scholarly journals Lakoff and Women’s Language

Author(s):  
Amalie Due Svendsen

In Language and Woman’s Place (1973), Robin T. Lakoff argues that women’s subordinate position in society is manifested in and maintained by their tentative speech style. Since the publication of the study, this claim has achieved great attention in the field of language and gender, and various scholars have examined the features of Lakoff’s ‘women’s language’ empirically. This article creates a critical overview of four studies investigating specific features of tentative language, primarily tag questions, and discusses to what extent their findings support Lakoff’s thesis. While all the studies find that women employ more tentative features than men, they also observe that tentative language serves facilitative functions in interaction. Thus, tentative language cannot be understood exclusively as a deficient contrast to assertive language. A nuanced understanding of tentative language requires a functional perspective that recognizes the efficient social functions of the speech style. 

Author(s):  
Kristina Sommerlund

This article is concerned with the relationship between tentative language and gender. In 1975, linguist Robin Lakoff hypothesized that women tended to use unassertive speech forms because of their inferior and powerless position in society. On the basis of these assertions by Lakoff, this article seeks to create a critical overview of various studies that have consulted the issue of women’s use of tentative language. Specifically, the article is concerned with hedging, investigating whether women have been found to use this linguistic device more often than men. The article consults five different studies on gender and tentative language, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these studies, and finally, the article discusses whether the studies overall show any significant differences in the way men and women use unassertive speech forms.


Sexualities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Toft ◽  
Anita Franklin ◽  
Emma Langley

Contemporary discourse on sexuality presents a picture of fluidity and malleability, with research continuing to frame sexuality as negotiable, within certain parameters and social structures. Such investigation is fraught with difficulties, due in part to the fact that as one explores how identity shifts, language terms such as ‘phase’ emerge conjuring images of a definitive path towards an end-goal, as young people battle through a period of confusion and emerge at their true or authentic identity. Seeing sexuality and gender identity as a phase can delegitimise and prevent access to support, which is not offered due to the misconception that it is not relevant and that one can grow out of being LGBT+. This article explores the lives of disabled LGBT + young people from their perspective, using their experiences and stories to explore their identities and examine how this links to the misconception of their sexuality and gender as a phase. Taking inspiration from the work of scholars exploring sexual and gender identity, and sexual storytelling; the article is framed by intersectionality which allows for a detailed analysis of how identities interact and inform, when used as an analytic tool. The article calls for a more nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender in the lives of disabled LGBT + young people, which will help to reduce inequality and exclusion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-161
Author(s):  
Gerd Karin Omdal

Abstract In the article KYKA / 1984 is studied as a concrete experiment with the printed book as a medium and with the double-book-format. Karin Moe is in this text dealing with questions concerning the relationship between work and text, and between work, text and reader. The article is an exploration of the design and the composition of the book, and it also explores several kinds of transtextuality, which are establishing interconnections with other literary works and genres. Questions raised by Moe in KYKA / 1984 concerning language and gender are also examined. An important objective of the article is to uncover how and why an experimental and critical investigation is carried out in a book copying a well-known commercial format.


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