3.1.3
Interruptions - Zimmerman & West
Interruptions - Zimmerman and West
Interruptions - Zimmerman and West
One area of gendered language that linguists continue to debate is the topic of interruptions. This section will show you how to write a level 5 answer for AO2:
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Level 3 - showing detailed knowledge
Level 3 - showing detailed knowledge
- Zimmerman and West (1975) studied interruptions in conversations between men and women. They found that men interrupted 96%-100% more of the time.
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Level 4 - challenging this
Level 4 - challenging this
- Beattie’s research considered over ten times the corpus of Zimmerman and West (1975) and discovered that there was pretty much an equal number of interruptions by men and women alike.
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Level 5 - evaluating this
Level 5 - evaluating this
- Zimmerman and West (1975) examined a small number of subjects, all of whom were white, middle-class men under the age of 35.
- This is not a representative sample. This means their research is flawed and not necessarily investigating what they think they are investigating.
- It is entirely possible that the research shows traits typical of middle-class conversations, but this may be atypical of all other conversations.
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Level 5 (cont.)
Level 5 (cont.)
- As Beattie’s research is based on a much larger and representative corpus, it is likely to be more accurate than Zimmerman and West’s study.
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Additional study - Pamela Fishman
Additional study - Pamela Fishman
- Pamela Fishman’s research discovered that conversations between men and women often fail because of how men act.
- She details that men use a third of the number of questions as women and gave minimal responses.
- This leads to, as Fishman describes, women doing the ‘conversational shitwork’.
1Language Levels
1.1Assessment Objectives
1.2Lexis
1.2.1Introduction
1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns
1.2.3Collective Nouns
1.2.4Adjectives
1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs
1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs
1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs
1.2.8Mood of Verbs
1.2.9Adverbs
1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns
1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns
1.2.12Determiners
1.2.13Conjunctions
1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features
1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis
1.3Grammar
1.4Semantics & Pragmatics
1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography
2Language, The Individual & Society
2.1Children’s Language Development
2.2Children's Language Development - Theories
2.3Literacy Development: Reading
3Language Diversity & Change
3.1The Importance of Gendered Language
3.2Social Groups
3.3Occupational Groups
3.4Accents & Dialects
3.5Language Change
Jump to other topics
1Language Levels
1.1Assessment Objectives
1.2Lexis
1.2.1Introduction
1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns
1.2.3Collective Nouns
1.2.4Adjectives
1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs
1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs
1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs
1.2.8Mood of Verbs
1.2.9Adverbs
1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns
1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns
1.2.12Determiners
1.2.13Conjunctions
1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features
1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis
1.3Grammar
1.4Semantics & Pragmatics
1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography
2Language, The Individual & Society
2.1Children’s Language Development
2.2Children's Language Development - Theories
2.3Literacy Development: Reading
3Language Diversity & Change
3.1The Importance of Gendered Language
3.2Social Groups
3.3Occupational Groups
3.4Accents & Dialects
3.5Language Change
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