Pamela Fishman Research.

Pamela Fishman research;

·         Listened to 52 hours of pre-recorded conversation between young American couples.

·         5/6 of the subjects were at graduate school

·         All subjects where either feminists or sympathetic to the women’s movement.

·         They were all white and between the ages of 25 and 35.

·         Fishman concentrated on two characteristics of women’s speech – tag questions such as ‘you know?’ and women’s dialect.

·         Fishman stated that women frequently use the tag questions ‘isn’t it?’ or ‘Couldn’t we?’ following a thought or suggestion.

·         For women, questions are a way of beginning or maintaining conversation with men.

·         Fishman argues that women do not use these questions because of a lack of conversational awareness but that women actually gain conversational power by doing it.

·         Fishman argues questions are required when speaking to males as men often do not respond to a declarative statement or will only respond minimally.

·         Fishman also analysed the use of the phrase ‘you know?’ It is an attention grabbing device to discover if the conversational partner is listening.

·         When combined with a pause, Fishman said that the use of ‘You know?’ invites the listener to respond.

·         Within her study Fishman found that women used four times as many yes/no and tag questions as men. However, she did not believe this meant women were more uncertain and tentative like Lakoff suggested.

·         Fishman believed that this showed women generally try to keep the conversation going and therefore, women’s style of talking is not from lack of social training but to the inferior social position of women.

Information from https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/pamela-fishman%E2%80%99s-theory/

 

·         Women asked 263/370 questions.

·         This may reflect women’s relative weakness in interactive situations.

·         They exploit questions and answers in order to force a response and keep the conversation going.

Information from http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/23sexism/genderlect.html

 

·         Argues in interaction; (The work women do 1983) conversation between the sexes fails not because of the way women talk but because of how men respond or don’t respond. Women ask questions to try and get a response from men, not because of their personality weakness.

·         The Dominance theory and Fishman: The dominance theory states that the power imbalance between men and women is due to men being dominant and controlling in their interactions. All theorists in this field believed it was not down to the inferiority of women speakers but the more dominant style men had.

·         Some ideas from theorists in this category suggest men talk for longer on average; they interrupt more and control the language system.

·         In her research Fishman focused on features of women’s language considered by Lakoff but interprets them in different ways. E.G. She asserts that questions do not reflect uncertainty or powerlessness, but instead are one of a variety of tools used by women to keep conversation going.

·         Fishman also argues that women do the majority of ‘Conversational Shitwork’ as men, in their more dominant role, are less concerned to do so. Fishman states that the difference between male and female conversational behaviour is explained through expectations – men are more dominant linguistically because this is what society expects.

Information from https://prezi.com/73jkilbhzo9y/pamela-fishman/