powder my nose’

• Use of hedges e.g ‘sort of’

• Intensifiers ‘so’

What did Lakoff suggest about the role of socialisation in women’s language?

It played an important role in ensuring that female language remained less assertive and more insecure compared to men.

• Differences were socially constructed rather than biologically based

What is a weakness of Lakoff study?

Participants were all American, white, middle class and educated but her findings were interpreted as being for all women.

What approach does Jespersen support?

The deficit approach

What did Jespersen believe about language and gender?

• Men’s language was seen as the standard and normal

• Women’s language was deficient

What did Jespersen suggest about women’s language?

• Women talk more

• Use smaller words as they have smaller vocabularies

• Use more false starts and unfinished sentences because they think before they speak

• Exaggerate more

• Use too many adjectives and adverbs

• Are emotional not grammatical

• And more indirect and, therefore, less effective than men

What did Jespersen suggest about men’s language?

• Men have a larger vocabulary and use more difficult words

• Are in charge of establishing new words in the English language

What are Grice’s 4 Maxims?

• Quality

• Quantity

• Relevance

• Manner

What is Grice’s Maxim of quality?

• Speakers should be truthful

• Should not say what they think is false, or make statements for which they have no evidence

What is Grice’s Maxim of quantity?

• A contribution should be as informative as is required

• It should be neither too little, nor too much

What is Grice’s Maxim of relevance?

• Speakers’ contributions should relate clearly to the purpose of the conversation

What is Grice’s Maxim of manner?

• Speakers’ contributions should be clear and orderly, avoiding obscurity and ambiguity

What approach does Cameron support?

Denial approach

What does Deborah Cameron argue?

The idea that men and women use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time.

• ‘Mars versus Venus myth’

What are the claims of the Mars versus Venus myth?

• Language and communication matter more to women than men

• Women talk more than men

• Women are more verbally skilled than men

• Men’s goals in using language = to get things done

• Women’s goals in using language = making connections with other people

• Men talk more about facts

• Women talk more about people, relationships and feelings

• Men’s way of usuing language is competitve (reflecting their general interest in acquiring and maintaining status)

• Women’s use of language is co-operative (reflecting their preference for equality and harmony)

• Difference between men and women lead to ‘miscommunication’

What is the dominance approach?

• In mixed-sex converstaions men are more likely to interrupt than women, they dominate and control mixed-sex conversations

Who’s research supports the dominance approach?

Zimmerman and West

Describe Zimmerman and West’s research and results

• Conducted at the University of California in 1975

• Found 96% of all interruptions in mixed-sex conversations were made by men

• Saw this as a sign that men sought to impose their dominant status through applying explicit constraints on conversation

Who criticised Zimmerman and West’s research? Why?

• Geoffrey Beattie

• Argued that there may have been a very talkative man in the study which has a disproportionate effect on the total

Describe Beattie’s research and results

• Recorded 10 hours of tutorial discussion and 557 interruptions

• Found women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency (men 34.1 vs women 33.8)

• So men did interrupt more but by a margian so slight as not be to statistically significant

What is the difference approach?

• Language variation between men and women is due to them belonging to different subcultures with different attitudes/preferences for types of talk

• As a result of cultural differences and pressures

What study supports the idea female speech is linked to the need to establish and maintain strong friendships?

Coates (1989)

What did Coates (1989) suggest?

• All female talk is essentially cooperative in the way that speakers help to negotiate discussion and support each other’s rights as speakers

• Argues these patterns are not found in mixed talk, they are evidence of differing socio-cultural expectations

Who else supports the difference approach?

Pilkington (1992)

What does Pilkington (1992) suggest?

• Women in same sex talk were more collaborative than men in all-male talk

• Concluded that women aimed for more positive politeness strategies in conversation with other women, whereas men tended to be less complimentary and supportive in all-male talk

What is the aim positive politeness strategies?

Intended to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness.

What are some expamples of positive politness strategies?

• Juxtaposing criticsm with compliements

• Establishing common ground

• Using jokes

• Nicknames

• Honorifics (sir, reverend, doctor)

• Tag questions

• Special discourse

• Markers (please)

• In-group jargon and slang

How does Kuiper (1991) support the difference approach?

Found that all-male talk amoungst memebers 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.

How does Deborah Tannen (1990) support the difference approach?

Attempted to explain male-female miscommunication by claiming that male-female speech was ‘cross-cultural communication’.

What are Tannen’s 6 contrasts?

• Status vs support

• Independence vs intimacy

• Advice vs understanding

• Information vs feelings

• Orders vs proposals

• Conflict vs compromise

Describe status vs support

• Men see conversation as competitive, they want to be dominant

• Women see conversation as a way to gain confirmation and support

Describe independence vs intimacy

• Women think in terms of closeness and support, and struggle to preserve intimacy

• Men are concerned with status so focus more on independence

Describe advice vs understanding

• Men see complaints as a challenge to find a solution

• Women want sympathy and understanding

Describe information vs feelings

• Men value the concise giving of information

• Women value sharing emotions and feelings elaborately

Describe orders vs proposals

• Men use direct imperatives

• Women suggest that people do things in indirect ways

Describe conflict vs compromise

• Women will refuse to oppose others openly and appear to agree, but consequently complain

• Men will resist vocally

What does Holmes (1992) suggest about tag questions as politeness boosting devices?

Tag questions function to help maintain discussion and be polite, rather than signs of weakness, they are multi-functional.

What is a hedge?

• A mitigating word or sound used to lessen the impact of an utterance

• Usually they are adjectives or adverbs

• Could be regarded as a form of euphemism

What else does Holmes suggest about other features of ‘women’s language’?

• Hedges and fillers exist for a variety of functions not just to show indecision

• Women in all-female groups use far more compliments as further acts of politeness and solidarity than men did

What else did Coates (1989) suggest about ‘women’s language’?

• Women use more epistemic model forms, e.g ‘perhaps’, ‘sort of’, ‘probably’

• In order to avoid face threatening acts when talking to other females

What do Dubois and Crouch (1975) suggest?

Men use more tag questions than women, but it was never suggested they were less confident.

What do O’Barr and Atkins (1980) suggest?

In a courtroom, many of Lakoff’s suggested features did occur in women’s speech, but also in the speech of men from lower class backgrounds.

What did the findings of Dubois + Crouch and O’Barr + Atkins suggest about language and gender?

The features of speech were more dependent on power relations than gender.

What did Cameron (2008) suggest?

• Criticised the idea that there are innate differences in male and female speech

• ‘Mars versus Venus myth’

• The often quoted ‘fact’ that women use more words than men is based on flawed research (men use 7000 words while women use 20,000 is from a self-help book)

What approach does Cameron support?

Denial approach

What are the claims of the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’?

• Communication matters more to women than men

• Women are more verbally skilled

• Differences between men and women’s language lead to ‘miscommunication’ between the sexes, misinterpreting the other’s actions (causes problems particularly in heterosexual relationships)

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ what are men’s goals in language?

Getting things done

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ what are women’s goals in language?

Making connections to other people

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ what do men talk more about?

Things and facts

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ what do women talk more about?

People, relationships and feelings

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ how do men use language?

Men’s way of using language is competitive, reflecting their aim to acquire and maintain status.

According to the ‘Mars versus Venus myth’ how do women use language?

Women’s way of using language is cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony.

What is hegemonic masculinity?

Behaviours and language associated with the idealised male group.

e.g a teenage boy may talk to his friends about winning a football match but doesn’t tell them the other team had less players as this would threaten his social status.

What is uptalk?

When declarative statements end with rising intonation.

What does uptalk suggest about the speaker?

• Used to suggest lack of intelligence

• Recent studies suggest it shows power as the speaker shows they haven’t finished speaking

What is vocal fry?

Where a speaker adopts a creaky low-pitch speech that elongates some words.

What does vocal fry suggest about the speaker?

• Some suggest it shows unintelligence

• Others see women using it to make them sound like men in the workplace