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    Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4 Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4

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    farabi nawar
    This document summarizes research on gender differences in language. It discusses four major theories: 1) the deficiency model which argued women's language is deficient compared to men's, 2) the dominance model which found that men interrupt women and women do more "interactional work", 3) gender socialization models which argue girls and boys learn different styles from same-sex socialization, and 4) social constructionist models where gender identities are constructed through language rather than innate. Key differences discussed include directness vs. politeness, assertiveness vs. cooperation, and maintenance of hierarchy vs. group cohesion. Criticism notes women's language does not always match early stereotypes.

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    Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4 Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4

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    farabi nawar
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    This document summarizes research on gender differences in language. It discusses four major theories: 1) the deficiency model which argued women's language is deficient compared to men's, 2) the dominance model which found that men interrupt women and women do more "interactional work", 3) gender socialization models which argue girls and boys learn different styles from same-sex socialization, and 4) social constructionist models where gender identities are constructed through language rather than innate. Key differences discussed include directness vs. politeness, assertiveness vs. cooperation, and maintenance of hierarchy vs. group cohesion. Criticism notes women's language does not always match early stereotypes.

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    This document summarizes research on gender differences in language. It discusses four major theories: 1) the deficiency model which argued women's language is deficient compared to men's, 2) the dominance model which found that men interrupt women and women do more "interactional work", 3) gender socialization models which argue girls and boys learn different styles from same-sex socialization, and 4) social constructionist models where gender identities are constructed through language rather than innate. Key differences discussed include directness vs. politeness, assertiveness vs. cooperation, and maintenance of hierarchy vs. group cohesion. Criticism notes women's language does not always match early stereotypes.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    236 views3 pages

    Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4 Language and Gender - Lecture Notes 4

    Uploaded by

    farabi nawar
    This document summarizes research on gender differences in language. It discusses four major theories: 1) the deficiency model which argued women's language is deficient compared to men's, 2) the dominance model which found that men interrupt women and women do more "interactional work", 3) gender socialization models which argue girls and boys learn different styles from same-sex socialization, and 4) social constructionist models where gender identities are constructed through language rather than innate. Key differences discussed include directness vs. politeness, assertiveness vs. cooperation, and maintenance of hierarchy vs. group cohesion. Criticism notes women's language does not always match early stereotypes.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    lOMoARcPSD|8230253

    Language and Gender - Lecture notes 4

    Sociolinguistics (Oxford Brookes University)

    StuDocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university


    Downloaded by farabi nawar ([email protected])
    lOMoARcPSD|8230253

    Language and Gender


    Do Women and Men Speak Differently? (Homes, 1992; Lakoff
    1975; Romaine 2000)

    Women Men
    Japanese (water) ohiya mizu
    Common Structures Hedging Commands
    Tag questions Joking/Storytelling
    High rising tone
    Typical Styles Polite/Unprecise Rough/Objective
    Standard forms Slang
    Innovation v. Swear Words
    Maintenance
    Patterns of Verbal Create v. Maintain Assert dominance
    Interaction Cohesiveness Attract/Maintain
    Group Terms audience
    Conversation Respect turn taking Stress own points
    Management Details Interrupt
    Topic development Minimal responses

    Theories in Linguistic Gender Research

    1. Deficiency Model – early studies


    (Lakoff, 1975)
    2. Dominance Model – second phase
    (Ochs, 1992)
    3. Gender Socialisation (Difference) Model
    (Tannen, 1991)
    4. Social Constructivist Approaches
    (Uchida, 1992)
    1 – The Deficiency Approach
    - Early research - Men’s speech as a reference
    - “Woman’s Language” - Quantitative

    Lakoff argues that women’s language is characterised by a number of features:


    (Mooney & Evans, 2015)
    - Avoidance of swear words
    - Use of hedges or fillers (‘you know’ and ‘sort of’)
    - Tag questions
    - Empty adjecives

    Downloaded by farabi nawar ([email protected])


    lOMoARcPSD|8230253

    - Intensifiers
    - Specific colour terms
    - More standard syntax
    - Rising intonation on declaratives
    - High levels of politeness
    Lakoff’s features provide us with an account of what people expect from women in their
    language use. An important feature of the concept ‘women’s language’ is not that there
    actually is a way that men and women use language differently but that society expects them
    to do so without questioning this expectation. (Mooney & Evans, 2015)

    CRITICISM: Subsequent research on what women actually do linguistically doesn’t always


    match up with Lakoff’s claims

    2 – The Dominance Model


    Studies in: (a) marital home; “The underlying issue here is likely to be
    (b) at work/business meeting; hierarchy, not simply gender. Socially-
    (c) classroom structured power relations are reproduced
    Some of the findings: and actively maintained in our everyday
    (1) Men systematically interrupt women interactions. Women’s conversational
    (Zimmerman and West, 1975) troubles reflect not their inferior social
    (2) Women do ‘interactional shitwork’ training but their inferior social
    (Fishman, 1980) position.” (Fishman, 1980)

    3 – Gender Socialisation (Difference) Approaches


    Boys and girls grow up in different (same sex) groups/ “subcultures”; socialised into different
    behaviours as children in single-sex groups. (Maltz and Borker, 1982)
    - ‘competitive vs. collaborative style’ (Tannen, 1991)
    Different group dynamics of all-female/all-male groups lead to different styles
    - re-evaluation of women’s style
    - women’s cooperative style (Coates, 1996)

    4 – The Constructionist Approach


     The way we talk is influenced by our memberships in various ‘communities of
    practice’
     We use language to present ourselves in specific ways
     Language/discourse as a resource/toolkit for ‘construction of identity’
     We constantly adopt new ways of being a woman/being a man

    Downloaded by farabi nawar ([email protected])

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