Language and Gender - Paper 2

Robin Lakoff (1975) - argues that women's language lacks authority compared to men - listing assumptions of main features.
1. 1 - Hedges, phrases such as 'sort of'.
2. 2 - Empty Adjectives, such as 'divine' and 'lovely'.
3. 3 - Super Polite, phrases like 'would you mind if..?'
4. 4 - Lack of general sense of humour.
5. 5 - Less frequent speech, avoiding coarse and expletive language.
6. 6 - Tag questions, such as 'isn't it?' show a lack of confidence.
7. 7 - Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation.
8. 8 - Indirect requests, such as 'I'm thirsty', looking for a drink.
Pamela Fisherman opposed Lakoff's theories.
1. Tag questions were used to start conversations with males.
2. Men do not reply to declaratives - hence the use of tag questions in conversation more regularly. This gains them conversational power.
3. However, Fisherman does admit this is mainly due to male dominance in conversation
Zimmerman and West men are much more likely to interrupt women, than women were men.
1. Suggests truth about patriarchy in language.
2. These findings support the dominance model - meaning men are more dominant in speech
3. Beattie disagrees with the ideas from Z & W.
  1. Interruptions from males can be supportive and show good listening skills.
Jenny Chesire (1982) specifically looked at the difference between young boys and girl grammar.
1. Overall, boys used non standard forms much more frequently than girls.

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