1. He said, she said Gender differences in language From gender in structure, variationist sociolinguistics and beyond Part 1

2. Language and Gender We will examine Structural differences in language with respect to gender Gendered ways of using language Gender in interaction Explanations of gendered speech

3. He, she, it Variation in the way natural gender is marked in language Some languages don’t mark gender in pronouns Chinese ta = ‘he, she, it’, Maaori ia Some only mark gender in the third person, i.e, he, she, it Some langs mark gender in 3rd sg and pl French lui ‘3sg.m.obj’ elle 3sg.fobj eux 3pl.m.obj elles 3pl.m.obj As soon as one male appears in a group, the plural is masculine Some languages more regularly distinguish gender

4. Hausa Pronouns Ngala pronouns Nī – 1sg wn – 1sg.m Kai – 2sg.m nən - 1sg.f Kē -2sg.f mən – 2sg.m shī - 3sg.m yn - 2sg.f Ita -3sg.f kər – 3sg.m yn – 3sg.f

5. Gender-exclusive language Vocabularies that are different for different genders Garifuna and other Carib languages Some languages have different phonologies for the two genders Gros Ventre –Native American language Bread /kjatsa/ females /djatsa/ males For every /kj/ women say men say /dj/ Yukaghir women and children /ts/ and /dz/ Men /tj and /dj/ old people have /čj/ and /ĵj/

6. Gender-preferential language Gender exclusive lang normally matches gender of speaker, but speaker can switch to quote or for (rhetorical) impact. Genderlects are sex-exclusive, but many languages have gendered patterns of usage that are more about degree It is said that women don’t swear as often as men, may not say ‘mate’ as often as men. Men it is said don’t say scarlet, aquaramine, delightful as often as women -> gender preferential forms

7. Gender and variationist linguistics Without having a specific agenda Gender was a variable investigated by Labov and followers. Glottalised p in Tyneside speech

8. Women as standard bearers Much variationist research has shown that women tend to use more standard forms than men. Middle class women tend to adopt new prestige forms as language changes faster than men of any class innovators But women are also involved in introducing new forms

9. New York women Use /r/ more than men (Stand) Use fewer/d/ for /ð/ than men (Non-Stand Use fewer/in/ for /ing/ than men (Non-Stand) But are raising the CAT vowel a little towards DRESS which men are not doing

10. Variationist explanations Main claims women are more status conscious than men Women are more aware of the social meaning of speaking the standard? Women are guardians of what is good and right Expectation of better behaviour, exhorted to be ladylike Expectation that subordinate groups must be politer

11. Explanations cont vernacular/non-standard equates with particularly masculine qualities women may not wish to sound like blokes (the rise of young women’s boku the masculine 1sg pronoun use in Japan) However robust finding that more non-standard forms are used in informal settings by both genders Women want to appear masculine in these contexts?

12. Labov’s Gender Paradox ‘It is not clear whether these…tendencies can be unified, or how differences between the sexes can account for the observed patterns of linguistic change….though these are valid and reliable findings, they do not fit into any larger framework that accounts for why men and women should be different in this way’ (1990: 205-206).

13. Researching language and gender In line with the rise of feminist movement, linguists turned in particular to examining the features of women’s language Robin Lakoff in the readings was the initial fruit of that labour Her methodology was not variationist, but intuition from both a linguistic and a sociological perspective her views or at least the way have been come to be understood are outmoded they were in important first step in providing a feminist perspective on language usage

14. Lakoff’s list, 1975 (1) Women use more lexical hedges, you know, um, sort of Tag Q isn’t it? Didn’t he? HRTs question contour for questions Empty adjectives – divine, cute, Precise colour terms – magenta, aquamarine Hypercorrect grammar Superpolite forms – indirect request, euphemisms Emphatic stress it was a BRILLIANT performance Use fewer swear words

15. Lesser discussed features of Lakoff’s characterisation Women have no sense of humour/ tell less jokes and tell them less well Phonetically imprecise Speak less frequently Apologise more

16. Lakoff’s analysis Hedging strategies Weaken the force of statement Boosting strategies Strengthen the force of statement Women’s speech is the language of powerlessness Women speak from a position where they are not attributed or cannot garner authority – language is tentative and uncertain

17. Women’s language use as deficit the use of more and less in Lakoff’s list proposes that men’s language is the norm. Judges women’s languages from the point of supposed male normative production? Comes out as a weaker, imperfect version of men’s language The deficit explanation attaches to other view of women that have circulated for centuries

18. Bergvall on Deficit medieval notion ‘the chain of being’ God>man>woman>animals men were more closely modelled on God Men are out in the world, women secluded more Men’s language needs to be robust, women’s language needs to reflect that lack of need to be involved in ‘the cut and thrust’ of public life

19. Issues with deficit Are women less certain? More hesitant? Women use language in positions where they have power – in the workforce, in the home, HRT, hedges, and tags may not be about hesitancy but inclusiveness Suggestion that women’s communicative style is other orientated The deficit model works on assumptions about gender and stereotypes – an example of language attitudes