Language variation - Gender and Language

Deficit model theorists

Jespersen, Lakoff, Holmes, Mills, O’Barr & Atkins

Jespersen in the deficit model

Women’s language is weak and contains weak traits

Feminine features of language

Hedges, Tag questions, Specialised words

Masculine features of language

Direct, humourous, ‘Dumb down’

Lakoff 1975 deficit model

Women are taught to use language in limited ways, he introduced ‘feminine features’

Criticism of deficit model

Lakoff used non-empirical research and gender equality has changed since 1975

Holmes 1992 deficit model

Tag questions are a sign of politeness and develop conversations

Mills 1991 deficit model

Feminine speech is used to carefully monitor behaviour for society

Lakoff 1995 deficit model

If women talk like men they will be ostracised by society

O’Barr and Atkins 1980 deficit model

Studied language and found both men and women equally use ‘feminine language’

Dominance model theorists

Zimmerman and West, Beattie, Dale Spender, Pamela Fisherman

Zimmerman and West 1975 dominance model

Men are more likely to interrupt than women, with parents interrupting daughters more than sons

Criticisms of Zimmerman and West 1975 dominance model

Subjects were all white, middle class and under the age of 35. Only 31 segments of conversations studied

Beattie 1982 dominance model

Men only interrupt marginally more but society prefers Zimmerman and West due to confirmation bias

Dale Spender 1980 dominance model

Language itself is patriarchal and oppresses women ‘chairMAN’

Pamela Fisherman ‘Shitwork’ 1983 dominance model

Listened to young couples speaking. Women use TQ to develop and initiate conversations but men don’t as they feel they are ‘above’. Men speak 2x longer, so women ask questions to show power

Difference model theorists

Tannen, Coates

Tannen 1990 difference model

Men and women have a ‘genderlect’ as they socialise differently to achieve different things from their conversations

Examples of Tannen’s contrasts

Advice vs Understanding

Orders vs Proposal

Conflict vs Compromise

Tannen evaluation

Creates a polarised representation that treats men and women as different species. Ignores intra-group variation where differences between individuals of the same gender are often greater than between the two genders

Coates 1989 difference model

Same sex friendship groups develop differences in speech and perceived gender polarization

Diversity model theorists

Cameron, Hyde

Cameron 2007 diversity model

Says men and women using language differently is a myth and there is more intra - group variation. We construct our own ‘verbal hygiene’ because of society (reframes language as social practices rather than neutral rules)

Cameron evaluation

Accused of losing analytical specificity with her reduced slogans like ‘verbal hygiene’

Hyde 2005 diversity model

There are more similarities than differences in language, with variation down to context