Language and Gender

Question 1

What is Robin Lakoff’s Deference Model? - 10 features

Answer 1

1. Superpoliteness
2. Hedges - ‘sort of’
3. Hyper-correctness
4. Tag Questions - ‘isn’t it’
5. Speaking in Italics - ‘Please’
6. Empty adjectives of approval - ‘lovely’
7. Use of implication
8. Special Lexicon - ‘lavender’ instead of ‘purple
9. Question in declarative statement - ‘dinner soon okay?’
10. Women have no sense of humour.

Question 2

What were some criticisms of Lackoff?

Answer 2

Men use more tags than women

Question 3

What is Zimmerman and West’s Dominance Model?

Answer 3

Man speak in a deliberately uncooperative way when talking to women to undermine them.

Question 4

What is Zimmerman and West - Turn-taking?

Answer 4

Overlaps - previous speakers turn ending but start new turn to early but near TRP.
Interruptions - violations of turn-taking.
Same sex - Overlaps more common - 22 rather than 7 interruptions.
Mixed sex - Interruptions more common - 48 interruptions rather than 9.

Question 5

What were some criticisms of turn-taking?

Answer 5

Eakens and Eakens - status, work - hierarchal preference.
Beatties - small scale data sample

Question 6

What was Zimmerman and West - dominance through minimal response?

Answer 6

U NDERSTANDING
L ISTENING
A AGREE
S UPPORT
Minimal respond - listener being unsupportive, mixed sex conversation with men dominating women.

Question 7

What did Pamela Fishman say?

Answer 7

Women used tag ‘y’know’ 5x more than men.

Question 8

What did Janet Holmes say - oriented tags?

Answer 8

1. Speaker-oriented tags - to benefit the speaker, mostly used by men
2. Addressee-oriented tags - benefit the listener, mostly used by women.
   Men use to benefit themselves whereas women use to benefit listener.

Question 9

What did Victoria DeFrancisco say?

Answer 9

She observed women:
1. introduce more topics than man
2. talk more than men
3. worked harder at keeping conversations going

Men also reject topics when speaking to women.

Question 10

What did Helena Leet-Pellegrini find?

Answer 10

Male experts talked the most and violated others people’s turn more than other speakers.
Non/experts spoke the least - used more minimal response.

Question 11

What did Tannen say?

Answer 11

1. Language is different due to differences in upbringing and social conditioning
2. Small boys - wide spaces, competitive
3. Small girls - play in in smaller spaces, 2/3 groups

Question 12

Women’s and Men’s conversation by Tannen?

Answer 12

Women’s conversation- rapport talk to establish and maintain relations.
Men’s conversation- report talk to give information.

Question 13

What did Deborah Jones say?

Answer 13

Women talk falls into one of the 4:
1. Housetalk
2. Bitching
3. Scandal
4. Chatting

Question 14

What did Jane Pilkington find in her Bakery Study?

Answer 14

1. Women agree more frequently
2. Men find long pauses acceptable
3. Women support

Question 15

What did Janet Hyde say about gender similarities?

Answer 15

They’re are far more similarities between men’s and women’s speak than differences.

Question 16

What did O’Barr and Atkins’s Courtroom study find?

Answer 16

They studied courtroom study for 30 months. Found that Lakoff 10 feature are not necessarily a result of being a women but powerless.
Women’s Language should be re-named ‘powerless language’.
Low status speakers use feature of women’s language regardless of gender.

Question 17

What did Cameron’s Performative Language say?

Answer 17

That language is a ‘performance’ and that we present ourselves in a chosen way.
Cameron believes language differences are due to expectation placed by society not biological.

Question 18

What is Bulter’s Performative Language?

Answer 18

1. We perform the gender we want to represent.
2. Gender is constructed through language.
3. Gender roles are dependent on your background and cultures.
4. Drag - exposes performative nature of femininity, socially determined.

Question 19

What did Judith Baxter say determines language rather than gender?

Answer 19

Gender doesn’t determine language, contexts like being at work or status do.