A-level English Language: Gender & Language Quizizz
Dominance Theory:
Difference Theory:
Deborah Tannen: An Analysis of Gender Styles in Language
Interaction The Work Women Do by Pamela Fishman
The Gender Similarities Hypothesis by Janet Hyde
Deficit Theory:
In 1922, Otto Jespersen published the very first piece in modern linguistics concerning “women’s language.” In his book he devotes an entire chapter entitled, “The Woman,” to describing differences in women’s compared to men’s speech and voice pitch. He describes women’s vocabulary as less extensive, keeping them in what he refers to as the central field of language — the “indispensable small-change of a language” (Frank, p. 48). He claims that the periphery of language and the development of new words is only for men’s speech. Jespersen attributes these differences to the early division of labor between the sexes. In his conclusion he claims that the social changes taking place at the time “‘may eventually modify even the linguistic relations of the two sexes'” (Frank, p. 48). Perhaps Jespersen was predicting the very speech styles that sociolinguists today are studying.
Awaken English 