Women's Linguistic Behavior

1
Women's Linguistic Behavior

• 1. The social status explanation
• 2. Woman's role as guardian of society's
• values
• 3. Subordinate groups must be polite
• 4. Vernacular forms express machismo
• 5. Alternative explanations
• a. Miscategorization of social class
• b. Influence of interviewer and context

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 167-174.
1/15
2
Lakoffs Explanations for Why Womens Language
might be Different?

• ? Subordination
• ? Lack of confidence
• ? Expression of uncertainty

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 301ff.
2/153
3
Lakoffs Features of Womens Language 1

• (a) Lexical hedges or fillers
• (you know, sort of, well, you see)
• (b) Tag questions
• (shes very nice, isnt she?)
• (c) Rising intonation on declaratives
• (its really good)
• (d) Empty adjectives
• (divine, charming, cute)

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 302-303.
3/154
4
Lakoffs Features of Womens Language 2

• (e) Precise color terms
• (magenta, aquamarine)
• (f) Intensifiers
• (just, so I like him so much)
• (g) Hypercorrect grammar
• (consistent use of standard verb forms)

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 302-303.
4/153
5
Lakoffs Features of Womens Language 3

• (h) Superpolite forms
• (indirect requests, euphemisms)
• (i) Avoidance of strong swear words
• (fudge, my goodness)
• (j) Emphatic stress
• (it was a BRILLIANT performance.)

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
pp. 302-303.
5/153
6
Possible Methodological Problems

• 1. data collected under laboratory conditions
• 2. assigned topics
• 3. some artificial constraints
• 4. most subjects university students
• 5. linguistic analysis "rather unsophisticated"
• 6. investigators lacked linguistic expertise
• 7. categorization systems not consistent
• 8. focus on arbitrary specific items
• 9. theoretical framework weak/non-existent

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 303.
6/159
7
Distribution of Tag Questions by Function and Sex
of Speaker1

• Function of tag Women Men
• Expressing uncertainty 35 61
• Facilitative 59 26
• Softening 6 13
• Confrontational
• Total 100 100
• N2 51 39
• (Source Based on Holmes 1984a 54)

1 Based on a 60,000 word corpus containing equal
amounts of female and male speech collected in
a range of matched contexts. 2 N is presumably
the number of tags found in the sample.
Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 307.
7/15
8
Other Explanations

• ? Societally subordinate position of women
• ? Womens COOPERATIVE conversational strategies,
  however, may be explained better by looking at
  the influence of context and patterns of
  SOCIALISATION. my emphasis
• ? different socialization and acculturation
  patterns If we learn ways of talking mainly in
  single gender peer groups, then the patterns we
  learn are likely to be gender-specific.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 315.
8/15
9
Norms for Women's Talk and Men's Talk

• The norms for womens talk may be the norms for
  small group interaction in private contexts,
  where the goals of the interaction are solidarity
  stressing maintaining good social relations.
  Agreement is sought and disagreement avoided.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 315.
9/15
10
Norms for Women's Talk and Men's Talk

• By contrast, the norms for male interaction seem
  to be those of public referentially- oriented
  interaction. The public model is an adversarial
  one, where contradiction and disagreement is more
  likely than agreement and confirmation of the
  statements of others. Speakers compete for the
  floor and for attention and wittiness, even at
  others expense, is highly valued. These
  patterns seem to characterise mens talk even in
  private contexts.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 315.
10/15
11
Women's and Men's Idle Talk 1

• Women
• Its overall function for women is to affirm
  solidarity and maintain the social relationships
  between the women involved.
• Women's gossip focuses predominantly on personal
  experiences and personal relationships, on
  personal problems and feelings. It may include
  criticism of the behaviour of others, but women
  tend to avoid criticizing people directly because
  this would cause discomfort.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 316.
11/15
12
Women's and Men's Idle Talk 2

• Men
• The male equivalent of women's gossip is
  difficult to identify. In parallel situations
  the topics men discuss tend to focus on things
  and activities, rather than personal experiences
  and feelings. Topics like sport, cars, and
  possessions turn up regularly. The focus is on
  information and facts rather than on feelings and
  reactions.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 317.
12/15
13
Men's Mock Insults

• It seems possible that for men mock-insults and
  abuse serve the same function expressing
  solidarity and maintaining social
  relationshipsas compliments and agreeing
  comments do for women. This verbal sparring is
  reported by others who have examined all-male
  interaction and in some groups verbal insult is
  an established and ritual speech activity.

Holmes, Janet. 2013. An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London Pearson,
p. 317.
13/15
14
What ESL Learners Should Know about Sexist
Language 1

• 1. Teach how to use appropriate generic pronouns,
  especially in writing.
• 2. Promote use of generic "they" (especially in
  speech)
• 3. Remind students that even if they know that
  some English speakers use "terms of endearment"
  that this is probably useful only as PASSIVE /
  RECEPTIVE knowledge. Do not do it yourself.

Wolfson, Nessa. (1889). Perspectives
Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Boston, MA Heinle
Heinle Publishers, pp. 165-185.
14/15
15
What ESL Learners Should Know about Sexist
Language 2

• 4. Terms degrading women exist and are offensive.
  
• 5. Be aware that references to men or women using
  terms for the other sex may have connotations the
  learner does not know or understand.
• 6. Point out "appropriately sex-linked forms of
  speech".

Wolfson, Nessa. (1889). Perspectives
Sociolinguistics and TESOL. Boston, MA Heinle
Heinle Publishers, pp. 165-185.
15/15