Language & Gender

3 Key Theories
1. Difference Theory
  1. Deborah Tannen
    1. Begins at childhood when parents use more verbs with boys and more emotive language with girls
      1. 'Cross-cultural communication'
        DIFFERENCES
        Advice vs Understanding
        Status vs Support
        Independence vs Intimacy
        Information vs Feeling
        Orders vs Proposals
        Conflict vs Compromise
  2. MEN & WOMEN CONVERSE DIFFERENTLY
2. Dominance Theory
  1. WOMEN'S LANGUAGE IS THE RESULT OF SUBORDINATION
  2. Robin Lakoff
    1. Combined elements of dominance and deficit
      1. Claims women...
        hedge more
        use super polite forms
        complying to grammatical rules
        use more prosodic features
        use more empty adjectives
        use more modal verbs
        overuse qualifiers (I think that...)
        use more minimal responses
        avoid expletives
      2. Believed women used these features because they were uncertain, non-committal and didn't want to impose their views
      3. Women's language features show their inferior social status
        Comes from living in a patriarchal society
        Weak compared to men's so stops them being taken seriously
  3. Zimmerman & West
    1. 96% of interruptions are by men
3. Deficit Theory
  1. WOMEN'S LANGUAGE IS ASSUMED TO BE WEAK
  2. O'Barr & Atkins
    1. Found witnesses of both genders had the same language features when in court
      1. More to do with feeling powerless than gender
Sexism
1. Julia Stanley
  1. 220 derogatory terms for women & only 20 for men
    1. Society has become ANDROCENTRIC
      1. Built-in bias towards men due to a patriarchal society
2. Some argue sexism is just a reflection of how society is
  1. Some people have sexist attitudes therefore there is sexist language
  2. Others argue the existence of sexist language helps create sexist attitudes
    1. Reducing the use of sexist language will improve the perception of women in society
3. Lexical Asymmetry
  1. Male & female equivalents of words are often unequal in their connotations
    1. Marked/Unmarked Terms
      1. Added suffix of '-ess' or '-ette' to the male term
        Now less common - sign of change in attitudes
      2. Suggests male position is higher or more important as it is unchanged
    2. e.g. 'spinster' and 'bachelor'
      1. SAME DENOTATION, DIFFERENT CONNOTATIONS
4. Patronising Terms
  1. Several compare women to food
    1. e.g. 'tart', 'sweetie', 'honey'
      1. Suggests that a woman is there to be desired and consumed by men
  2. Female Inanimate
    1. Referring to objects as 'she/her'
      1. Can be affectionate
      2. Can imply male ownership
5. Man & Mankind
  1. Man sometimes refers specifically to males
    1. And can be used generically to reference the whole human race
      1. Mankind is always generic
      2. Criticised as they imply men are the most important
        'Humankind' is becoming more common
Prestige
1. Overt
  1. Greater use of SE or RP to appear respectable
    1. Sought by women
      1. Perhaps to combat their inferior position or to meet behavioural standards
2. Covert
  1. Use of more non-SE to seem rebellious
    1. Sought by men
      1. Already have a higher status or to seem down to earth/traditionally masculine
SEE LANGUAGE & POWER FOR EXAM TECHNIQUE
1. Some changes to context in the intro but otherwise identical

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