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Preface
In the thirty-year history of the study of language and gender, theory and application have branched incrementally like the reaches of a family tree. The study of language and gender has progressed from an eye-opening review of differences between the “language” of women and men (Lakoff, Language and Woman’s Place), to observations that language served to preserve “domination” of one sex over another (Spender), and on to a crosscultural approach which observes that the ritual styles of talk that are observed among even the youngest girls and boys at play remain with them as women and men (Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand). Recent work is progressing down still other branches of interest, including language as it constructs identities on the continuum of gender (Bucholtz and Hall) and language and sexuality (Cameron and Kulick, Language and Sexuality).
From the point at which Lakoff (Language and Woman’s Place) provided the impetus for the study of language and gender, research in the field has been closely tied to notions of power and authority.