Language and Gender

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 Contents
 What do you need to know? 3
 Theory – Gender and Spoken Language 4
 Task 1 – Evaluating Theory 8
 Theory – Dominance 9
 Task 2 – Family and Gender 10
 Theory – Dominance 11
 Task 3 – Glossary 12
 Task 4 – Public Speaking 14
 Task 5 – Advertising 20
 Task 6 – Representations of Gender 22

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 What do I need to know about the exam?
 AQA English Language (7701/2)
 Paper 2: Language Varieties
 Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
 There are two sections in the paper:
- Section A: Language Diversity
- Section B: Language Discourses
 Answer either Question 1 or Question 2 from Section A and Question 3
from Section B
 The maximum mark for this paper is 70
 There are 30 marks for Section A and 40 marks for Section B
 It is recommended that you spend about 40 minutes writing your
Section A answer and 50 minutes writing your section B answer

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 Theories about Gender and Spoken Language
The forms and functions of talk

In studying language you must study speech - but in studying language and
gender you can apply what you have learned about speech but with gender as
a variable - do men and women show any broad differences in the way they
use spoken language?
Before going any further you should know that the consensus view (the view
agreed by the leading authorities at the moment) is that gender does make a
difference. You should also know that this difference is not universal - so there
will be men who exhibit “feminine” conversational qualities - or women who
use the conversational styles associated with men. Computer-mediated
conversation (Internet chat, for example) is interesting because here people
choose or assume their gender - and this may not be the same as their
biological sex.

In Living Language (p. 222), George Keith and John Shuttleworth record
suggestions that:
 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.

Note that some of these are objective descriptions which can be verified (ask
questions, give commands) while others express unscientific, popular ideas
about language and introduce non-linguistic value judgements (nag, speak with
more authority).

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 Otto Jespersen, Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin
(1922)

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, "shrank 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

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 Robin Lakoff, Language and Woman’s Place (1975)
In this book and a related article, Women's Language, Lakoff published claims
that women:
* Speak less frequently
* Show they are listening by using minimal responses mm, yeah
* Speak more quietly than men and tend to use the higher pitch range of
their voices
* Use hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Standard English and
clear enunciation
* Use a greater range of intonation and ‘speak in italics’: so, very, quite.
* Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make
declarative statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice
at the end of a statement, expressing uncertainty.
* Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I think that...”)
* Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”.
* Use super-polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if
you don't mind”.
* Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)
* Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?”
* Have a special lexicon: e.g. women use more words for colours, men for
sports
* Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and make more
emotional evaluations rather than intellectual evaluations, e.g. great,
wonderful, fantastic
* Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (e.g. “I am so glad you
came!”)
* Use more adjectives to describe approximate amounts, around, about.
* Use euphemisms more than men
* Use diminutives more than men.
* Use more reduplicated forms e.g. ‘itsy bitsy’ ‘teeny weeny’
* Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.
* Use wh- imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”)
* Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should

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 we turn up the heat?” “Would you like to just pass me that cup?”)
* Use indirect commands and requests: (e.g. “My, isn't it cold in here?” -
request to close a window)
* Avoid slang and avoid coarse language or expletives: ‘Oh dear’ rather
than ‘Shit’
* Avoid making threats, using aggressive language and insults
* Lack a sense of humour: women don’t tell jokes well and don't
understand the punch line of jokes.

William O’Barr and Bowman Atkins,

Women’s Language or Powerless Language? (1980)

O’Barr and Atkins studied language use in the courtroom to test if

Lakoff’s ideas fitted this specific context. They found that the
language use associated with women by Lakoff was exhibited by both
men and women whenever they were in a powerless situation in the
courtroom. They renamed these features of language ‘powerless
language’ rather than ‘women’s language’ and pointed to women
speakers who did not fit Lakoff’s claims (they were in powerful
positions in the courtroom, being well-educated professionals who
were accorded status in the courtroom).

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 Task 1 – Evaluating Theory
Consider what you have read so far of Jespersen, Lakoff and O’Barr and
Atkins.
Answer the questions below:
1. Do the earlier ideas still have influence on our ideas about women’s
language?
2. What are your experiences of women’s language in the various
situations of your everyday life?

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 Theory – Dominance
Dominance and difference
Studies of language and gender often make use of two models or paradigms -
that of dominance and that of difference. The first is associated with Dale
Spender, Pamela Fishman, Don Zimmerman and Candace West, while the
second is associated with Deborah Tannen.

Dominance model - Zimmerman and West (1975)

This is the theory that in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to
interrupt than women. It uses a fairly old study of a small sample of
conversations, recorded by Don Zimmerman and Candace West at the Santa
Barbara campus of the University of California in 1975. The subjects of the
recording were white, middle class and under 35. Zimmerman and West
produce in evidence 31 segments of conversation. They report that in 11
conversations between men and women, men used 46 interruptions, but
women only two. >From their small sample Zimmerman and West conclude
that, since men interrupt more often, then they are dominating or attempting
to do so
Esther Greif (1980) adds the findings that:
 Both parents interrupt daughters more than sons
 Fathers interrupt more than mothers
Geoffrey Beattie, in 1982, was critical of the Zimmerman and West findings:
"The problem with this is that you might simply have one very voluble man in
the study which has a disproportionate effect on the total." Beattie also
questions the meaning of interruptions: : "Why do interruptions necessarily
reflect dominance? Can interruptions not arise from other sources? Do some
interruptions not reflect interest and involvement?"
Geoffrey Beattie himself claims to have recorded some 10 hours of tutorial
discussion and some 557 interruptions (compared with 55 recorded by
Zimmerman and West). Beattie found that women and men interrupted with
more or less equal frequency (men 34.1, women 33.8) - so men did interrupt
more, but by a margin so slight as not to be statistically significant.

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 Task 3 – Family and Gender

Consider the way you interact with your family at home – does your
experience match the conclusions of Zimmerman and West?
 Give examples and try to explain why you think it does/doesn’t
 Transcribe a conversation at home in order to support your argument
 Use the data you have transcribed to provide evidence
 Link to theory
Write an evaluation based on your findings.

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Dominance model - Dale Spender
Dale Spender advocates a radical view of language as embodying structures
that sustain male power. She refers to the work of Zimmerman and West, to
the view of the male as norm and to her own idea of patriarchal order. She
claims that it is especially difficult to challenge this power system, since the
way that we think of the world is part of, and reinforces, this male power:
"The crux of our difficulties lies in being able to identify and transform
the rules which govern our behaviour and which bring patriarchal order
into existence. Yet the tools we have for doing this are part of that
patriarchal order. While we can modify, we must none the less use the
only language, the only classification scheme which is at our disposal.
We must use it in a way that is acceptable and meaningful. But that very
language and the conditions for its use in turn structure a patriarchal
order."
Dominance model - Pamela Fishman
Pamela Fishman argues in Interaction: the Work Women Do (1983) that
conversation between the sexes sometimes fails, not because of anything
inherent in the way women talk, but because of how men respond, or don't
respond. Her very memorable phrase for the work that women do to keep a
conversation going is ‘conversational shitwork’ (1977)
In Conversational Insecurity (1990) Fishman questions Robin Lakoff's theories.
Lakoff suggests that asking questions shows women's insecurity and hesitancy
in communication, whereas Fishman looks at questions as an attribute of
interactions: Women ask questions because of the power of these, not
because of their personality weaknesses. Fishman also claims that in mixed-sex
language interactions, men speak on average for twice as long as women.
Jennifer Coates (1980s)
On the issue of topic management and topic shifts:
 Men will often reject a topic of conversation introduced by women while
women will accept the topics introduced by men
 Men discuss ‘male’ topics e.g. business, sport, politics, economics
 Women are more likely to initiate conversation than men, but less likely
to make the conversation succeed

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 Task 3 – Glossary
 Create a glossary of key terms linked to Language and Gender and
any other theories you have studied
 In your glossary define and give examples of each key term/theory
 Investigate/research any terms that you are unsure of
 Use the table below to create your glossary
 Add other terms you learn as you continue your study

Key Term/Theory Definition Example

Hedges

Patriarchy

Matriarchy

Dominance

Interruptions

Tag Questions

Politeness

Verbal Hygiene

Heteronormativity

Representation

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Swearing

Etiquette

Anthropomorphism

Social group

Social Network

Marking

Tautology

Patronyms

Endearment

Matronyms

Connotations

Collocations

Lexical Priming

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 Task 4 – Public Speech
 Read the following speech and annotate applying theories that you have
already studied
 Consider how Watson is representing herself
 Identify devices used in her public speech

Public speaking: Analysing a rhetorical speech

On Saturday, September 20, British actress and Goodwill Ambassador for UN

Women, Emma Watson, gave a speech about gender inequality and how to fight it.
In doing so, she launched the HeForShe initiative, which aims to get men and boys
to pledge to join the feminist fight for gender equality. Below is the full transcript of
her thirteen-minute speech. Highlight and make notes on various characteristics that
make this a good persuasive speech:

Your
notes

“Today we are launching a campaign called

for HeForShe. I am reaching out to you
because we need your help. We want to end
gender inequality, and to do this, we need
everyone involved. This is the first
campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to
try to mobilize as many men and boys as
possible to be advocates for change. And, we
don’t just want to talk about it. We want
to try and make sure that it’s tangible.

I was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for

UN Women six months ago. And, the more I
spoke about feminism, the more I realized
that fighting for women’s rights has too
often become synonymous with man-hating. If
there is one thing I know for certain, it is
that this has to stop.

For the record, feminism by definition is

the belief that men and women should have
equal rights and opportunities. It is the
theory of political, economic and social
equality of the sexes.

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I started questioning gender-based
assumptions a long time ago. When I was 8, I
was confused for being called bossy because
I wanted to direct the plays that we would
put on for our parents, but the boys were
not. When at 14, I started to be sexualized
by certain elements of the media. When at
15, my girlfriends started dropping out of
sports teams because they didn’t want to
appear muscly. When at 18, my male friends
were unable to express their feelings.

I decided that I was a feminist, and this

seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent
research has shown me that feminism has
become an unpopular word. Women are choosing
not to identify as feminists. Apparently,
I’m among the ranks of women whose
expressions are seen as too strong, too
aggressive, isolating, and anti-men.
Unattractive, even.

Why has the word become such an

uncomfortable one? I am from Britain, and I
think it is right I am paid the same as my
male counterparts. I think it is right that
I should be able to make decisions about my
own body. I think it is right that women be
involved on my behalf in the policies and
decisions that will affect my life. I think
it is right that socially, I am afforded the
same respect as men.

But sadly, I can say that there is no one

country in the world where all women can
expect to see these rights. No country in
the world can yet say that they achieved
gender equality. These rights, I consider to
be human rights, but I am one of the lucky
ones.

My life is a sheer privilege because my

parents didn’t love me less because I was
born a daughter. My school did not limit me
because I was a girl. My mentors didn't

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assume that I would go less far because I
might give birth to a child one day. These
influences were the gender equality
ambassadors that made me who I am today.
They may not know it, but they are the
inadvertent feminists that are changing the
world today. We need more of those.

And if you still hate the word, it is not

the word that is important. It’s the idea
and the ambition behind it, because not all
women have received the same rights I have.
In fact, statistically, very few have.

In 1997, Hillary Clinton made a famous

speech in Beijing about women’s rights.
Sadly, many of the things that she wanted to
change are still true today. But what stood
out for me the most was that less than
thirty percent of the audience were male.
How can we effect change in the world when
only half of it is invited or feel welcome
to participate in the conversation?

Men, I would like to take this opportunity

to extend your formal invitation. Gender
equality is your issue, too. Because to
date, I’ve seen my father’s role as a
parent being valued less by society, despite
my need of his presence as a child, as much
as my mother’s. I’ve seen young men
suffering from mental illness, unable to ask
for help for fear it would make them less of
a man. In fact, in the UK, suicide is the
biggest killer of men between 20 to 49,
eclipsing road accidents, cancer and
coronary heart disease. I’ve seen men made
fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of
what constitutes male success. Men don’t
have the benefits of equality, either.

We don’t often talk about men being

imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can
see that they are, and that when they are
free, things will change for women as a

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natural consequence. If men don’t have to
be aggressive in order to be accepted, women
won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If
men don’t have to control, women won’t
have to be controlled.

Both men and women should feel free to be

sensitive. Both men and women should feel
free to be strong. It is time that we all
perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of
two sets of opposing ideals. If we stop
defining each other by what we are not, and
start defining ourselves by who we are, we
can all be freer, and this is what HeForShe
is about. It’s about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle so that

their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be
free from prejudice, but also so that their
sons have permission to be vulnerable and
human too, reclaim those parts of themselves
they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more
true and complete version of themselves.

You might be thinking, “Who is this Harry

Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking
at the UN?” And, it’s a really good
question. I’ve been asking myself the same
thing.

All I know is that I care about this

problem, and I want to make it better. And,
having seen what I’ve seen, and given the
chance, I feel it is my responsibility to
say something.

Statesman Edmund Burke said, “All that is

needed for the forces of evil to triumph is
for good men and women to do nothing.”

In my nervousness for this speech and in my

moments of doubt, I told myself firmly, “If
not me, who? If not now, when?” If you have
similar doubts when opportunities are
presented to you, I hope those words will be

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helpful. Because the reality is that if we
do nothing, it will take seventy-five years,
or for me to be nearly 100, before women can
expect to be paid the same as men for the
same work. 15.5 million girls will be
married in the next 16 years as children.
And at current rates, it won't be until 2086
before all rural African girls can have a
secondary education.

If you believe in equality, you might be one

of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke
of earlier, and for this, I applaud you. We
are struggling for a uniting word, but the
good news is, we have a uniting movement. It
is called HeForShe. I invite you to step
forward, to be seen and to ask yourself,
“If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Thank you very, very much.”

http://sociology.about.com

Learning to persuade

Leaders need to be able to persuade people well. “Rhetoric” is the art and science of
persuading people by use of written and/or spoken language. Here is a list of
rhetorical devices (features of a persuasive speech). You will probably be able to
spot many of these in a good rhetorical speech. You may also be able to get some of
these into your own persuasive speeches.

Specific rhetorical devices

 Rhetorical questions (questions that don’t require an answer)

 Catchy / quotable, memorable statements
 Three part lists (lists of three related things)
 Quotations from someone else influential
 Vulnerability (or apparent vulnerability)
 Honesty (or apparent honesty)
 Short sentences (4 words or less)
 Use of general words (very open-ended words)
 Emotive language (emotional words)
 Collective pronouns (we, us)
 Directly addressing the audience or subsets of the audience
 Use of statistics (facts and figures)
 Academic terminology (words that you might hear in schools or textbooks)
 Colloquialisms (informal language)

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 Metaphors (non-literal expressions)
 Appeal to personal experience (may be in the form of short stories)
 Superlatives (the extreme case e.g. greatest, biggest, strongest)
 Direct imperatives used in moderation (command statements)
 Reference to a greater cause
 Abstract nouns (such as; courage, love, peace etc...)
 Use of ethical / moral terminology (e.g. right, wrong, good, bad, evil…)
 Well placed pauses
 Repetition of selected words or phrases for emphasis
 Valuing the audience
 Antithesis (putting opposite or contrasting words close together)
 Appropriate humor
 Conditionals (take the form: “If A then B”)

General features of a good persuasive speech:

 Well balanced (use a variety of rhetorical devices)
 Conveys genuine emotion
 Well-structured / logical
 Appeals to various types of character (intellectual / emotional)
 A good length (generally no longer than 10-15 minutes depending on the
audience)
 A good pace (steady- not to slow and not to fast)- the speed people think
 Adopts a humble possible position
 Challenges attitudes, values and ideals

Things to avoid:
Avoid overusing one rhetorical device (e.g. too much academic language, you can
relate to the speaker, too many imperatives- it may sound too bossy)
Avoid extreme emotion (unless they are extreme circumstances)

Avoid belittling / name calling anyone who disagrees

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 Task 5 – Advertising
 Annotate the features of the adverts below
 Answer the following question:

How is advertising used to create representations of gender?

In your response you could include the following:

- Compare the advertising strategies

- Explain and analyse the features of the advertisement
- Apply theory to your analysis and be critical
- Consider context

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 Task 6 – Representations of Gender
1. Create an A4 collage of how gender is represented in the
media. Remember to use a range of information that you have
investigated, cut outs from magazines, headlines, screenshots
and images.

Find a range of material to show how the

representation of gender has changed over time.

2. Write a 500 word evaluation about how the gender is

represented in the media.

Points to include:

- What do your findings suggest about the representations of

gender?
- How is gender portrayed?
- What language devices are used?
- Who is the target audience? Why?
- How is language used to create the representation?
- How can the representations link to theory?
- Any other issues you want to discuss

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