gender studies

Deborah Cameron

Criticised the idea that there are innate differences between male and female conversations.

Argues that ‘the idea that men and women… use language in a very different way and for many different reasons

Robin Lakeoff

There’s a certain way of using language that women are socialised into- to be good. For example, not to swear.

The way women are socialised into language reflects how they are in a subordinate position. This isnt research but a personal observation.

Judith Butler

Gender is something we do rather than something we inherently are.

We learn to act through socialisation, and as we repeat them, we are then reproducing the idea that they are the norm.

Language allows us to perform out gender and is used as a tool for our appearance.

Indexicality- when you use language to index who you are.

Jane Hyde 2005

Differences between male and female language can be due to variety of age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics and so on.

Christopher Odato

Children as young as four use ‘like’ as a discourse marker.

Stage 1: Children use it infrequently and only in a few syntactic positions.

Stage 2: Children start to sue it more often. Girls around age 5, boys at 7.

Stage 3: Children start to use it a lot more frequently such as before a prepositional stage. Girls start before boys at around age 7.

Lucy Jones

Women’s language is less forceful.

Debating women’s vs men’s language crosses out intersecting factors.

Constructionist Approach

Language builds and constructs gender.

Not all women and men are the same.

Scott Kesling

Looked at boys language and what the discourse included/ didnt include.

Saw how men in long term relationships’s language differs to single men.

Kesling's research showed that boys' language reflects social dynamics, including emotional expression and assertiveness, often highlighting the impact of relationship status on communication styles.

Jenny Cheshire

Considered the frequency of grammatical variations children used like non- standard English in their speech, analyzing how these variations relate to social factors such as age, gender, and peer influence.

Boys speech is focused on norms that are central to the vernacular culture and girl’s speech seems to be a more personal process controlled by vernacular norms.

Pamela Fishman

A sociolinguist known for her work on gender and conversation, focusing on how women often initiate conversation and negotiate meaning in interpersonal communication.

She argued that women use conversational strategies to sustain dialogue and address power imbalances in communication.

She highlighted that women frequently employ questions, minimal responses, and other strategies to promote reciprocity in conversations.

Agrees with Lakeoff in saying tag questions are more commonly used by women.

Jennifer Coates

A prominent scholar in sociolinguistics known for her research on women's language and the role of gender in communication. Coates examined how women's conversations differ from men's and how these differences reflect societal power dynamics.

Coates argued that women's speech often emphasizes cooperation and connection, and she explored topics like conversational turn-taking and the use of cooperative speech strategies.

She is recognized for her contributions to understanding how women's talk fosters relationships and community.

She found that men typically have on person ‘holding the floor’ as they take turn speaking in monologues one by one.

Deborah Tannen

Men and women speak differently because they grew up with different communication styles.

Men use language to give information, solve problems and gain status while women use language to create connections, share experiences, and develop relationships. Tannen's work emphasizes the importance of understanding these differences to improve communication between genders.