Language and Gender Theories

Language and Gender is looking at the way language is spoken depending on the gender of the speaker, from these theories we can see how researchers have looked into the idea of gender effecting the way that we speak.




Difference Theory:
Deborah Tannen examined the differences in communication between men and women, she summarised her findings into six categories:


Status v Support:
Men see language as a way of asserting dominance to build their status; Whereas for women language is a way of confirming/supporting ideas and seeking support in some form.


Independence v Intimacy:
Women seek support and intimacy; Men favour independence and prefer to go at it alone.


Advice v Understanding:
Women seek comfort, empathy and sympathy for their problems through language; Whilst men see language as a solution or as problem solving.


Information v Feelings:
Males are concerned with communicating information and facts; Women build relationships and strengthen social links with emotion through language.


Orders v Proposals:
Men use imperatives "Close the door"; Females use hidden directives/ super polite forms "Would you mind closing the door?".


Conflict v Compromise:
Men will argue as a means of  resolving differences and then negotiating their status ; Women try to find a middle ground and will try to avoid or resolve disagreements without the need of direct confrontation.




Dominance Theory:
William O'Barr and Bowman Atkins they found that there isn't much of a difference between how and men and women speak but more of the situation that they are in, whereas the difference theory focuses on how men 'supposedly' dominate the conversation as they have always been the more powerful sex at home and in the workplace, and females have the more domestic duties.
Robin Lakoff is also a theorist who had ideas of how language is used to make women seem as though they are the weaker sex. She analysed how women speak and put together a list of certain characteristics that women use:
- Hedge( using phrases like "sort of", "kind of"...)
- (super) polite forms("if you don't mind", "if its not too much trouble")
- Use tag questions("You're going to dinner, aren't you?")
-Use empty adjectives("lovely", "adorable", "divine")
-Lack of sense of humour(women tend to not understand the punch lines of jokes and tend not to understand them.
-Apologise more("I'm sorry but I think that")
- Use more intensifiers("I'm so glad you could come today!")
-Speak less frequently
-Use indirect commands and requests("My isn't it cold in here?" this would be a hint to close a window or turn up the heating")
-Avoid expletives or coarse language
-Use modal constructions("should we turn up the heat?")
-Overuse qualifiers("I think that")
-Use "wh"- imperatives("why don't you open the door?")
-Use question intonation in declarative statements(women raise their tone of voice in declarative statements to make them questions e.g. "What school did you attend? Eaton college?")
-Have a special lexicon(Women use more word things like colours, men for sports
-Use direct quotation(Men paraphrase more often)
-Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation(English prestige grammar and clear enunciation
-Speak in italics(intonational emphasis equal to underlining words "so","very","quite")


Other Female Researchers:
Pilklington, Christine Howe and Ann Weatherall,all of these researchers found extra information that links with the difference theory.
Christine Howe said that:
-Men have strategies for gaining power
-Men are much more likely to respond to what is being said, keen to put their views across
-Women are more active listeners and often back channel
-Women and Men's conversational differences begin at the ages of 3-4


Pilklington found that:
-Women talk to maintain social relationships
-Women focus on feelings, personal anecdotes and relationships
-Women support and build on each other's points
-Women agree with each other frequently
-Men find long pauses acceptable
-Men disagree and challenge each others points
- Men often mock and insult each other to show competitiveness


Ann Weatherall said that:
-Women's talk is co-operative
-Men's talk is competitive
-Women often use hedging
-Women speak for less time and are less likely to interrupt
-Females use more tag questions.


In conclusion I think that gender does effect language and since researching these theories I have started to notice the way speech is changed when speaking to someone of the opposite sex.

Bibliography:
http://cooperstjulies.weebly.com/language-and-gender-engb1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_theory
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm

Legal Transcript Analysis Plan

                                              Legal Transcript Analysis Plan

           Paragraph one:

• Overview of the text
• Bar has instrumental power(status and political power- Wareings theory)
• We assume that bar is the more dominant speaker therefore having the most power- Fairclough’s theory of unequal encounters.
   

Paragraph two:

“So many times Mr Neil” it is underlined for emphasis- gives a sense of mocking, change in tone could hint at an almost a patronising sound, which possibly indicates his authority over Mr Neil- use of bald on record. Flouting the maxim of manner.

• “er” although it seems that Bar is the more powerful figure he does use fillers this could be seen as lowering his status as we don’t necessarily think of people in power using fillers although in this circumstance it could be because he is looking at a sheet which would have notes on the case.
• “or not”//” I don’t think they did no” the overlap could show competitive and that Mr Neil is eager to prove his innocence this could show a change in power as overlapping is done by the more dominant speaker. The tone that the bar used could have suggested to Mr Neil that the question had already been asked “you can’t remember whether they came to see you?” the use of “or not” is fairly irrelevant and the question still had the same intonation.

 

          Overview:

          

As this transcript is set in a court it is clear that there is going to be a distinction between the barrister and Mr Neil. The barrister has instrumental power in the court as he is legally trained and is trying to handle the problem. Mr Neil, who is the witness tried to gain influential power in court by taking away the barristers power. The transcript tells us that the court was Scottish so there was some language change “shopped you to the police” this gave quite an informal tone and not one that we would expect from a court of law.



PEE Paragraphs:



In this text the barrister (bar) is questioning a witness (Mr Neil) about the man on trial (Mr Peterson)as it is a court case we would expect the barrister to be the more dominant speaker "isn't that right?" this showcases Norman Fairclough's theory of unequal encounters as it is his job to interrogate witnesses. The barrister has both instrumental and influential power, this is because the barrister has the power to dictate the conversation and he is in a higher political position than Mr Neil "according to you Mr Neil" demonstrating Wareings theory.


The barrister tries to showcase his authority by making Mr Neil uncomfortable “So many times Mr Neil” the use of the underlining here shows that the barrister spoke with emphasis, the tone change here could also hint at an almost patronising and mocking sound which possibly indicates his authority over Mr Neil this is flouting the maxim of manner and a use of bald on record.  In the transcript we also see an overlap "or not"//"I don't think they did no" the overlap could show competitiveness and that Mr Neil is eager to prove his innocence this could show a change in power as we tend to see overlapping done by the dominant speaker. The tone that the barrister used could have suggested that the question had already been asked "you can't remember whether they came to see you?" the use of "or not" is fairly irrelevant and the question still had the same intonation.

Norman Fairclough's Theory Of Unequal Encounters

Norman Fairclough said that in all conversations there will be a clear dominant speaker and someone who is less powerful, although this could change throughout the conversation.

In this example text of two friends speaking on the phone, we can clearly see how power has been asserted:

Maureen: hi, Juliane
Juliane: Maureen (.) hold on a mo (1) I'm just er finishing this er work off
Maureen: okay [laughs] do you want me to call you back

Although Maureen has called Juliane first and therefore has power to call her the power is taken away when Juliane stops Maureen, "hold on a mo" the use of clipping shows that it is informal and is a conversation between two friends. Fairclough's theory is clearly established here as she is asking Maureen to wait whilst she finishes off her work. Maureen then continues to lose power :"[laughs]" Maureens laughter could show negative face as she is lowering her status and giving Julianne the authority in the conversation as she now has to wait for Julianne to finish her work before the conversation can continue.