The female register: an empirical study of Lakoff's hypotheses
- 18 December 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Language in Society
- Vol. 6 (3), 313-322
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500005030
Abstract
Sociolinguists (e.g. Swacker 1975) and anthropologists (e.g. Hall 1959) are increasingly aware of the fact that sex, like social class or subcultural group, is a variable which strongly affects speech (Thorne & Henley 1975). While sexexclusive differentiation (i.e. separate male and female languages) now appears to be an almost nonexistent phenomenon, sex-preferred differentiation seems to be widespread across a number of languages and language families (Bodine 1975). In particular, recent studies indicate that syntax (Labov 1966), intonation (Brend 1972), and pronunciation(Trudgill 1972) in spoken English all vary as a function of the sex of the speaker.Keywords
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