Gender

Question 1

Otto Jespersen

Answer 1

• 1922 “Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin” ‘The Woman’
• Deficit approach: Women’s language seen as deficient
• Emotional speech: linking with “and” (using it a lot)
• Frequent use of adjectives (pretty, nice) and intensifiers (“so pretty”)

Question 2

Robin Lakoff

Answer 2

• Minimal responses (“mm”, “yeah”)
• Use intensifiers (“so”, “very”)
• Declaratives into questions (rising pitch)
• Hedge (“sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”)
• Polite forms (“Would you mind…”)
• Apologize more (“I’m sorry but…”)
• Tag questions (“aren’t you?”)
• Have a social lexicon eg. women use more words for colours whilst men do for sports
• Use empty adjectives eg. divine, lovely, adorable
• Emotional evaluations (great, fantastic)
• ‘Wh-’ imperatives (“Why don’t you open the door?”)
• Indirect commands (“Isn’t it cold in here?”)
• Avoids slang/coarse language (“oh dear” not “shit”)

Question 2

O’Barr and Atkins

Answer 2

• Studied 30 months of courtroom cases
• Challenged Lakoff: Language traits linked to powerlessness, not gender
• Lower-class men showed ‘female’ speech traits
• its more to do with status, class and power

Question 3

Zimmerman and West

Answer 3

• dominance theory
• Men responsible for 96% of interruptions
• Men: longer utterances, more turns, interrupted less, and managed conversation dominance

Question 4

Dale Spender

Answer 4

• Man Made Language (1980)
• language itself is built to maintain male power
• male firstness: the male term often comes first and is seen as the “default” or “norm”. Example: “Mr and Mrs”, “he or she”, “men and women” — men are always named first.
• generic term: Words like “man” are used to represent all humans (e.g., “mankind”, “manmade”) — this erases women from language.

Question 5

Pamela Fishman

Answer 5

• “Conversational shitwork” = women keep conversation flowing
• Mixed-sex: men speak on average twice as long
• Women use tag questions to start and sustain conversation (not insecurity)

Question 6

Jennifer Coates

Answer 6

• 4 types of women’s talk: House Talk, Scandal, Bitching, Chatting
• Gendered development of speaking styles: boys in large groups (activity-based), girls in small groups (talk-based)
• Men reject female topics, women accept male topics

Question 7

Deborah Tannen

Answer 7

• Male vs Female talk:
  Status vs Support
  Independence vs Intimacy
  Advice vs Understanding
  Information vs Feelings
  Orders vs Proposals
  Conflict vs Compromise
• Women: Talk too much, build relationships, overlap talk,
• Men: More airtime, negotiate status, speak one at a time

Question 8

Janet Holmes

Answer 8

• Tag questions = politeness and maintaining conversation, not uncertainty
• Hedges and fillers do not show powerlessness

Question 9

Jane Pilkington

Answer 9

• Women’s conversations more collaborative than men’s
• Women use more positive politeness strategies

Question 10

Peter Trudgill

Answer 10

• Men less likely to use overt prestige
• Women use overt prestige forms more
• Men use covert prestige (e.g., “droppin’ g’s”)

Question 11

Geoffrey Beattie

Answer 11

• Recorded 557 interruptions Found men and women interrupted almost equally (men 34.1 vs women 33.8 times)
• Suggested interruptions can show support/understanding, not just dominance

Question 12

Howe

Answer 12

• Women use more backchanneling (“mm”, “yeah”) than men

Question 13

Kuiper

Answer 13

• Men insult each other to build solidarity
• Less concern for saving face than women

Question 14

Julia Stanley

Answer 14

• 220 terms for promiscuous women
• Only 20 for promiscuous men
• Male terms often had positive connotations (“stud”, “stallion”)

Question 15

Marking

Answer 15

Female terms are marked as deviations from the male norm (e.g., waitress, actress).