This document discusses language and gender, including gender-specific language which uses different pronouns according to gender, gender-neutral language which aims to not make assumptions about gender, and genderless languages which have no grammatical gender. It also summarizes Robin Lakoff's influential work from 1975 on women's language, outlining linguistic features she claimed characterized women's speech such as hedge phrases, tag questions, and intensifiers.

1. Language and Gender By: Callie, Jacob, Frankie, and Nick

2. Language and Gender The topic of language and gender encompasses the understanding of how people of certain languages interact within their gender and amongst people of the opposite genders. Additionally, it shows how genders are treated within a society and how the structure reflects gender differences.

3. Gender-specific Language Gender specific is when pronouns have a different connotation according to the gender being addressed. For example, ships, countries, and oceans are traditionally referred to as females. As well, when a drag queen is on stage, they are addressed as the gender they are appearing as.

4. Gender-neutral Language Gender-neutral language isthe codification and the enforcement of rules governing how a language ought to be used that aims at minimizing assumptions regarding the gender of human referents. The advocacy of gender-neutral language reflects at least two different agenda: One aims to clarify the inclusion of all sexes or genders (gender-inclusive language). The other proposes that gender, as a category, is rarely worth marking in language (gender-neutral language).

5. Genderless Language A genderless language is a natural or constructed human language that has no category of grammatical gender. Some linguists use the term "noun class" to be a broader categorization which includes the categorization by gender as a special case. Genderless languages do have various means to recognize gender, such as gender-specific words, ("mother", "son", etc.), as well as gender-specific context, both biological and cultural. English (a trace of the masculine/feminine/neuter distinction of Old English in the personal pronouns "he", "she", "it" and some related pronouns) Esperanto (includes a system of "natural" gendered personal pronouns similar to English, but without other morphological impacts)

6. Robin Lakoff Robin Lakoff, in 1975, published an influential account of women's language. This was the book Language and Woman's Place. In a related article, Woman's language, she published a set of basic assumptions about what marks out the language of women.

7. Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”,and so on. Use (super) polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if you don't mind”. Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?” Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very, quite. Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and clear enunciation. Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colours, men for sports.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. For example, “What school do you attend? Eton College?”Use “wh-” imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”)Speak less frequentlyOveruse qualifiers: (for example, “I Think that...”)Apologise more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we turn up the heat?”)Avoid coarse language or expletivesUse indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn't it cold in here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (for instance, “I am so glad you came!”)Lack a sense of humour: women do not tell jokes well and often don't understand the punch line of jokes.