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Women's derogatory terms for men: That's right, “dirty” words*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Barbara Risch
Barbara Risch
Affiliation:
Department of English, University of Cincinnati
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Abstract

Much of the research concerning “women's language” has focused on differences in pitch and intonation, expressions of uncertainty, and politeness and correctness of form; all predicated on the assumption that women are socially and linguistically conservative and therefore more likely to use standard or prestige forms. This is a study of the derogatory terms (“dirty” words) that women use to refer to men. The frequency and variance of response that results from the study calls into question the assumption that women are more prone to use standard forms of speech, and suggests that the standard/nonstandard distinction is more appropriately applied to the contrast between public versus private discourse than to that of the speech patterns of women versus the language use of men. (Women's language, linguistic taboos, response suppression, prestige forms, public and private discourse)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 353 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

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