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The question of tag questions in women's speech: they don't really use more of them, do they?↓

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Betty Lou Dubois  and
Isabel Crouch
Betty Lou Dubois
Affiliation:
New Mexico State University
Isabel Crouch
Affiliation:
New Mexico State University
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Abstract

The authors investigate Robin Lakoff's dual claim that women use tag questions in more conversational situations than do men and that such questions signify an avoidance of commitment, causing the speaker ‘to give the impression of not being really sure of himself, of looking to the addressee for confirmation, even of having no views of his own’. They find that in an at least one genuine social context, men did, and women did not, use tag questions, both formal and informal, so the claim is open to serious doubt. (Sex differences in speech; sociolinguistic method.)

Type
Articles: Conversational devices and structures
Information
Language in Society , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , December 1975 , pp. 289 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

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