The three theories
that I have researched are, semantic derogation, sexist language and dominance.
In today’s written/spoken language, it is claimed that some terms are reserved when referring to women. These
are pairs of terms that historically differentiated by sex alone, but which,
over time, have gained different connotations (e.g. of status or value) and in
some cases different denotations. Also studies of language and gender often
make use of two models – dominance and
difference. Language can
also sometimes change when certain dominance takes place.
In semantic
derogation, the terms used when referring to women can have a negative,
yet strong connotation attached to them when compared to the corresponding term
used to refer to men. In many lexical pairs the male term suggests a positive
attribute while the female term suggests a negative one, also known as lexical
asymmetry.
- Sara Mills (1995)
- Deborah Cameron (1990)
- Muriel Schultz (1975)
The three researchers above had made studies during that
year on lexical asymmetry. They found that, for example, a male would be called
‘master’, whereas a female would be called ‘mistress’ – the male term suggests
a positive attribute while the female term suggests a negative one. They also
found other lexical pairs such as, ‘lord’ and ‘lady’ that have experience
dramatic shifts in meaning. ‘Lord’ suggests a high status, whereas ‘lady’ is
more widely used. Mills has also undergone semantic deterioration, shown in its
use in terms such as ‘dinner lady’ and ‘cleaning lady’ – contrasts here with
the rather absurd sounding ‘cleaning lord’. Also, Mills finds out that
‘bachelor’ retains positive connotations of a free-spirited, independent
lifestyle, as in ‘bachelor party’ and ‘bachelor pad’ has more negative
connotations. These examples have made the English language sound sexist.
Julia Stanley looked at sexism in the English language during
the 1970s. In 1973, she claimed that there was a marked inequality in the
number of words for a sexually promiscuous females and males. The results were:
200 words for sexually promiscuous female and 20 for males. Most of the
‘female’ words had negative connotations. In 1977 Stanley found that women occupy
negative semantic space due to marked forms, for example, ‘lady doctor’ and ‘female
surgeon’.
Dominance is a theory explained in two ways by Don
Zimmerman, Candace West and Deborah Tannen.
Don Zimmerman and Candace West found that in mixed-sex
conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women. In 1975 they
recorded various conversations at the Santa Barbara campus of the University of
California. The subjects of the recording were white, middle class and under
35. Zimmerman and West produce in evidence 31 segments of conversation. They
report that in 11 conversations between men and women, men used 46
interruptions, but women only two. From their small sample Zimmerman and West
conclude that, since men interrupt more often, then they are dominating or
attempting to be.
Deborah Tannen explains that men grow up in a world in which
conversation is competitive - they seek to achieve the upper hand or to prevent
others from dominating them. For women, however, talking is often a way to gain
confirmation and support for their ideas. Tannen found that men see the world
as a place where people try to gain status and keep it, whereas women see the
world as “a network of connections seeking support and consensus”.
