Deficit Theory

Q: Deficit Theory - __Robin Lakoff__

The deficit model was popularised by __Robin Lakoff__ in 1975. __Robin Lakoff__'s research details a list of features of spoken language that make women’s language __‘weak’__. These include:

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Deficit Theory - Origins from Otto Jespersen

The deficit theory essentially states that women’s language is weak or contains weak traits. The theory originates from Otto Jespersen’s book published in 1922.

Otto Jespersen

Jespersen investigated non-fluency features such as fillers and pauses.
Jespersen’s research details that women speak without thinking and so use more non-fluency features (features which disrupt the fluency of speech).
Jespersen’s research relies on evidence from literature and travellers. This means it is speculative and is often dismissed as folk linguistics.
On the next slide, you will see how these sentences form a level 5 answer.

Moving up assessment bands (AO2)

Level 3 - showing detailed knowledge:
- “Jespersen investigated non-fluency features such as fillers and pauses.”
Level 4 - challenging this:
- “Jespersen’s research is disputed by Onnela who found that with masters students, there was a very similar MLU ( mean length of utterance - the average time span of a piece of speech).”
Level 5 - evaluation:
- “Jespersen’s research relies on evidence from literature and travellers and thus is speculative and is often dismissed as folklinguistics.”

Onnela

Onnela disputes Jespersen’s research.
Onnela found that with masters students, there was a very similar MLU (mean length of utterance - the average time span of a piece of speech).

Deficit Theory - Robin Lakoff

The deficit model was popularised by Robin Lakoff in 1975. Robin Lakoff's research details a list of features of spoken language that make women’s language ‘weak’. These include:

A hypercorrect grammar

Over-apologising

Empty adjectives

E.g. 'lovely', 'brilliant', 'luscious'.

Tag questions

Adding something onto the end of a declarative sentence to make it interrogative – e.g. you’re going out tonight, aren’t you?

Overuse of intensifiers

E.g. ‘so’.

Special lexicon

Special lexicon for certain things, like colour.

Lakoff states that women have a hypercorrect grammar. An example of this is women avoiding double negatives.
Lakoff also says that women lack a sense of humour.

Supporting study - Kira Hall

Lakoff’s research has been built on by linguist Kira Hall, who found that phone sex workers often made use of Lakoff’s features to appear more feminine.

Challenge - O'Barr and Atkins

Lakoff’s work has been challenged by O’Barr and Atkins, who looked at a courtroom and found that lower class men use Lakoff’s language features in court.
O’Barr and Atkins' research implies that it is potentially not to do with gender, but to do with power.
This is denoted as ‘powerless language’.
In addition, Lakoff’s research is based purely on her own observations and not any linguistically rigorous testing.

Further challenge

In 2017, research published by ‘Economic and Social Research Council’ discovered that there had been a 500% increase in the use of ‘fuck’ by women since the 1990s.