gender language

7/29/2019 Gender Language

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“Do men

and womenspeak

differently?”



Robin Lakoff’s, Language and

Women’s Place, 1975.

Lakoff provided a vision and a template for generations of researchers.

Lakoff suggested that women are „more polite‟and have a „poorer sense of humour ‟ than men.

She suggested that specific linguistic/discursive

features marked the powerlessness of women,arguing that women are socialised into using thesefeatures as part of their subservient role to men.



Examples of these linguistic /

discursive features.• Hedges – „I‟d kind of like to…‟, „It‟s sort of…‟, „I guess…‟

• (Super) polite forms – „I‟d really appreciate it if..‟

• Tag questions – „This is nice, isn‟t it?‟

• Speaking in italics – Intonational emphasis: „So‟, „very ‟ etc.

• Empty adjectives – „Divine‟, „sweet‟, „charming‟ • Hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation – More formalenunciation.

• Lack of a sense of humour – Said to be poor joke tellers, andto „miss the point‟

• Direct quotations

• Special lexicon – Specialised terminology when describingthings like colour. E.g. „magenta‟

• Question intonation in declarative contexts – Seekingapproval when making a statement. Uncertain questions asanswers. E.g. „When will dinner be ready?‟ „Around 6‟o clock?‟



Use of prestigious

language.

Using standard English

gives a person ‘overt

prestige.’

Women are possibly less

secure than men in

terms of social status. –

Feel the need to prove

their status throughlanguage.

Expected to behave

like ‘ladies’ and use

‘ladylike’ language.

Men are more likely seekcovert prestige by using

non – standard English to

appear tough / rebellious.



Is this still

a relevant theorytoday?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XXVXxFH8w

8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XXVXxFH8w8






William O’Barr and Bowman Atkins

(1980)

• Studied the language variation between men and

women in courtrooms for 30-months.

• Recognised that although some women do speak

the way Lakoff described, so do some men.

• Therefore not characteristic of all women nor

limited only to women.

• The women who used relatively few of thefeatures were of an unusually high social status.



‘Women’s Language’

or‘Powerless Language?’

Although more women speak this

language this men, is this relative to

the greater tendency of women tooccupy relatively powerless social

positions?



More Recent Research

• Holmes (1984) – Argued that women‟s

language does not display a weakness,

but a desire to co-operate.

• Cameron (2007) – Argues that there are

very few differences between men and

women‟s language, and situation affects

how people speak more than gender.



Some General Differences.

Men Women

Interrupt more. Zimmerman and West

(1975) found that 96% if the interruptions

were by men.

Tend to talk less and agree more.

Give more direct orders. Don’t mind

conflict.

Polite orders. Try to avoid conflict.

Some theorists suggest that these general differences

can be to do with the difference in topic of conversation

between men and women.



“(gender) identities are constructed

through talk relationally (creating contrasts

between self and other) and dynamically ,through constant re-negotiation of one‟s

own subjectivity and position within the

hierarchy a group.”

- The New Sociolinguistic Reader

Do we „perform‟ our identity?

gender language

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