Linguistics & Language · Sociolinguistics
A topic within Sociolinguistics, itself one of 10 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
Robin Lakoff
Argues that features such as tag questions, hedges and empty adjectives in women's speech both reflect and reinforce women's subordinate social position, a claim later contested for resting on introspection rather than corpus evidence.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Penelope Eckert
Shows that pre-adolescent girls lead sound changes and adopt marked speech styles earlier than boys because they are already competing in a social marketplace organised around gender and popularity, not because of an innate gender difference in speech.