Deficit Theory
English Language: AQA A Level, topic 3.1.4
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.
Less swearing
Lacking a sense of humour
Deficit Theory - Robin Lakoff
The deficit theory essentially states that women’s language is weak or contains weak traits. The deficit model was popularised by Robin Lakoff in 1975.
Robin Lakoff findings
- 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.
Test yourself on Deficit Theory
What does MLU stand for?
Who popularised the deficit model in 1975?
Where did O’Barr and Atkins' conduct their research?