Robin Lakoff's features of women's language

Sociolinguist Robin Lakoff theorised that the language of women could be distinguished from the language of men by the use of several gender-specific traits. One of these include hedges, which are phrases that fill gaps in speech such as ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, etc. Another Lakoff spoke about is the use of empty adjectives, which are adjectives used to soften and apply an element of friendliness to a conversation, e.g ‘wonderful’ or ‘gorgeous’, despite the fact that they may be meaningless and insincere. This can be seen as holding parallels with linguist Deborah Tannen’s ‘difference theory’, which states that the language of males reflect their conditioned belief that the world is a competitive place whereas women view the world as a network of connections, using their language primarily to make social links.

Another trait proposed by Lakoff is the use of super-polite forms, which are usually independent clauses applied to a request in order to soften the imperative impact of it. For example, rather than saying ‘pass the salt’, one might say ‘would you mind passing the salt’.
According to Lakoff, women also apologize more and tend to speak less often: usually the addition of the adjective ‘sorry’ is not even contextually appropriate, for example ‘I’m sorry, but I think that…’, etc.

Female language according to Lakoff also frequently features indirect requests, which are declarative or exclamative statements which very subtly express a wish or desire. An example of this would be if one were to say ‘gosh, I’m so thirsty’. Although this is dressed as a declarative, pragmatically it means the speaker is asking for a drink. Women’s language also regularly features tag questions, which are statements converted into questions by applying the interrogative formula to the end. For example, ‘it’s a lovely day out, isn’t it?’. This further suggests that women are less direct and use more influential power to control a conversation.

One more trait of women’s language include what is known as hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation. This is the use of clear articulation and prestige grammar during conversation, which allows a certain representation of one’s self.