What did Trudgell do and find about male speech? (1974)
Used large samples of recordings to find differences in speech due to gender
Findings - Male speakers attach covert prestige to non-standard forms
What did Jenny Cheshire (1982) find out about male talk?
Boys language converged towards everyday speech to show social solidarity due to being part of denser networks
What did Lakoff (1975) find in the differentiation of male and female talk?
Differences in language were socially structured and women’s language were seen as deficient in comparison to men’s
List the features of female that that Lakoff found:
- Precise colour terms (magenta, mauve)
- Weak expressive terms (oh dear)
- ‘Empty’ adjectives (charming, sweet)
- Tag questions to show uncertainty (isn’t it?)
- More polite forms/euphemisms (passed away)
- Hedges (sort of, you know)
What did Atkins and O’Barr (1980) find that contradicted Lakoff?
Men in lower class backgrounds used similar features to the women in Lakoff's theory. Language features are more dependent on power relations rather than gender.
What did Holmes (1992) find that disputed Lakoff’s studies?
- Tag questions were used to be polite and maintain a discussion rather than uncertainty
- All female group talk used more compliments to show solidarity
What did Jennifer Coates (1989) find in features of all female talk and not mixed?
- Women used epistemic modal forms (sort of, probably) to avoid face threatening acts
- All female talk is cooperative to help speakers negotiate the discussion
What did Zimmerman and West (1975) find about mixed talk?
- 96% of all interruptions were made by men
- Women have restricted linguistic freedom
- Men impose their dominant status in putting constraints on participants inputs
What differences did Pilkington (1992) find between female and male talk?
- Women in same sex talk were more collaborative than all male
- Women aim to use positive politeness strategies
What did Kuiper (1992) find about male talk?
Men used insults to express their solidarity
