English Language AS - Language and Gender (Part 3: Male and Female Speech)

The last part of the Language and Gender section is how men and women speak differently. There have been many theorists who have argued different things, and it’s totally fine to challenge these assumptions in your essay questions! 

As usual, early research suggested that women’s language was deviant from the male norm, strengthening the stereotype that women speak too much, gossip, etc - This is called folklinguistics, when there are certain attitudes to language which have no factual basis. 

Use of Slang 

Peter Trudgill did research into non-standard pronunciation and found that men tended to use more non-standard forms. They also under-reported their use of standard pronunciation, suggesting that they attach covert prestige to non-standard forms. 
Women, on the other hand, did the opposite. Trudgill found that women used more standard pronunciation, but also over-reported their use of standard forms, suggesting that women attach an overt prestige to standard forms. 

Jenny Cheshire also supported this, finding that in nearly all cases boys used a more non-standard form than girls. She suggested it was due to their denser social networks that caused slang to be more prevalent. 

Models of Language 

There are 4 main models of language, each of which has strengths and weaknesses, and some which have alternate theories! 

The Dominance Approach According to this approach, men use their language as a way of asserting their dominance and control over women in mixed sex conversations.  Zimmerman and West found that 96% of all interruptions in mixed sex conversations were made by men. They also found this was approximately equal with the interruptions made by parents and children.

Gender or Power? O’Barr and Atkins did lots of research into language in the courtroom, and found that women did indeed use Lakoff’s features of speech deficit, however they also found that many men from lower class backgrounds also used Lakoff’s features.  This suggests that it is not gender, per se, which is the cause of language deficit, but how much power an individual has.

The Difference Approach  The Difference Approach assumes that language is different between genders due to women and men belonging to different sub-cultures and talk differently as a result of different social pressures and expectations.  This approach avoids blaming either sex, instead focusing on difference rather than dominance and submissiveness.  Jennifer Coats suggested that all-female talk is cooperative and female speakers help to support each other linguistically.  Jane Pilkington also found women were more collaborative than men, and used more positive politeness strategies.  Kuiper found that all-male “locker-room” talk included insults as a way of showing solidarity amongst men.

The Deficit Approach The Deficit Approach, led by Robin Lakoff, was a theory which suggests that women’s language is deficient from the established male norm. She theorised that female language lacked in real authority in comparison to men and proposed a set of features typical to female speech. Some of these include:  - Domestic chore vocabulary - Precise colour terms  - Weak expletives (oh dear, heck, etc) - ‘Empty’ adjectives (charming, sweet, darling) - Tag questions, showing uncertainty (e.g. “isn’t it?) - Polite forms (e.g. euphemisms)  - Hedges (e.g. sort of, you know)  - Intensifiers (so, really, etc)  Janet Holmes refuted Lakoff’s interpretation of tag question, instead theorising that they are not a sign of uncertainty, but as a way of maintaining discussion and a politeness strategy.

And with that simple section, we've done all 3 section of Language and Gender - Well done! 

Good Luck! 

English Language AS - Language and Gender (Part 2: Sexism in Language)

The second section of Language and Gender is to question whether the English Language is inherently sexist? While the majority of us are constantly striving for equality, are we inadvertently using sexist terms which are so ingrained into our every-day speech that they seem natural?

Marked Expressions

One feature of the English Language which could be considered sexist is the use of marked expressions to describe female roles as deviant to unmarked male expressions. 
A marked form is one which stands out as different or deviant from the norm, for example “priestess”. An unmarked form is the norm which marked lexical items are measured against, for example “priest”. 

There are two ways of showing markedness:
Covert marking is demonstrated through antonyms (opposites). An example of covert marking is young (unmarked) and old (marked). 
Overt marking is a more obvious form, which shows markedness through the modification of marked expression using affixation (pre-fixes and suffixes). The most common example of overt marking is the addition of the suffix “-ess”, for example “actor/actr-ess” to show deviation from the male norm. 

It is important to remember that sometimes marking is necessary to show biological difference, for example “lion/lioness”.

Another example of overt marking is modified nouns. Some roles, for example nursing, have stereotyped gender expectation and so to show deviation from the norm, the nouns are modified to show this difference.
e.g. FEMALE doctor, career WOMAN, MALE nurse, MALE prostitute. 

Notice that not all marking is aimed at “deviant" women, and that some examples of marking is aimed at “deviant" men. 

Male Nurse and Female Doctor are examples of modified nouns.

Generic Terms 

The use of masculine pronouns (“him/his/he”) as generic pronouns when the gender is non-specific is no longer considered acceptable as they suggest a male-centric world. Most people now seek to exclude these exclusive language choices with inclusive language such as “their”. 

Another example of generic terms being exclusive are phrases such as “mankind” and “manmade” which suggest an androcentric world (focused or centred on men). 

Stereotypes 

Stereotyping involves assigning a basic set of characteristics to represent a group as a whole. These may be positive or negative.
Stereotyping can lead people to believe that certain groups must conform to certain roles and behavioural expectations. 
There are many stereotypes about males and females, for example “Mother and Baby” classes, which suggest that women are sole carers for children, excluding fathers, grandparents and other carers. 

Stereotypes have evolved since this incredibly sexist advert was published. 

Semantic Derogation and Deterioration 

Semantic derogation is when lexical items have negative connotations and meanings associated with them. 
Semantic deterioration is when lexical items gradually develop negative connotations. 

Theorist, Sara Mills suggests that many female terms are marked and indicate sexual promiscuity (mistress, madam, hostess) whereas unmarked male terms such as “bachelor”  shows freedom and independence. Although they have identical meaning, when contrasted with “bachelor”, “spinster” has more negative connotations. 

A word which has experienced semantic deterioration is the lexical item “lady”, which now is used in terms such as “dinner-lady” and “cleaning lady”. You’d never hear someone describing a male-cleaner as a “cleaning-lord”, would you?

English Language AS - Language and Gender (Part 1 - Gender in Fiction)

Language and Gender is a fascinating topic, with loads to write about in an exam! However, there are several parts to Language and Gender and with that in mind I've broken the topic down into 3 sections: 

- Gender in the Written Mode

- English - The Sexist Language?

- Gender Approaches

Gender in the Written Mode

First, we must distinguish what is gender and what is sex.

- Sex is the biological bits-and-bobs a person is born with, being either male or female. 

- Gender, on the other hand, is more fluid. Some males identify more with "feminine" behaviours and roles, and some females identify more with "masculine" behaviours and roles. Gender is shaped by the socialisation process, in which "male" and "female" behaviours are conditioned and shaped by society. 

Many adverts aid this socialisation process in promoting gender specific toys, however Sweden has recently gone gender-neutral in its toy adverts in order eliminate sexism and gender conditioning. 

(Link to full article on gender neutral advertising: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/9703127/Swedish-toy-catalogue-goes-gender-neutral.html)

Gender in Fiction 

The way that women and men are portrayed in fiction is often reflective of attitudes towards gender at the time of production. 

The first aspect of gender to look at in written texts is which verb process is used to demonstrate a characters actions. There are 3 verb processes which have varying levels of control and power associated with them: 

Process	Definition	Example	Power
Material Processes	A material process, also known as a dynamic process, is a verb in which movement takes place.	e.g. to run, to jump, to hit, to scream	Material processes are often used to show power in a text, showing that the actor has control over their actions. Those affected by these material processes could be seen as in a submissive or subordinate position.
Relational Processes	A relational process, also known as a stative provess, is a verb which shows a state of being.	e.g. to be, to see, to become, to appear	Relational processes are often seen as less powerful than material, as they don’t show action or decision.
Mental Processes	A mental process is a verb which shows a perception or a thought.	e.g. to imagine, to wish, to think, to question	Again, mental processes are seen as less powerful as they suggest that a character does not have the power to carry out their thoughts.

Key Words: 

Actor/Subject - The individual responsible for the action of a verb process (e.g. HE hit her, with HE being the actor)

Affected/Object - The person affected by the action of a material verb process (e.g. he hit HER, with HER being the affected)

Preposition

Another way of showing masculine power in literature is the use of prepositions which suggest dominance, for example "he locked his hands AROUND her wrists" shows not only the male actor completing a material process on the affected but also suggests full control through the act of encircling her wrists, shown by the preposition "around". The material verb process "locked" connotes handcuffs, which suggests ownership and control.

A second example of this is the preposition "over", for example "he towered OVER her", suggesting his position of physical and psychological power. 

Make sure you thoroughly annotate and analyse any fictional text you are given for processes and prepositions. The best piece of advice I've been given is to "write a lot about a little", making sure you analyse each word and phrase carefully! 

Good Luck!

English Language AS - Language and Gender MindMap

Yet another MindMap made on MindNode Lite, my saviour! 

This time is encompasses all of the important theorists and theories within the AS Language and Gender topic. These, of course, must be understood in greater detail, however I've found this mind-map a really useful revision tool just to get a grip on the basics! 

(Right Click and Open Image In New Tab to get a good quality, printable-size version)