Genderlect Theory

Genderlect theory proposes that there are separate languages based on gender. The core of this theory explains how different sets of linguistic features used by males and females develop through the gender acculturation process and how these gender-linked language features function as identity markers for women (or men) in their social contexts. Genderlect theory (and the term genderlect) first appeared in the 1970s. Its development since then—although not always tied to the term itself—has been associated with a range of scholars who study how gender ideology shapes patterns in women's and men's language usage. Scholars associated with the theory include Cheris [Page 432]Kramarae, Robin Lakoff, Marsha Houston, and Deborah Tannen.

Most communication scholars date genderlect theory to a 1974 article written by Cheris Kramer (later known as Kramarae) and published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech. In this article, Kramer considered evidence for the existence of sex-linked systems of language use. Kramer's analysis highlighted grammatical, phonological, and semantic aspects of language but also considered more general differences in the ways in which women and men use language. Her use of the term genderlect was intended to add to the field of sociolinguistics, which focuses on how social variables are related to language use. Sociolinguists study what are called lects, a term referring to social or regional varieties of speech. Within sociolinguistics, the conceptual connection is clear between the central term dialect and the related term genderlect. A genderlect is a set of linguistic features that characterizes the language production of a socially defined gender category (typically “woman/girl” and “man/boy”). Genderlect theory has led scholars to search for systematic linguistic correlates of women's and men's language use—mainly phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and suprasegmental phonemes (features related to the sound of speech, such as pitch, stress patterns, intonation).

The women's movement of the 1970s (now referred to as second wave feminism) shaped the emerging field of language and sex. A major proposition in this field was that women and men, even when they speak what is considered the same language (such as American English), actually use language in systematically different ways. Early work in genderlect theory explored how gender patterns in language use often diminish, marginalize, weaken, or even silence women's position compared to men's.

Writing at the same time as Kramer, linguist Robin Lakoff emerged as a major figure in genderlect theory. Her 1975 landmark book, Language and Woman's Place, which was preceded by a journal article with the same title, asserted that women experience linguistic discrimination both through the language they are taught to use and the language used to refer to them. Lakoff's central idea was that women are taught as girls to use language that is weak and characterized by triviality, compared to men, who learn throughout their lives to use more forceful and confident language. Lakoff further argued that women lack the linguistic means to convey certainty and forcefully express themselves. She outlined a set of linguistic features that comprise women's language, which sparked a spate of studies on language variants such as rising intonation at the end of sentences (“I think we should have dinner now↑” vs. “I think we should have dinner now↓”), linguistic hedging devices (kinda, sort of perhaps), and syntactic tag-question forms that weaken declarative statements (“This is the best one, isn't it?” vs. “This is the best one”). By implication, the genderlect hypothesis (also referred to as the sex-dialect hypothesis) proposed that judgments about the inadequacies of women's language are triggered by the linguistic features typical of women's language-in-use. The explanation here is that certain language features lead hearers to draw conclusions about the weakness of the speaker and, thereby, diminish the speaker's value.

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