sharke
Funnily enough I started watching another Lynda.com course (I binge watch these things now that I know I can log in with my library card number), this time "Communicating With Confidence" by Jeff Ansell, and he mentions Uptalk in one of the videos. According to him, this style of speech communicates a lack of authority, and he cites research by the linguist Robin Lakoff who proposed that woman's speech patterns differ from men's in a way that reflects the power dynamic of gender in society. In other words, women have been conditioned to speak a certain way because of a power structure which views them as weaker than men. By way of example she cites: 
 

• Women do use paraphrases like “kind of” and “sort of” much more often than men do, this is called “hedging” which is a term that was primarily used by Lakoff’s ex-husband George Lakoff
• Women tend to use ‘empty’ adjectives or adjectives that are more common for women’s speech, like “divine”, “adorable”, “gorgeous”, “terrific”
• Women’s speech is often super polite and contains a lot of politeness-phrases like “… if it is not too much to ask”, “Would you mind …? or “Is it ok …?” that state wariness
• Coincidentally women tend to apologize more than men by saying things like “I’m sorry, but I think that …” when men would just come up with their opinion
• Women do not speak very frequently and they barely use any coarse or explicit language
• Besides the hyper-correct (prestige) grammar and pronunciation, women turn declarative statements or imperatives into questions (“This is the right button, isn’t it?”); Lakoff came up with a new term for this: tag questions
• Women tend to state indirect requests so that they must not say directly what they want: “Hm, I think I’m hungry” for “I want something to eat”
• And last but not least women ‘speak in italics’ by using small words like “very”, “quite”, “like” or “so” to fill gaps and to emphasize other words

Mind you, this was based on research she did in the mid 70's - I think gender divisions have blurred somewhat since then (but not entirely), so you'll hear some guys displaying similar vocal traits these days. I hear a lot of younger guys overusing the word "like," but I have to say I hear young women displaying this trait more often. I've often felt that "like" is used as a filler word and is symptomatic of lips which move faster than the owner's brain. People are afraid to stop and let their brain catch up because they feel like any pause in their speech is going to be an open invitation for someone else to start talking 

Why would he cite 40-year old research, I wonder, unless he couldn't find anything more recent or it supported his POV? I've transcribed hundreds of interviews over the last few years, and IME, males use "like" pretty much as often as females and I don't recall a single female using “divine”, “adorable”, or “gorgeous”, although both use “terrific” from time to time, but never as an "empty" adjective.
 
I guess I'll have to watch this video since it sounds to me like he's very far behind the times and perpetuating decades-old stereotypes.
 
-Susan

Susan G

sharke
Funnily enough I started watching another Lynda.com course (I binge watch these things now that I know I can log in with my library card number), this time "Communicating With Confidence" by Jeff Ansell, and he mentions Uptalk in one of the videos. According to him, this style of speech communicates a lack of authority, and he cites research by the linguist Robin Lakoff who proposed that woman's speech patterns differ from men's in a way that reflects the power dynamic of gender in society. In other words, women have been conditioned to speak a certain way because of a power structure which views them as weaker than men. By way of example she cites: 
 

• Women do use paraphrases like “kind of” and “sort of” much more often than men do, this is called “hedging” which is a term that was primarily used by Lakoff’s ex-husband George Lakoff
• Women tend to use ‘empty’ adjectives or adjectives that are more common for women’s speech, like “divine”, “adorable”, “gorgeous”, “terrific”
• Women’s speech is often super polite and contains a lot of politeness-phrases like “… if it is not too much to ask”, “Would you mind …? or “Is it ok …?” that state wariness
• Coincidentally women tend to apologize more than men by saying things like “I’m sorry, but I think that …” when men would just come up with their opinion
• Women do not speak very frequently and they barely use any coarse or explicit language
• Besides the hyper-correct (prestige) grammar and pronunciation, women turn declarative statements or imperatives into questions (“This is the right button, isn’t it?”); Lakoff came up with a new term for this: tag questions
• Women tend to state indirect requests so that they must not say directly what they want: “Hm, I think I’m hungry” for “I want something to eat”
• And last but not least women ‘speak in italics’ by using small words like “very”, “quite”, “like” or “so” to fill gaps and to emphasize other words

Mind you, this was based on research she did in the mid 70's - I think gender divisions have blurred somewhat since then (but not entirely), so you'll hear some guys displaying similar vocal traits these days. I hear a lot of younger guys overusing the word "like," but I have to say I hear young women displaying this trait more often. I've often felt that "like" is used as a filler word and is symptomatic of lips which move faster than the owner's brain. People are afraid to stop and let their brain catch up because they feel like any pause in their speech is going to be an open invitation for someone else to start talking 

Why would he cite 40-year old research, I wonder, unless he couldn't find anything more recent or it supported his POV? I've transcribed hundreds of interviews over the last few years, and IME, males use "like" pretty much as often as females and I don't recall a single female using “divine”, “adorable”, or “gorgeous”, although both use “terrific” from time to time, but never as an "empty" adjective.
 
I guess I'll have to watch this video since it sounds to me like he's very far behind the times and perpetuating decades-old stereotypes.
 
-Susan

I think that's a trifle unfair on him - the point he was making in the video was about uptalk, which I think research has shown women use twice as often as men. He then offered a possible explanation for that which drew from the Lakoff research from years ago. He wasn't saying that the specifics cited by Lakoff were still as valid now as they were then, just making a wider point about the differences in the way men and women speak and how they could partly have something to do with gender conditioning. 

Susan G

it sounds to me like he's very far behind the times and perpetuating decades-old stereotypes.

Yeah,  typical man..

I think populations concentrating to cities during the past +- 30 years has also changed peoples ways of self expression. Still today, in the country side peoples wordings and attitude in their expression is much less self centered and "self enhancing" than in the cities. That's especially obvious regarding teenagers, and the habits usually stick.
 
In the competitive circumstances of the cities people are underlining (or feel they should) themselves all the time, they are like gorillas who feel they have to continuously  drum their chests. The ways to do it are more subtle, though. And the ones who are not "alphas" develop all these stressfull, verbal neurosis (subconciously) struggling to maintain their street credibility. 
 
In Finland we have, for example, a "Helsinki-S" , a certain type of very sibilant S, which is regarded pretencious and cocky. It's looked down upon in the rest of the country, and, by many, in the capital as well.