|| Language and Gender ||

There are Three arguements towards the Nature/Nurture debate:

Dominance

Deficit

& Difference. 

The Dominance Approach

 (Men automatically dominate conversations to prove their strength over women.)

One of the most quoted pieces of research is by Zimmerman and West, 1975, who found that their (albeit small) set of data, that 96% of all mixed sex conversation were made by men.

They saw this as a sign both that women had restricled linguistic freedom,  and that men sought to impose their dominant status throught applying explicit constraints in conversational practice.

Further Research from Zimmerman and West (1975)

OVERLAPS

22 in Same Sex Pairs

9 in Mixed Sex, all Men overlapping Women

INTERRUPTIONS

7 in Same Sex pairs

48 in Mixed Sex, 46 Men interrupting Women.

SILENCES

Average Same Sex >1.35 Seconds

Average Mixed Sex > 3.21 Seconds

|| 98% OF INTERRUPTIONS CAME FROM MEN ||

The Deficit Approach 

("Woman's Language lacks the authority when compared to that used by men." - Robin Lakoff) 

Lakoff suggested that socialization played an important role in ensuring that femalw language remained less assertive and more insecure when compared to that of men and so the differences were more socially constructed than biologically based. For example:

• The use of specialised vocabulary centred around domestic chores
• Precise colour terms, eg "mauve", "magenta"
• Weak expletive terms, eg, "oh dear"
• Empty adjectives, eg "nice", "sweet"
• More polite forms than men use, like euphemisms such as "spend a penny", "powder my nose"
• Intensifiers, eg "so"  
• Tag questions to show uncertainty, eg "nice, isn't it?", "doesn't she?" 

THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THIS SAMPLE THOUGH:
Ith is far too small a sample for us to use as wholly reliable evidence.


Janet Holmes, 1992, suggests that tag questions, rather than being a sign of uncertainty in a speaker, may also function as a device to help maintain discussion or to be polite. Holmes suggests that rather than being mere signs of weakness, tag questions are multi-functional.  
It is also argued that Vague Language allows the speaker to sound relaxed and informal.

  

   The Difference Approach  

(Men and Woman are Different, and the differences in language are Biological.)

 The difference approach to Language and Gender takes an alternative stance;

• Jennifer Coates, 1989, suggested that all Female talk is essentially co-operative in the way that sleakers help to negotiate discussions and support eachother's rights as speakers. She argues that as these patterns are not found in mixed talk, they are evidence of differing socio-cultural expectations and a key insight into differences in sub cultures.
• Jane Pilkington, 1992, also found that woman in same sex talk were more collaborative than men were in all-male talk. She concluded that whereas woman aimed for more positive politeness strategies in conversation with other women, men tended to be less complimentary and supportive in all male talk. 
• Equally, Koenraad Kuiper, 1991, found that in all-male talk amongst members of a rugby team, men were likely to pay less attention to the need to save fave and instead used insults as a way of expressting solidarity. Similar findings on all-male talk have also highlighted these differences.