5. • Concerning feminist researches in regard to the ability of
male dominance in mixed gender talk,
• Observing the discriminating male and female utterance or
speaking styles as women are normally found using more
supportive or cooperative speaking styles.
• While men are more prone towards competitive style, so,
the sexism or sexist bias can be identified in language.
6.
7.
8. • The use of language among men
and women has also been
analyzed and interpreted in
regard to politeness, where
usually women are perceived as
being linguistically more polite
than men.
9.
10. • Who Robin Lakoff was ?
• Her work?
• Lakoff formulated “Politeness Principle” In
three maxims ….
don’t impose
give options
make one’s receiver feel good.
15. • Females are more prone towards using “empty adjectives”.
• Lackoff argues that a man appears to be more feminine if he
uses such terms as „divine, lovely, adorable, delightful and
sweetie‟ as it hurts his masculine prestige.
• Females use “direct quotation while males paraphrase more
often.
16. • Women use of questioning intonation in
declarative statements
• Use of special lexicons is obvious in female
speeches
• Women speak less frequently
• Women use indirect commands and
requests
18. • Nora says: “let us do as you suggest Torvald, and then I shall have
time to think what I am in want of that, is a very sensible plan,
isn’t it?”
• Nora: “it will be splendid to have heaps of money and not need to
have any anxiety, won’t it?”
• Mrs. Linde: “you spent a whole year in Italy, didn’t you?”
• When Nora tells Mrs. Linde about the trip to Italy with Helmer,
she says:
• in a way-that’s so, isn’t it, Dr. Rank?”
Nora: “it cost about two hundred and fifty pounds, thats’ a
lot, isn’t it?”
At a place Mrs. Linde says to Nora,
Linde: “oh, I see it was just about that time that he died,
wasn’t it?”
Nora: “you are proud, aren’t you…”
At a place Nora addresses Dr. Rank
Nora: “once
22. Linde: “and much, much older Nora”
Nora: “perhaps a little older; very, very little, certainly not much.
Another incidence from the text is:
Mrs. Linde: “I quite understand, dear”
Nora: “it was very bad of me”.
23.
24. Similarly there are many Mrs.
Linde’s speeches which
explicitly exhibit this feature.
• Mrs.Linde:“…come in; we are
quite alone…”
• Mrs.Linde: “is it too late now?”
• Mrs.Linde: “I understand very
well…”
• Mrs.Linde: “and your husband
came back quite well”
• Mrs.Linde: “quite so”.
• At a place Nora asks
Mrs.Linde:
• Nora: “how you have altered,
Christine” and Mrs. Linde
replies as:
• Mrs. Linde: “yes I have
25.
26. • “you will be so kind…”
• Some other dialogues by male characters display intensifiers:
• Krogstad: “I can quite understand that your friend is not very
anxious to expose herself to the chance of rubbing shoulders
with me; and I quite understand, too…”
• Helmer: “…my dear Nora, you look so worn-out”.
34. • Nora: “I ought to tell you that we had it from papa”
• Nora: “you ought not to be more superior”
• Nora: “he should not know my goodness, and can‟t you understand that? It
was necessary he should have no idea…how much I should love to travel
abroad…I told him that he ought to remember the condition I was in and that
he ought to be kind and indulgent to me”
• Nora: “it‟s something I should dearly love to say, if Torvald could hear me”
• Nora: “I should just love to say”
• Nora: “…sometimes one has a tiny little bit of influence I should hope”
• Nora: “it would be perfectly infamous of you…and it would put me in a
horrible disagreeable position”
• Nora: “how should I know?”
• Nora: “you should have let it alone…”
• Nora: “oh! You would not understand…”
• Same feature is evident in Mrs. Linde speeches as well.
• Mrs. Linde: ”there was a time when he would gladly do anything for my
sake”
• Mrs. Linde: “I could do nothing else”
• Mrs. Linde: “…we couldn‟t wait for you”.
35. Lakoff thinks that only females are more inclined towards
the use of model constructions while in the text the
dialogues of male characters contradict this idea as well
36. “WH-“ Imperatives:
• Nora: “what a pity it is we are short of space here; I am afraid
it is impossible for us”.
• From the above example it can be analyzed that female convey
the information in form of questions.
37. Empty Adjectives:
• Nora: “it is really wonderful”
• Nora: “it‟s wonderfully lovely”
• Nora: “to have some fun at Christmas time, of course how delightful!”
• Nora: “It will be splendid to have heaps of money”
• Nora: “but during the first week he overworked himself dreadfully”.
• Nora: “He couldn‟t stand it and fell dreadfully ill”
• Nora: “it was a wonderfully beautiful journey…but it cost a tremendous lot
of money, Christine”
• Nora: “…and I had my poor sick Torvald to look after”
• Nora: “our beautiful happy home”
• Nora: “it‟s perfectly glorious to think that…”
• Nora: “my sweet little baby doll!”.
38.
39. • Nora: “…embroidery and that kind of thing”
• Nora: “what should make you think I have any influence of that kind with
my husband?”
• Nora: “So it seems”
• Nora: “…but you must not read anything of that kind now”.
• Mrs. Linde speeches also contain hedging:
• Mrs. Linde: “… small household cares and that sort of thing...”
• Mrs. Linde: “it seems to me imprudent…”
• Mrs. Linde: “still I think the sick are those who most need taking care of”.
40. • The use of hedging by Nora and
Mrs. Linde shows lack of
certainty, power and authority.
The use of hedging is also
observed in the dialogues of
the male characters of the play
as Dr. Rank says:
• Dr. Rank: “yes the general
opinion seems to be that it is
necessary”.
• Dr. Rank: “yes, he has some sort
of appointment there”.
• Krogstad says to Nora:
• Krogstad: “…but every way
seems to be close to me after
that”.
