2.3.

1 Mens Language
One of the major differences in women and mens speech is that men have been found to
dominate conversations through the use of interruptions and overlaps. Zimmerman and West
(1975) found that in conversations involving eleven mixed-sex pairs men interrupted or
overlapped their female counterparts a total of fifty-five times, but were interrupted or
overlapped themselves only twice. In comparison, conversations involving single sex pairs
produced significantly fewer interruptions and overlaps by men on men. It was also found that
women are much more likely to interrupt their own sex. This illustrates how women are
concerned not to violate the mans turn but to wait until he has finished. (Coates 1986). This
result fits the claim that says male behavior has traditionally been seen as the norm and in need
of no particular advice or attention. (Goddard & Patterson 2000). However, the notion of
mens language have garnered a lot of critics and later transformed into two different theories
of difference and dominance.

2.3.1.1 The Dominance Approach
Robin Tolmach Lakoff presented Language and Womans Place (1975) less as the final
word than as a goad to further research (Lakoff 1975). In this she instigated the Dominance
approach, which ascribes language variances between men and women to the dominance of men
within society. Riding on the second wave of the feminist movement in the late 1960s, Lakoffs
work viewed the field of language and gender through a new lens, inspired by ideological and
revolutionary change around the Western world, which challenged traditional patriarchal values.
This is the theory that in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women.
Dale Spender advocates a radical view of language as embodying structures that sustain male
power. She refers to the work of Zimmerman and West, to the view of the male as norm and to
her own idea of patriarchal order.

2.3.1.2 The Difference Approach
Pamela Fishman (1983) argues that conversation between the sexes sometimes fails, not
because of anything inherent in the way women talk, but because of how men respond, or don't
respond. Fishman (1990) questions Robin Lakoff's theories where Lakoff suggests that asking
questions shows women's insecurity and hesitancy in communication, whereas she looks at
questions as an attribute of interactions as women ask questions because of the power of theirs,
not because of their personality weaknesses.
This leads to the difference approach in the study of language and gender. The difference
approach attempts to explain the differential communicative behavior of men and women by
assuming two subcultures in the speech community, which are men and women. In these
different subcultures separate linguistic strategies for interactional behavior are acquired.
Starting with the analysis of issues that are relevant for miscommunication, Maltz &
Borker (1998) point to the different rules which govern the behavior of the two subcultures. This
theory highlights that there is no competition between men and women, and they are just
different from one another. Holmes (1998) even goes into greater details in differentiating the
role of men and women in communication, which the information are as follow:
I. Women and men develop different patterns of language use.
II. Women tend to focus on the affective functions of an interaction more often than
men do.
III. Women tend to use linguistic devices that stress solidarity more often than men
do.
IV. Women tend to interact in ways which will maintain and increase solidarity.
V. Women are stylistically more flexible than men.