Age
Language features associated with someone’s age- slang usage (likely less current
and used less with age), standard, formal, overt prestige forms, professional jargon,
adherence to grammar rules, some accents and dialects have faded out/ been
replaced e.g. Cockney towards MLE, older people use terms of affection towards
younger people
Power dynamic between older and younger people affects language
Young people’s language often stereotyped as lazy and rude because more slang
use and clippings/ abbreviations- e.g. innit, diss
William Labov- individuals have a tendency seen across many cultures to preserve
their own speech patterns and quirks throughout their whole life. It could be read
from this that language is being built up throughout a person’s life, causing linguistic
additions rather than linguistic changes necessarily occurring with age.
Vivian De Klerk- four principal influences on how teens speak
- A desire to establish group and personal identities
- A desire to look different and unique from others in their age group as well as
older generations
- A desire to keep up with the times i.e. be modern and cool
- The freedom to challenge linguistic norms as a teenager
BBFC research- 46% of Gen Z say they use strong language frequently, 12% baby
boomers
Apple research- generations use different emojis to mean the same thing e.g. skull
or crying vs. crying laughing
Binghamton University- under 25s less likely to end a message with a full stop and
perceive one without one negatively.
Jenny Chesire- 2015: young people use more intensifiers e.g. really, literally
Christopher Odato- found children as young as 4 use ‘like’ as a filler word, children
imitate the language of those older than them- look up to them
Anna-Brita Stenstrom- teen talk features: irregular turn taking, overlaps, indistinct
articulation, word shortenings, name calling/ teasing, verbal duelling, slang, taboo,
cross culture language mixing
Class
Social class is based on a variety of factors including: social, cultural and economic
This has influence on our language because it has influence on what we are
exposed to, who our ingroup are, etc.
Upper class- associated with posher, closer to RP, quieter, Southern, less regional
Working class- associated with regional accents, louder, Northern
Sociolect- a way of speaking that is unique to a social group
,Accomodation- reduce or emphasise features of your dialect according to the person
you’re communicating with
Convergence- move towards individual, divergence- move away from individual
Overt prestige- publicly acknowledged status, likely gained through use of RP
Covert prestige- status within a group, generally a regional accent
Both intended to provide respect, change perceptions or become part of a group
Petyt (1985)- ‘h’ omission in Bradford, more frequent, lower class
Trudgill- Norwich (1974)
Terminal ‘g’ omission e.g. ‘runnin’, lower middle class most likely to drop ‘g’, when
put in a formal setting, most were more careful to include it.
Men of any class are more likely to use non-standard form.
Amanda Cole- Essex 2023
Found that RP and Cockney are becoming less common in young people in the
South East.
They’re being replaced by:
Estuary English
Standard Southern British English
Multicultural London English (used less by middle class speakers but they still use to
be seen as cool or part of group)
Bernstein- Restricted vs. Elaborated Code
Working class use restricted code- rely on assumed knowledge of listener or reader
Middle class use elaborated code- assume no prior knowledge
E.g. level of description, pronouns over nouns
Deficit hypothesis- working class children have a limited command of the language
and so are limited in expressing complex ideas
Thought to be down to the difference in approaches to education in the household.
Gender
Deficit model- women are lacking in their language use, men’s language seen as
standard and normal
Otto Jespersen (1920s)
Women are lacking in the following ways:
● Talk too much
● Use simpler words, have smaller vocabularies
● Use more false starts and unfinished sentences
● Exaggerate more
● Use too many adjectives
● Indirect
● Emotional, not grammatical
,“there is a danger of the language becoming languid and insipid if we (men) are to
content ourselves with women's expressions.”
Lakoff (1975)
Language and Woman’s Place
The features of language women use are ‘weaker’ and more uncertain.
The linguistic differences between men and women reflect their social status.
Powerlessness of women is also reflected in how men talk about them.
Lakoff found women use more:
● Backchanneling e.g. “mmm” “yeah”
● Hedging e.g. “maybe”, “sort of”, “kind of”
● Intensifiers e.g. “very”, “so”, “really
● Apologies
● Tag questions e.g. “That’s ok, right?” “You work in finance, don’t you?”
● Modal verbs
● Empty adjectives
● ‘Wh’ imperatives e.g. ‘why don’t we…?’
● Indirect commands e.g. “it’s really cold in here” “i’m dying for a cup of tea”
● Diminutive pet names
● Politeness e.g. “would you mind if…?”
● Less slang swear words and insults
Keith and Shuttleworth (1999)
Women- talk more than men, too much, are more polite, indecisive/ hesitant,
complain and nag, ask more questions, support each other, more cooperative
Men- swear more, don’t talk about emotions, talk about sport more, talk about
women and machines in the same way, insult each other often, try to compete and
dominate in conversation, speak with more authority, give more commands and
interrupt more
Some of these are objective descriptions that can be verified but others are
subjective and somewhat offensive, generalised.
Eval of Deficit
- Problematic to portray women as lacking and men as norm- sets us up to find
that women are ‘weaker’
- Somewhat based in stereotypes
- What is ‘weak’ language? Is it just expressing more differently?
- O’Barr and Atkins suggest ‘weak’ language doesn’t come from being a
woman but the position society has put women in
- Mostly anecdotal evidence, not scientifically verifiable at times
- Some observations are subjective and even unnecessarily derogatory to
women
- Lakoff looked at a specific group of white, American, middle class women
- Otto Jespersen, outdated, women didn’t have access to a fair education
, Difference model- women’s and men’s language use features difference, this does
not necessarily mean one is better than the other.
First proposed by Tannen (1990)
Summarises her book ‘You Just Don’t Understand’ in 6 contrasts referring to
differences in the purposes women and men use language for
● Status vs. Support
For men, conversation is a way of showing dominance, a competition, but for
women conversation is often a way of receiving support and validation from
others. This contrast is evidenced by differences in things like turn-taking.
● Independence vs. Intimacy
Men use language to indicate that they are not reliant on others, while women
use language to feel close to those they speak with.
● Advice vs. Understanding
Men offer solutions to a problem and women show empathy and try to
understand the problem.
● Information vs. Feelings
Men are concerned with information that can help them with goals and women
are concerned with understanding people’s feelings to understand how to
help.
● Orders vs. Proposals
Men tend to give orders in social situations to assert dominance and women
more gently propose their ideas, careful of the feelings of others.
● Conflict vs. Compromise
Men cause conflict over issues in order to gain status whereas women seek to
solve issues through compromise.
These differences reflect and reinforce gender roles.
Deborah Jones
Studied all-female groups and specifically gossip among them.
Jones labelled this as ‘house talk’ and separated it into three elements:
● Scandal- discussing the behaviour of others, usually other women
● Bitching- expression of anger for relief
● Chatting- an intimate form of gossip where women mutually self-disclose and
nurturing takes place
- Seems reductive and derogatory towards women
- Uses non-linguistic terms so her categories are understood by general public
and can be identified easily in real life
- Cameron built upon this work, suggesting that women gossip as a covert way
of asserting power where men might be more overt
Jennifer Coates
Researched all-male and all-female groups
