THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
DEFICIT THEORY
Robin Tolmach Lakoff is a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her 1975 book Language and Woman's Place is often credited with establishing language and gender as an object of study in linguistics and other disciplines. While an undergraduate at Radcliffe College (in Cambridge, MA), Lakoff audited Noam Chomsky's classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and became connected to the MIT Linguistics Department. During this time, as Chomsky and students were creating Transformational Generative Grammar, Lakoff and others explored ways in which outside context entered the structure of language.
Lakoff's work Language and Woman's Place introduces to the field of sociolinguistics many ideas about women's language that are now often commonplace. It has inspired many different strategies for studying language and gender, across national borders as well as across class and race lines. Her work is noted for its attention to class, power, and social justice in addition to gender.
Lakoff proposes that women's speech can be distinguished from that of men in a number of ways . Lakoff developed the "Politeness Principle," in which she devised three maxims that are usually followed in interaction. These are: Don't impose, give the receiver options, and make the receiver feel good. She stated that these are paramount in good interaction. By not adhering to these maxims, a speaker is said to be "flouting the maxims."
Lakoff argues that women’s manner of speaking, which is different to men, reflects their subordinate status in society. Thus, women’s language is marked by powerlessness and tentativeness, expressed through the use of mitigators and inessential qualifiers, which effectively disqualifies women from positions of power and authority. In particular, Lakoff argues that women’s language style is deficient, lacking in authority and assertiveness. Lakoff also makes the interesting observation that women face a ‘double bind’ where they are criticized or scolded for not speaking like a lady but, at the same time, speaking like a lady systematically denies the female speaker access to power on the grounds that she is not capable of holding the ground based on her linguistic behaviour .
Lakoff’s ideas on women’s language divided into three categorizes , the first which refers to the lack of resources that would enable women to express themselves strongly ; secondly, language that encourages women to talk about trivial subjects and finally, language that requires women to speak tentatively. Lakoff claims that ;
Use of expletives while women use weaker ones
Women’s speech is more polite than men’s
Trivial, unimportant topics are considered to be women’s domain
Women use empty adjectives
Women use tag questions more often than men
Women express uncertainty through the use of the question intonation pattern
Women tend to speak in ‘ italics’ ( women use more intensifiers )
Hedges are used more often by woman
Hyper – correct grammar is a feature of women’s speech
Women don’t tell jokes
Women’s way of speech is often connected with tentativeness and the reason for this might be their way of using hedges. These hedges are linguistic forms such as for instance I think, you know, I’m sure, sort of, perhaps. Lakoff appears to be rather convinced that women’s speech contains more hedges than men’s speech. She explains that it is because ‘women are socialized to believe that asserting themselves strongly is not nice or ladylike, or even feminine’ .
DIFFERENCE THEORY
In sociolinguistics, difference theory is a theory in the area of language and gender which examines the effect that gender has on language use. A main proponent of the theory is sociolinguist Deborah Tannen, whose work, especially her 1990 book You Just Don't Understand, is often cited in the discussion of the theory and is considered to be the main reason for its popularisation. Difference theory is often compared to the earlier theories of deficit and dominance theory, and like these theories has been subject to a number of criticisms.
Difference theory has roots in the studies of John Gumperz, who examined the differences in cross-cultural communication. While difference theory deals with cross-gender communication, the male and female genders are often presented as being two separate cultures, hence the relevance of Gumperz's studies. In her development on the difference theory Deborah Tannen in particular drew on the work of Daniel Maltz and Ruth Borker and their 1982 paper A Cultural Approach to Male-Female Miscommunication, which itself drew on the work of Gumperz. Mary Talbot makes reference to the term "gender-specific culture" in her critique of the difference theory, and this idea of genders being culturally separated is embodied by the 1992 publication Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Difference theory is often compared with dominance theory and deficit theory, and together with the more contemporary dynamic theory they make up four of the theories most widely referred to and compared in the study of language and gender.
The reason for the popularity of Tannen's book You Just Don't Understand, and the resultant popularisation of difference theory, is generally attributed to the style of Tannen's work, in which she adopts a neutral position on difference in genderlect, making no value-judgements about use of language by either gender. Talbot comments that this means the book provides explanation for domestic disputes without "pointing the finger" at anyone. Difference theory as postulated by Tannen is generally summarised into six categories, each of which pairs a contrasting use of language by males and females.
Status V. Support
Tannen states that, for men, the world is a competitive place in which conversation and speech are used to build status, whereas for women the world is a network of connections, and that they use language to seek and offer support. In demonstrating this, Tannen uses the example of her husband and herself, who at one point had jobs in different cities. She remarks that when people commented on this, she interpreted it as being offers of sympathy or support. Her husband, on the other hand, took such comments as being criticism and attempts to put him down. Tannen remarks that this displays the different approaches that women and men take in terms of status and support.
Advice V. Understanding
Women seek comfort and sympathy for their problems, whilst men will seek a solution to the problem.
Information V. Feelings
Tannen states that men's conversation is message-oriented, based upon communicating information. For women, conversation is much more important for building relationships and strengthening social links.
Orders V. Proposals
Men will use direct imperatives ("close the door", "switch on the light") when speaking to others. Women encourage the use of super polite forms, however ("let's", "would you mind if ...?").
Conflict V. Compromise
Tannen asserts that most women avoid conflict in language at all costs, and instead attempt to resolve disagreements without any direct confrontation, to maintain positive connection and rapport. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to use confrontation as a way of resolving differences and thereby negotiating status. Tannen supports this view by making reference to the work of Walter J. Ong, whose 1981 publication Fighting for Life asserted that "expressed adversativeness" is more an element of male culture than female culture. Tannen stresses that both forms of communication are valid ways of creating involvement and forming bonds.
Independence V. Intimacy
Difference theory asserts that in general men favour independence, while women are more likely to seek intimacy. Tannen demonstrates this with the example of a husband making a decision without consulting his wife. She theorises that he does so because he doesn't want to feel a loss of independence that would come from saying, "Let me consult this with my wife first." Women, on the other hand, like to demonstrate that they have to consult with their partner, as this is seen to be proof of the intimacy of the relationship. Tannen asserts that women, seeing the world as a network of connections and relationships, view intimacy as key to achieving consensus and avoiding the appearance of superiority, whereas men, who are more likely to view the world in terms of status, see independence as being key to establishing their status. Tannen also clarifies that while both men and women seek independence and intimacy, men are more likely to be focused on the former, while women are more likely to focus on the latter.
CONTINUITY & DISCONTINUITY THEORIES
Theories about the origin of language can be divided according to their basic assumptions. Some theories are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form, but that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors. These theories can be called continuity-based theories. The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared fairly suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man. These theories can be defined as discontinuity-based.
Continuity theories of language evolution hold that it must have developed gradually, starting among the earliest ancestors of humans, with different features developing at different stages until people’s speech resembled what we have today. Meanwhile, Discontinuity Theory suggests that because there is nothing even remotely similar to compare human language to, it is likely to have appeared suddenly within mankind’s history. This may have been as a result of a genetic mutation within one individual, which was passed on through their ancestors and eventually became a dominant ability.
The first Continuity Theory is based on the conviction that there is no fundamental difference between human communication and the communication of animals. Both transmit messages to other members of their species which can be understood by the receiver of the message. The need for communication and the use of sounds, noises and signs is equally important for humans and animals. Although there is a discrepancy in the quantity of possible messages and although the sounds, noises and signs sound or look different, they are all forms of a developed language or forms of language in the constantly developing line of evolution. "Theorists of this persuasion might picture the development of communication systems as a straight road towards language."
There is a difference, however, in the form of intelligence of humans and animals. The human intelligence can be called specific as humans are able to increase the quantity of their language as well as to name abstract things, events and situations. Animals lack this sort of intelligence, so their kind of intelligence is called non-specific. Specific intelligence is a very important and fundamental essence of language.
Discontinuity theory shows human language system as too complex than any other languages on earth. Noam Chomsky is among the world’s leading linguists and acknowledges that a possible genetic mutation in one of our human ancestors gave them the ability to speak and understand language, which was passed on to their offspring. Because of the usefulness of this ability, Darwinist evolution meant that it became a dominant feature throughout humanity.
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