Is there a separate women's language?

Some women from the women's liberation movement in Denmark have argued that there is & should be a separate women's language defined as follows: "women's language is fragments of the female universe of interpretation, dressed in a language which clings round the content..." This thesis is discussed here. According to one conception, "language" means one among many different languages, & Robin Lakoff claims that there is a separate women's language, among other things characterized by tag questions. It is shown here that (1) the similar grammatical constructions in Danish, appendage questions, are in no way particular to females, & (2) in this sense of the word, there is no language specific for females, which as a Shibboleth stigmatizes females. According to another conception, language is like a bird cage in which the mind is captured, the words & concepts of the vocabulary being the bars of the cage, which together form an ideology about the distribution of values & power in the society. In this sense of the word, language is characterized by apartheid between male & female values, & male monopoly, eg, generic he in law & science texts. According to a third concept, language is the communication strategy chosen in a given situation. An example of that is the pattern of interruption between interlocutors in turn-taking. An empirical investigation (N = 37 males & females) found that middle-class males tend to be dominating & ambitious, the middle-class females correct & orthodox; working-class males were obstinate & informal, & working-class females behaved on the average on all the parameters. These interaction patterns are probably learned in school interaction. It is posited that, because of their upbringing, males & females have access to only half of the psychological characteristics & behavioral strategies that are distributed in the society. The goal must be to be united with the other half, to get some of the faculties one lacks. 18 References. AA