Class Slides PDF

Readings

Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, Chapter 2.
Cameron and Kulick, Chapter 3 pp. 44-56, and Chapter 4 pp. 74-98.

Purely Optional: A central theoretical dispute.

Here is the ultimate primary source in the "gender as cultural difference" perspective on male-female language differences. In this article, anthropologists Daniel Maltz and Ruth Borker argue that gender differences in language emerge from the fact that boys and girls grow up primarily in same-sex groups and hence develop different language norms. They argue, further, that these differences can lead to miscommunication between male and female.
A cultural approach to male-female miscommunication. Language and Social Identity. J. J. Gumperz. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 196-216.,

Linguist Deborah Tannen built on Maltz and Borker's work in her 1990 best-selling book, You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. (New York, William Morrow). This book, written for a popular audience, created quite a stir in the Language and Gender community primarily because of its emphasis on male-female difference and its lack of emphasis on power. Linguist Alice Freed's review of this book provides a particularly strong critique of Tannen's approach. It raises both theoretical issues and issues about the place of language and gender research in the political sphere. If you like invective, the tone of this article should get your juices going.
We Understand Perfectly: A Critique of Tannen's View of Cross-sex Communication"