FLHS-AC
Department of English Studies
SOC6
Prof. Dr. M. Afkir
Chapter 8
Language and Gender
Outline:
This chapter consists of four basic sections:
Introduction
1. The Difference between Sex and Gender
2. Sexism in Language
2-1 Lexical level
2-2 Morphological level
3. Male-female Linguistic Differences
4. Language and Gender Theories
4-1 Deficit theory
4-2 Dominance theory
4-3 Cultural difference theory
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Introduction
● The relation between language and gender has been studied in different disciplines and
areas of study, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, education, women’s studies
and sociolinguistics
● The focus of these studies is on women’s language to determine the features that characterize
it and that make women devalued within a particular society.
● Studies of men’s and women’s language within the field of sociolinguistics dates back to the 1920s.
It was, however, in the 1970s that language and gender became a major research area.
● From the 1970s onward, there has been a proliferation of research
that investigates language use and the variable of gender.
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1. The Difference between Sex and Gender
● Some scholars make no distinction between sex and gender; others see that the two
are not interchangeable.
● The former is biological while the latter is socio-cultural as shown in the
following quotations.
Holmes and Wilson (2022: 222):
We have used the term gender rather than sex because sex has come to refer to categories
distinguished by biological characteristics, while gender is more appropriate for distinguishing
people on the basis of their sociocultural behavior, including speech.
Wardhaugh and Fuller (2015:313):
Gender, although based on sex categories, is culturally constructed. What is considered to be
masculine or feminine differs from one society to another. It is also usually conceived of as
being on a continuum of masculine and feminine, that is, you can be more or less masculine or
feminine, while sex categories are generally thought of as being discrete groups so that individuals
must firmly and permanently belong to either one or the other category.
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Cameron (2006:724):
Sex is a word used in connection with the biological characteristics that mark humans and other
animals as either male or female, whereas gender refers to the cultural traits and behaviors deemed
appropriate for men or women by a particular society.
Chambers (1995:103):
The biology of masculinity and femininity –that is sex differences—begins to differentiate
prenatally, soon after conception. The sociology of masculinity and femininity –gender–
differentiates postnatally.
● However, although the two concepts are different, they are ‘tightly interwoven’(Chambers, 1995)
because gender differences are partly based on sex differences.
● Moreover, because gender is acquired and constructed socio-culturally, it varies across societies.
● What is accepted as feminine or masculine is subject to variation as a
function of the cultural group a person belongs to.
● For instance, the way gender is perceived in Moroccan society is different
from the way it is perceived in a Western society.
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2. Sexism in Language
● Sexism in language or linguistic sexism does not refer to the way men and women
use language.
● It rather refers to sex bias in languages, and it can be attested at different levels in a
given language.
2-1 The lexical level
● Words for women in a given language may have negative connotations and may be
subject to downgrading.
Romaine (1994:106):
Words for women have negative connotations, even where the corresponding male
terms designate the same state or condition for men. [...] Because the word woman
does not share equal status with man, terms referring to women have undergone
pejoration.
Examples: lord/lady, Sir/Madam, master/mistress, wizard/witch
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Romaine (1994:106) stated, with respect to sex bias in languages at the
level of the lexicon, that “The female terms may start out on an equal
footing, but they become devalued over time. Lord, for instance, preserves
its original meaning, while lady is no longer used exclusively for women of
high rank.
2-2 The morphological level
● The presence of sexism in languages can also be attested at the level of morpho-syntax.
● In Standard Arabic and French, for example, generic pronouns are
masculine. ‘ils’ refers to both a group of males and females; The same
holds true in Arabic.
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3. Male-female Linguistic Differences
● Studies of cross-sex conversations have shown that there are linguistic differences
between men and women.
Wardhaugh (1992:319):
Differences between the two emerge in amount of talk, content categories,
interruptions, questioning, topic control, and minimal responses (such as
mhmm), and these differences indicate that women’s speech style is
rapport-oriented while that of men is power-oriented.”
● Amount of talk: men were found to talk
more than women.
● Types of topic: men focus on competition,
sports, work while women focus on the
home, family, feelings, and the self.
● Topic control: men control more the topics
that are discussed.
● Interruptions: men interrupt more frequently
than women.
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● Minimal responses: women use more minimal
responses, such as mhmm to encourage their
conversationalists to contribute to the talk.
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4. Language and Gender Theories
● Different theories have been postulated by scholars to account for linguistic
differences between males and females.
4-1 Deficit theory (Lakoff, 1975)
● Women were described within this theory as using a speech style that is
characterized by uncertainty and hesitancy and hence as being ‘deficient’.
(This theory was revisited by her in 2004.)
Wardhaough and Fuller (2015:324):
Many of the features Lakoff discusses position women as deficient
to men: less confident in what they say (e.g., use of tag questions,
hedging devices, rising intonation), and less able to participate in
serious activities in the social sphere (e.g., empty adjectives, lexicons
specific to domestic domains).
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● Lakoff’s deficit theory was criticized because her claims were based only on her
informal observations and intuitions; empirical research has found counter evidence
to some of her features.
4-2 Dominance theory (Zimmerman and West 1975)
● Zimmerman and West (1975) rather explained the differences as reflecting the power
and dominance of men in society.
Mesthrie et al. (2009:226):
Zimmerman and West’s approach differed from that of Lakoff in that it was
based on an empirical study of conversations. They also focused, not only on
women’s inadequacy, but on men’s oppressive speaking behavior.
4-3 Cultural difference theory (Maltz and Borker 1982,
Tannen 1990)
● The cultural difference theory explains linguistic differences between men and women
as being due to the fact that women and men belong to different ‘subcultures’.
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● Women and men are brought up in different ways that push them to
behave in a given way.
Wardhaugh and Fuller (2015:326):
Men and women come from different sociolinguistic subcultures. They have learnt to
do different things with language, particularly in conversation, and when the two
genders try to communicate with each other, the result may be miscommuniactaion.
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