Language and woman's place
Open accessAbstract
Our use of language embodies attitudes as well as referential meanings. ‘Woman's language’ has as foundation the attitude that women are marginal to the serious concerns of life, which are pre-empted by men. The marginality and powerlessness of women is reflected in both the ways women are expected to speak, and the ways in which women are spoken of. In appropriate women's speech, strong expression of feeling is avoided, expression of uncertainty is favored, and means of expression in regard to subject-matter deemed ‘trivial’ to the ‘real’ world are elaborated. Speech about women implies an object, whose sexual nature requires euphemism, and whose social roles are derivative and dependent in relation to men. The personal identity of women thus is linguistically submerged; the language works against treatment of women, as serious persons with individual views. These aspects of English are explored with regard to lexicon (color terms, particles, evaluative adjectives), and syntax (tag-questions, and related aspects of intonation in answers to requests, and of requests and orders), as concerns speech by women. Speech about women is analyzed with regard to lady : woman, master : mistress, widow : widower , and Mr : Mrs., Miss , with notice of differential use of role terms not explicitly marked for sex (e.g. professional ) as well. Some suggestions and conclusions are offered for those working in the women's liberation movement and other kinds of social reform; second language teaching; and theoretical linguistics. Relevant generalizations in linguistics require study of social mores as well as of purely linguistic data.
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Under Lakoff's deficit model, women's speech features hesitations, hedges, tag questions, and intensifiers, markers of uncertainty and reduced authority.
“Under Lakoff ' s de fi cit model (1973), women ' s speech is said to feature hesitations, hedges, tag questions, and intensi fi ers, markers of uncertainty and reduced authority.”
From Examining the linguistic and behavioural patterns of gender identity in women with dissociative identity disorder (2025) · cites this paper as Lakoff, 1973
Lakoff's deficit model links hedges, tag questions and intensifiers to low authority and self-confidence.
“Drawing on Lakoff ' s deficit model, which links hedges, tag questions and intensifiers to low authority and self-confidence, we explore gender -linked speech variation in dissociative identity disorder (DID).”
From Examining the linguistic and behavioural patterns of gender identity in women with dissociative identity disorder (2025) · cites this paper as Lakoff, 1973
Lakoff argued that women's language is marked by features such as hesitations, hedges, tag questions, and intensifiers that index uncertainty or reduced social authority.
“Lakoff argued that women ' s language is marked by features such as hesitations, hedges, tag questions, and intensi fi ers that index uncertainty or reduced social authority (Lakoff, 1973, 1975).”
From Examining the linguistic and behavioural patterns of gender identity in women with dissociative identity disorder (2025) · cites this paper as Lakoff, 1973
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Self-citation(2019) · Language Culture and Society · doi:10.1075/lcs.00013.edi · Cited by 215 · see citing works
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [4]4. 2) Comparative data is needed. Work such as that of Helen Hogan on Ashanti materials (Texas Working Papers in Sociolinguistics, 1, 1971) and of Elinor Keenan in Madagascar (see her paper in J. F. Sherzer and R. Baumann, The ethnography of speaking (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming -the title is tentative) can put matters in sharper focus. Women are widely denied equality in speaking, but the ways, including their compensations, are complex.
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“Lakoff argued that women ’ s language is marked by features such as hesitations, hedges, tag questions, and intensi fi ers that index uncertainty or reduced social authority (Lakoff, 1973, 1975).”
Influential
- Authors
- Lakoff, R.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lakoff, Robin
- ORCID
- Lakoff, Robin
- Venue
- Language in Society
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1973-04
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 45-79
- ISSN
- 0047-4045 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8013
- OpenAlex
- W2127063197
- Cited by
- 3,138
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 64 · 2025: 108 · 2024: 113 · 2023: 181 · 2022: 151 · 2021: 215 · 2020: 262 · 2019: 123 · 2018: 157 · 2017: 103 · 2016: 100 · 2015: 125 · 2014: 99 · 2013: 84 · 2012: 78
- FWCI
- 21.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Language in Society (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
- Keywords
- women's language, gender and language, euphemism, color terms, evaluative adjectives, particles, tag questions, intonation, women's liberation movement, second language teaching
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