Language And Gender

Question 1

Idiolect

Answer 1

An individual’s personalised speech style

(E.g. Gender, sexuality, age, occupation, ethnicity, social class, region, country)

Question 2

Identity

Answer 2

Who someone is

Question 3

Variation

Answer 3

Difference in language use

Question 4

Sociolect

Answer 4

A language style associated with a particular social group

Question 5

Genderlect

Answer 5

A style of speech used by a particular gender

Question 6

Sue Lees (1981)

Answer 6

Men control female sexual behaviour through derogatory terms - sexist language

(E.g. Slut, cougar, minx)

Question 7

Terms of address

Answer 7

Words or titles used to address another person

Question 8

Caitlin Hines (1994)

Answer 8

Women are often referred to as desserts - terms of address

(E.g. Cupcake, screetie, tart)

Question 9

Lexical asymmetry

Answer 9

Pair of words which should be equal but aren’t

E.g.
Male: bachelor, wizard, lord, master
Female: spinster, witch, lady, mistress

Question 10

Muriel Schulz (1975)

Answer 10

Suggested that pairs of words that would normally be seen as equivalents often exhibit asymmetry when they are about gender

Question 11

Diminutive suffixes

Answer 11

Using ‘-ess’ or ‘-etté’ as a suffix to make words feminine and therefore smaller or weaker

Question 12

Pejoration

Answer 12

The process of a word gaining more negative connotations over time

Question 13

Patronyms

Answer 13

Names that reflect male lines of inheritance

E.g.
Son: Thompson, Samson, Richardson
Mac: McDonald, Macdougal
O: O’Brian, O’Leary, O’Hagan

Question 14

False generics

Answer 14

Words which claim to include everyone but do not

(E.g. Mankind, man-made, man’s basic needs)

Question 15

Julia Stanley (1979)

Answer 15

Women are not linguistically represented in our language

Question 16

Dale Spender (1980)

Answer 16

The ‘male as norm’ rule makes male dominance seem natural

Question 17

Language reflectionism

Answer 17

The belief that language reflects our thoughts

Question 18

Language determinism

Answer 18

The belief that language determines own thoughts

Question 19

Stereotypes - gender

Answer 19

Societal expectations about how men and women should behave, dress, or think

(E.g. The belief that women are less capable in science on that men should be tough and emotionless)

Question 20

Gender discourses

Answer 20

Refers to discussions and debates about gender roles, stereotypes, and inequalities in society

Question 21

Sally Hunt (2017)

Answer 21

• Explored how language is used to reinforce gender stereotypes and inequalities
• Gendered language: certain words and phrases are associated with femininity or masculinity
• Argued that gendered language patterns have a significant impact on how we perceive men and women and contribute to a broader societal acceptance of gender inequality

Question 22

Deficit model

Answer 22

Women’s language is lacking something

Question 23

Otto Jesperson (1922)

Answer 23

• No research conducted
• Women talk more and use a lot of false starts because they speak before thinking
• The words they use are ‘indispensable small change of a language’ and uses the conjunction ‘and’ more because they’re more emotive then grammatical
• Women use hyperbole a lot and use words like ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’ too much

Question 24

Robin Lakoff (1975)

Answer 24

• No research and precise statistical evidence (observation only)
• Women use hedges, super-polite forms, tag questions, empty adjectives, direct quotation, minimal responses, intention for questions in declaratives, apologises more, euphemisms, diminutives, wh-imperatives, more modal constructions, indirect commands and request
• Avoid slang and expletives
• Have a lack of a sense of humour

Question 25

Hedging

Answer 25

Words or phrases that express uncertainty (E.g. Probably, maybe)

Question 26

Tag questions

Answer 26

A type of question that are added to the end of a statement to confirm information or seek agreement (E.g. Have you?, isn't it? )

Question 27

Question intonation

Answer 27

Refers to the rising or falling pitch pattern used when asking a question

Question 28

Wh- imperatives

Answer 28

A type of sentence that is used to ask for information or give instructions (E.g. Where did you go?, What are you doing?)

Question 29

Modal verbs

Answer 29

A type of auxiliary verb that help provide additional information about the main verb and express a degree of certainty or obligation (E.g. Must, shall, will)

Question 30

Expletives

Answer 30

Words or phrases that are used to fill space or add emphasis to a sentence to convey emotion or emphasise a particular point (E.g. Um, ah, like) Can also take the form of swear words or vulgar language

Question 31

Intensifiers

Answer 31

Words or phrases used to emphasise or strengthen the meaning of other words in a sentence (E.g. Very, extremely)

Question 32

Minimal responses

Answer 32

Refer to brief, concise replies or reactions that do not offer much information or contribute to the conversation (E.g. Yes, no, okay)

Question 33

O'Barr and Atkins (1980)

Answer 33

- Thought Lakoff’s list was reductive - Study carried out in America and only in one situation (courtrooms) - 30 month study of courtroom footage, recorded 150 hrs of trials - Assessed lawyers, witnesses and defendants - Language differences are situation specific - The speech patterns were ‘neither characteristic of all women nor limited to only women' - Speech patterns were less to do with gender and more to do with perceived power in society

Question 34

Dominance model

Answer 34

Men's language is more powerful than women's language

Question 35

Zimmerman & West (1975)

Answer 35

- Study carried out in America - All white middle class participants - All conversations with two participants - Men interrupt more than women (46:2) - Men like to be in charge of conversations and women prefer to be submissive

Question 36

Geoffrey Beattie (1982)

Answer 36

- Was critical of Zimmerman & West findings - Study was carried out in university seminars - Claims to have recorded some 10hrs of tutorial discussion and some 557 interruptions (55 recorded by Z&W) - Found that women and men interrupted with more or less equal frequency - Men did interrupt more but by a margin so slight as not to be statistically significant

Question 37

Pamela Fishman (1983)

Answer 37

- All while middle class participants - Could turn the tape recorder on and off as they choose - 'interaction: the work women do' - Women used tag questions four times more than men - ‘conversational shitwork’ - Men speak for twice as long as women

Question 38

Difference model

Answer 38

Men's language and women's language is different

Question 39

Jennifer Coates (1989)

Answer 39

- Women are co-operative in conversations while men are competitive in conversations - Acknowledges the tendency of girls to stick to playing in smaller groups whereas boys will adhere to play in larger, hierarchical groups which are based on joint activity

Question 40

Deborah Tannen (1990)

Answer 40

- Student of Robin Lakoff - No study conducted (observational) - Communication technique: co-operative overlap (affirmative) and competitive overlap (disagreement) - Report (male trait) vs Rapport (female trait) - Cross cultural communication (male and female, two different cultures interacting) - Binary oppositions: status vs support, conflict vs compromise, orders vs proposals, independence vs intimacy, advice vs understanding, information vs feelings

Question 41

Diversity model

Answer 41

Language is affected by a range of factors such as age, occupation and ethnicity

Question 42

Deborah Cameron (2007)

Answer 42

- Argued that language is not inherently gendered but instead that society assigns gendered meanings to certain words and speech patterns - “The Myth of Mars and Venus (2008)” : challenges the myths surrounding gender differences and claims there is as much difference and similarity within each gender group as there is between men and women

Question 43

Janet Hyde (2005)

Answer 43

- Proposed the Gender Similarities Hypothesis (2005) - there are more similarities than differences between men and women - Meta-analysis: used this technique to review a large number of studies concerned with all kinds of putative male-female differences

Question 44

Meta-analysis

Answer 44

A statistical technique that allows the analyst to collate many different research findings and draw overall conclusions from them