Genderlect Flashcards
What are the 3 approaches?
- Deficit
- Dominance
- Difference
What is the deficit approach?
Female language is perceived as weaker and a lesser version of male language
What are 2 challenges of the deficit approach?
- May reflect cultural attitudes at the time the studies were published
- Often argued that Robin Lakoff didn’t intend for her work to suggest women language is weaker
Who conducted research into the deficit approach?
- Otto Jesperson
- Robin Lakoff
What is Otto Jesperson’s research into the deficit approach?
Evaluated women’s language as less effective and needing remediation due to a less extensive vocabulary than men, the use of less complex sentence constructions, little prior thought and leaving sentences unfinished
What is Robin Lakoff’s research into the deficit approach?
- Described male language as stronger, more prestigious, more desirable
- Argued that women are socialised into behaving like ‘ladies’ and this keeps them in their place because being ‘ladylike’ precludes being powerful in our culture
- Proposed that women’s speech can be distinguished from mens: hedges, polite forms, apologise more, speak less frequently, avoid coarse language or expletives, hyper correct grammar and pronunciation, indirect requests
What is the dominance approach?
Men dominate women through their language through speaking more, interrupting and shifting topics
What is 1 challenge of the dominance approach?
Confirmation bias
Who conducted research into the dominance approach?
- Edwin and Shirley Ardner
- Pamela Fishman
- Dale Spender
What is Edwin and Shirley Ardner’s research into the dominance approach?
Women’s conversational behaviour is less assertive and less confident than that of men, precisely because they occupy a less powerful position in society than men
What is Pamela Fishman’s research into the dominance approach?
- Conversational Shitwork
- Women have to do majority of the ‘conversational shitwork’ when interacting with men because men, in their more dominant role, are less concerned to do so
What is Dale Spender’s research into the dominance approach?
- Man made language
- Men not only control women, but also the language system itself
- Suggested that men block women’s meanings from the language by stopping them from speaking: ignoring women’s contributions, silencing them, permitting them to talk only in forms that are acceptable to men
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What is the difference approach?
A form of crosstalk or miscommunication often arises as males and females use language in such ways that they don’t actually understand each other and mistake each others intentions
What is 1 challenge of the difference approach?
Confirmation bias which reflects social attitudes at the time
Who conducted research into the difference approach?
- Deborah Tannen
- Jenny Cheshire (1989)
- Koenraad Kuiper
What is Deborah Tannen’s research into the difference approach?
- Differences in male and female attitudes and values are cultural
- Male and female language use in a series of 6 contrasts: status vs support, independence vs intimacy, advice vs understanding, information vs feelings, orders vs proposals, conflict vs compromise
- In each case, the male characteristic comes first
