Gender and Language

Gender Talk

• Deborah Tannen highlights differences in male and female communication styles.
• Women use "rapport talk" to build connections, while men use "report talk" to convey information.
• Otto Jespersen, in 1922, proposed that women talk more than men and have a smaller vocabulary.
• Jespersen's views are now considered outdated and sexist.
• Zimmerman and West found men interrupt women more often in mixed-gender conversations.
• Beattie criticised Zimmerman and West's small sample size and suggested interruptions could be due to other factors like personality.
• Pamela Fishman argues women do more "conversational shitwork" to maintain conversations.
• Janet Holmes suggests women use more hedges and fillers to avoid being assertive.
• Coates explores how all-female talk is collaborative, with speakers supporting each other.

Gender Representation

• Gender stereotypes are reinforced through language.
• Marked terms highlight deviation from a norm, often for women (e.g., "female doctor").
• Unmarked terms are considered neutral (e.g., "doctor").
• Semantic derogation involves words gaining negative connotations over time, often applied to women (e.g., "slut").
• Lexical asymmetry refers to unequal word pairings (e.g., "master" vs. "mistress").

Accent and Dialect

• Accent refers to pronunciation, while dialect includes vocabulary and grammar.
• Received Pronunciation (RP) is a prestige accent in the UK.
• Estuary English is a hybrid accent, combining RP and Cockney features.
• Peter Trudgill studied Norwich English, finding that men tend to use non-standard forms more than women, but over-report their usage.
• Jenny Cheshire's Reading study showed that teenagers use non-standard forms to express group identity.
• William Labov’s Martha's Vineyard study showed how people consciously or unconsciously adjust their speech to resemble those with whom they want to identify.

Global English

• English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is used between speakers of different first languages.
• Braj Kachru's Circles model: Inner Circle (native speakers), Outer Circle (English as a second language), Expanding Circle (English as a foreign language).
• Jennifer Jenkins argues that ELF speakers should not be judged against native-speaker norms.
• McArthur's Circle of World English places American English as the most widely spoken form.
• Phillipson argues that the spread of English is linguistic imperialism.

Language Change

• Jean Aitchison's metaphors for language change: Damp Spoon (laziness), Crumbling Castle (language decay), Infectious Disease (catching change).
• Aitchison argues these views are overly negative and language change is inevitable.
• Substratum theory: Language change occurs through contact with other languages.
• Functional Theory: Language changes to meet the needs of its users.
• Random fluctuation theory (Hockett): Language change is random and unpredictable.
• Wave model: Language change spreads like waves from a central point.
• Tree model: Language families branch out from a common ancestor.
• Diachronic change looks at language change over time.
• Synchronic change looks at language at a particular moment in time.

Social Groups

• Social groups develop their own idiolects.
• John Swales’ concept of discourse communities defines groups with common goals and language use.
• Penelope Eckert studied Jocks and Burnouts in an American high school, finding distinct linguistic features.
• Code-switching involves alternating between different languages or dialects.
• Slang is informal vocabulary used by specific groups.

Occupation

• Occupational language varies based on profession.
• Jargon is specialized vocabulary used within an occupation.
• Drew and Heritage identified features of workplace talk, including goal orientation and turn-taking rules.
• Koester highlights the importance of phatic talk (small talk) in the workplace for building relationships.
• Instrumental Power: Power used to maintain and enforce authority.
• Influential Power: Power used to persuade or influence others.