A popular conception that women use a question intonation more often than men is usually attributed to linguist Robin Lakoff. This has not been substantiated by research: Graddol and Swann's Gender Voices (1989) questions both the prevalence of this habit in women's speech as well as the interpretation of the question intonation as a sign of hesitancy.
However, the concept continues to crop up in popular culture. In an episode of Family Guy (2006), a female character is mocked for her rising inflection, although Mark Liberman (writing in Language Log, 2006) points out that the mocking fails to use a rising inflection. Another example is writer Jason Horowitz's characterization of "The Affect" in the New York Observer (2006). This rant described a female vocal style using this inflection, but Language Log again questioned the conclusions in pieces by both Zimmer (2006) and Liberman (2006).
I was reminded of this (admittedly cobwebby) story again because of a recent Family Guy bringing back the Jillian (voice by Drew Barrymore), who still ends her sentences with a question mark. Observer bias sucks. I am incredibly aware of the use of qualifying and tentative habits in my own speech because it was pointed out to me as a female habit to avoid when I was no more than 11 years old. It seems like Lakoff's (and Deborah Tannen's) communications work gets brought up to me all the time, but I suspect that's observer bias again. Unfortunately, the problem is that these things seem only to be noticed when they're brought up, and they're self-confirming, as with many gender stereotypes. They seem true when pointed out, and become more true the more people who know about them. It makes me exceptionally grateful for Language Log for putting a lot more depth into their posts than I've ever been able to get into DB.
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- Dan4th
- ex-activist, ex-pagan, ex-vegetarian, ex-female, post-queer blogging addict. B.S. in theatre, studying for Master's in Psych. Day job in research administration.
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5 comments:
There are serious problems with the research of both Robin Lakoff and Deborah Tannen.
Penny beat me to it. Serious problems.
Also, the rising intonation is a regional accent/dialect feature in a fair number of English-speaking areas of the world, notably the ANZACs; there are also some Irish accents which do this, and it's somewhat prevalent among both men and women (as are all the above) in Canadian Maritime English.
I had a boss, in the Canadian Forces, who used this intonation on every single sentence he ever spoke. Drove us all nuts, but, y'know, army bosses get to talk how they want, and grunts just say "Yes, Master Corporal".
I never actually associated this with gender identity? I saw this as more related to age and geography? Like, it's more about the kids in Southern California?
Maybe, like, in popular media? We're just more likely to see young girls from the valley? Instead of young boys? At least when there's lots of dialog?
Hm. I thought I made it clear that I had serious issues with Lakoff's and Tannen's work, but Cait's and Penny's responses make me think that it's vague. At any rate, that was sort of the point of this post, was that I feel like people keep bringing up Lakoff and Tannen to me, and I'm struck sort of the same way that I am when people bring up Freud.
@nfkennedy why do you think we're less likely to see young men in popular media? I don't know if I buy that.
ukelele
2009-05-11 04:00 pm UTC
(in reply to Cait)
Yeah, I was just thinking that I had the worst time trying to parse the emotional tenor of conversations when I was in Ireland, because there were so many rising inflections. (And I was mostly talking to men.)
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