Research. Robin Lakoff

Robin Lakoff.

Women’s language was distinguished in a number of ways including:

1.     Hedging- uncertainty and lack of authority e.g. ‘sort of’

2.     Super polite forms – ‘If you don’t mine please may you..’

3.     Hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation- e.g. women avoid ‘ain’t’ or double negatives

4.     Tag questions – show that women want approval from their utterances e.g. ‘I’m coming with you, all right?’

5.     Speaking in italics – women use exaggerated intonation or stress for emphasis, expresses uncertainty e.g. ‘I am very frustrated with you’ 

6.     Empty adjectives approval- Lakoff claims that if a man uses these terms he appears more feminine as it damages his masculine prestige e.g. ‘divine, lovely, adorable, delightful and sweetie’

7.     Use of implication- Lakoff claimed women use this because they do not feel the authority to give orders e.g. ‘it’s cold in here, isn’t it’ instead of ‘shut the window’

8.     Special lexicon- Lakoff states that such words are trivial and evidence of the fact that women have been allowed control over unimportant things e.g. purple of blue women would say ‘lilac’ or ‘violet’

9.     Question intonations in declarative statements- women raise the pitch of their voice at the end of statements expressing uncertainty e.g. ‘Dinner’s in half an hour?’

10.  Sense of humour lacking- Lakoff argued that women don’t joke as much or understand jokes.

11.  Speak less frequently – men speak more often than women, proves women to be less certain of themselves.

12.  Indirect speech- ‘Wow, I’m so thirsty’ instead of asking for a drink.

13.  Avoid coarse language of expletives

14.  Apologies- ‘I’m sorry, but I think that… ’

Robin argued that women’s language is polite and gives the impression that women are weaker and less certain than men, justifying the treatment of women as having low status and men’s treatment towards women. Along with their lack of power.