Gender and Speech

1. Gender and Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4zu3Prs0v0

2. Do men and women really talk differently? The consensus view, agreed by leading theorists in the field, is that gender can and often does make a difference to language choices and interpretations, i.e. there are, in some contexts at least, ‘language varieties’ that are specific to men and women – or at least, there are language varieties that seem to occur when a woman feels in some way ‘dominated’ by a male; and there is language, too, that reinforces ideological and cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. But you need to recognise that the differences are not universal: there are men who exhibit ‘feminine’ conversational qualities; and women who use the conversational styles more typical of men.

3. In their text book Living Language (p. 222), George Keith and John Shuttleworth give the following list summarising what has been suggested over the years: WOMEN– talk more than men, talk too much, are more polite, are indecisive/hesitant, complain and nag, ask more questions, support each other, are more co-operative, whereas MEN– swear more, don’t talk about emotions, talk about sport more, talk about women and machines in the same way, insult each other frequently, are competitive in conversation, dominate conversation, speak with more authority, give more commands, interrupt more.

4. The Deficit Model

5. Otto Jespersen: Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin (1922) See handout Otto Jespersen published a set of ideas about women’s language: • women talk a lot • women use half-finished sentences because they speak before they have thought about what they will say • women link sentences with ‘and’ because they are emotional rather than ‘grammatical’ • women use adjectives such as ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’ too much. They are also fond of saying ‘so pretty’ and ‘so nice’ • women use adverbs too much and tend towards hyperbole • women have a smaller vocabulary than men – the words they use are the ‘indispensable small change of a language’ • women know their smaller vocabulary so well that they are more fluent in speaking and less hesitant than men, who are searching for the precise word in their large vocabularies • novels written by ladies are much easier to read and use fewer difficult words • women often gain spoken mastery of foreign languages more easily than men, but when put to the test in translating a difficult text, men prove superior • women, by virtue of their sex, ‘shrink from coarse and gross expressions’ • women had a ‘preference for veiled and indirect expressions’ which preclude them from being as effective as men. • women had a debilitating effect upon the language and it was reasonable for men ‘certainly with great justice [to] object that there is a danger of the language becoming languid and insipid if we are to content ourselves with women’s expressions.’ • men are responsible for introducing new words into the language

6. Robin Lakoff‘Language and Woman’s Place’ (1975) Research conducted by Otto Jespersen and by Robin Lakoff has now been superseded but they still hold a lot of authority. Do you think these theories are relevant in current society?

7. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

8. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

9. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

10. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

11. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

12. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

13. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

14. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

15. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

16. Research Describe the colour you see in the box:

17. Trends of female spoken language Hedges (words and phrases which soften or weaken the force with which something is said, e.g. perhaps) Polite forms Tag questions (turning a statement into a question, e.g. isn’t it?) Emphatic language e.g. so Empty adjectives e.g. adorable, sweet Hypercorrect grammar and punctuation Lack of humour Direct quotations Specialised vocabulary e.g. in colour terms Question intonation in a declarative context Intensifiers such as so, very, absolutely Trends of male spoken language A more direct style – use directives and explicit commands more e.g. ‘Give me the scissors” Interrupt more, more often with me to hijack the conversation, or dominate Swear more Better sense of humour Tell more jokes Simplified vocabulary in some fields Use more non standard forms with covert prestige, that is to say they ‘dumb down’ their language as a means of social bonding See handout

18. Task 1.) Come up with your own gender questionnaire that would explore the potential differences in male and female speech. 2.) Ask 3 men and 3 women to complete your questionnaire. 3.) Complete my questionnaire.

19. Standard VERSUS Non-Standard English

20. Standard v Non-Standard English Researchers have consistently found that women use more standard speech forms than men. This pattern appears to exist across all social classes and also across different languages. In Britain, this means that women tend to use Standard English more than men do. What do you think might be considered as a non-standard form / use of non-standard English?

21. Standard v Non-Standard English • Dropping the ‘h’ from the beginnings of words such as ‘house’ and ‘hat’ • Dropping the ‘g’ in words such as ‘talking’ and ‘walking’ • Saying ‘ain’t’ instead of ‘isn’t’ • Saying ‘seen’ instead of ‘saw’ and ‘done’ instead of ‘did’ • Using multiple negatives

22. Standard v Non-Standard English Important research includes that of Peter Trudgill in Norwich (1983) and Jenny Cheshire in Reading (1982). Cheshire investigated the speech of adolescents at an adventure playground and found similar patterns to those that exist among adults. This suggests that differences in male and female language use are already evident during childhood.

23. Overt and covert prestige Peter Trudgill Overt prestige • The prestige associated with speaking the standard variety / the official language • Adhering to the norm Covert prestige • The prestige associated with speaking a non-standard variety of language • Rebelling from the norm So how does this link to Language and Gender?

24. TASK Read the transcript of the 3 women talking at the hair salon. Annotate the transcript, identifying features which support or contradict Lakoff’s theory. How is gender represented in the text?

25. Robin Lakoff – The Deficit Model This is the theory that the male way of speaking is the normative, and the female departs from the norm. Sufficient distinctive features of male and female language have been identified in order for it to be given its own name, ‘genderlect’.

26. Apart from gender, are there any other factors which might help to explain why speakers use language in this way? • Social statusSocial status is more important to women than men – speech can be taken as an indicator of social class, so women make more effort to conform to standard usage in an effort to demonstrate their respectability. • Society’s expectations of womenSociety expects ‘better’ behaviour from women than men. This begins in childhood when boys’ misbehaviour is tolerated more than girls’. “If a little girl ‘talks rough’ like a boy, she will be ostracized, scolded or made fun of”- Lakoff (1995)Society also expects women to play the dominant role in child rearing, and this includes providing children with models of ‘correct’ speech for them to imitate.

27. Germaine Greer “Comments sent to a blog I came across bewail the tendency of female comics to work around the themes of “bras, periods, chocolate, WeightWatchers’.” Janet Holmes (1992) Tag questions – not a sign of uncertainty but a sign of politeness. They also help keep conversations going. Mills (1991) Sees feminine styles of speech as a mechanism of social control. This means that women try to be ‘nice’ and ‘ladylike’ and carefully monitor their behaviour to ensure it is appropriate.

28. Pamela Fishman (1983) Whilst women try to stimulate speech and be supportive – using tag questions for example, men’s delayed minimal responses work in the opposite way. Women’s use of repeated tag questions are an effective way to gain conversational power as opposed to a marker of any lack of power. Tag questions are used to keep the conversation going.

29. Fishman also argues that women do the conversational ‘shitwork’.

30. Personal Study Task Read the Guardian article written by Linguist Dr Jane Sunderland. Highlight any interesting points and anything you can link to what we have covered about Language and Gender in your studies so far.