Language and Gender

Geordie Shore transcription analysis

How is language used between a male and female in an interview?

I chose to transcribe the interview between and Vicky and Ricci from Geordie Shore. I believe that this interaction had a different variety of techniques used to show both language and power and language and gender. During the interview there are moments where the power within the discourse switches from each person, however, for the majority of the time, Vicky seems to be the most powerful participant. Therefore, I believe this makes and interesting piece as we would usually expect the male to be the most powerful participant in a situation similar to this one.

Initially, we witness Vicky using fillers. For example, ‘in (.) oooh (.) mmmm’. This gives the audience the effect that she is unsure what to say and therefore is allowing herself time to think in order not to seem like she doesn’t have anything to say. Therefore, this gives an effect of power because she is controlling how the conversation is leading as she uses fillers so that no other participant will interrupt to stop her speaking. However, Ricci uses interruption to show he also has power within the conversation. By interrupting instead of waiting for Vicky to finish speaking, it shows that Ricci insists on giving his input. To interrupt he uses the phrase ‘is she feeling alright’. This has a slight insulting tone to it by insinuating that she is not her normal ‘chatty’ self. This asserts power because it forces his opinion over her in order to stop her from talking and finishing what she is saying. Vicky replies with ‘I’m not lost for words I’m just struggling working out how to put it’. This shows a shift in which participant is most powerful because it gives the effect that she is trying to explain herself to Ricci so that, possibly, she does not embarrass herself. Therefore, this shows that Ricci is the most powerful participant in the conversation.

This links to Lakoff’s theory that men seek more power within a conversation which they enforce by interrupting more often. Also, Robin Lakoff says that women are more likely to hesitate during conversation and use more fillers, potentially, for time to think. Vicky supports this theory by hesitating when being asked a question by saying ‘ooooh’ and ‘mmmm’. She also supports the theory that it is for time to think before someone interrupts when she says ‘im just struggling working out how to put it’. By saying this it shows that she is trying to figure out the right way to put the sentence so that she does not sound stupid. Vicky also uses a collective noun of ‘our’ when speaking about her and Ricci. This shows that she is speaking for the both of them rather than just herself.  Therefore, this go against Robin Lakoff’s theory that women speak less frequently than men as Vicky clearly shows in this transcript that she speaks most often and speaks for bother her and Ricci.

Another theory is by Deborah Tannen. She states that women talk too much. Although this goes against Lakoff’s theory, this transcript supports Tannen’s theory. She also says that women like to build relations with the person being spoken to. As we can tell from the video, we know that the interviewer is female also. Therefore, this may be the reason why Vicky is the person speaking most often because she wants to build a relationship with the interviewer. And so, this supports another area of Tannen’s theory. 

Images: rwtverio.ncte.org, chronicle.com,

website: http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.pdf