language and gender Flashcards
(16 cards)
what is Otto Jespersons deficit view?
women’s language is deficient
they use pretty and nice too much
they stutter less because they have a smaller vocabulary than men who search for more precise words
1922
what is lakoffs deference model?
women behave deferentially within conversation which makes men think they have a higher status
part of tannen’s verbal hygiene
women are hyperpolite and hypercorrect this is what interlocutors do when speaking to somebody of a higher status therefore makes women think they have a higher status than women
use more hedges making them sound more hesitant
use more tag questions
what are the criticisms of lakoff?
dubois and crouch study showed men use more tags and show politeness therefore show a desire to cooperate
what did zimmerman and west study?
turn taking, recorded students in public places and looked for examples of simultaneous speech
overlaps happen close to the transition relevance point and are supportive, interruptions are uncooperative
same sex conversations both use the same
mixed sex conversations men interrupt women 54 times women interrupt 2 times
Criticisms of Dubois and Crouch
Dubois and Isabel Crouch’s study into the use of tag questions found that:
tag questions are a device to maintain discussion or to be polite. Therefore, rather than show uncertainty, they show a desire to co-operate.
men use more tags than women,
The dominance Model
The Dominance Model also accepts that women are in a position of social weakness but rather than claiming that women’s language encourages men to oppress them, men actively seek to dominate women by using aggressive speech behaviour. This theory claims that men deliberately behave in an uncooperative way when talking to women in order to undermine and dominate them.
Zimmerman and West
Zimmerman and West (1977 & 1979) looked at the conventions of turn-taking and the ways in which they are used to express male dominance.
They observed that people monitor the speaker’s turn for clues that show when a turn is coming to an end. This is the reason for Sack’s rule of turn-taking ‘No gap. No overlap’. Zimmerman and West observed two kinds of irregularities in turn-taking;
men interupt 46 women 2
Overlaps
Overlaps are slight over-anticipations of the end of an interlocutor’s turn. The new speaker is aware that the previous turn is ending but starts the new turn a word or two too early
Interruptions
are violations of the turn-taking process. The next speaker begins to speak at a point that is clearly not a transition relevancy point. Interruptions prevent a speaker form completing their turn and also gain a turn for the new speaker.
Beattie’s Criticisms of Zimmerman and West
Geoffrey Beattie, of Sheffield University challenged Zimmerman and West. He pointed out that one speaker could have a disproportionate effect on the data, especially as Zimmerman & West had a small data sample.
He also asked “Why do interruptions necessarily reflect dominance? Can interruptions not arise from other sources? Do some interruptions not reflect interest and involvement?”
Eakens and Eakens’s Criticism of Zimmerman and West
There was a “hierarchal preference” as people of a higher status were not interrupted as much
minimal responses
Zimmerman and West also studied the difference in use of minimal responses according to gender. Minimal responses are used to show active participation in a conversation. They identified what they called a ‘delayed minimal response’. This is where a speaker gives a minimal response at the appropriate point but only after a pause. Delayed minimal responses show that a listener is not being supportive.
men do more to women
Pamela Fishman
Pamela Fishman taped three young couples over several days and counted the number of tag used by the speakers.
Fishman noted that the women she studied used the tag ‘y’know’ five times more than men. She claimed that the use of these tag questions is an attempt by the woman speaking to stimulate a response from her male interlocutor. Women did this because men were being uncooperative by withholding minimal responses and not The female speakers were not being supported and so were asking for support.
Janet Holmes
Holmes said that tags can be used for two different purposes. They can be speaker-oriented or addressee-oriented.
Speaker-oriented tags are used for the benefit of the speaker, usually when asking for confirmation of a proposition;
Addressee-oriented tags are used for the benefit of the listener either as support
Victoria DeFrancisco
DeFrancisco observed that women introduce more topics than men do, talked more than men and worked harder at keeping their conversations going. However they are less successful at getting their topics accepted because the men to whom they are talking reject topic they do not wish to discuss. Virtually all of the topics that men suggested were accepted. This is another way in which men control conversation and dominate women. The following extract is an example of a man’s rejection of a woman’s topic.
Helena Leet-Pelligrini
Leet-Pelligrini also looked at the role of topic in conversation dominance but from a different perspective. She focussed on the effect of gender and expertise in mixed sex conversation. She discovered that, in combination, these two factors were good predictors of conversation dominance. In contrast with DeFrancisco, male experts talked the most and violated other people’s turns more than other speakers. Female non-experts spoke least and used more minimal responses.
