IntroductionThis investigation will focus on the area of genders different use of language. More specifically, it will look at the language used male and female television chefs. I will be testing Robin Lakoff’s ‘Language and Women’s place theory’ which says that women’s language contains many key features, including: Hedges, empty adjectives, polite forms, apologetic language, and hyper correct grammar.

Aims1. Identify and account for the common language featured used by television cooks2. Identify and account for any variation that occurs because of gender

HypothesisWomen will use more adjectives and hedges whilst males will focus more on the physical aspect of cooking.

MethodologyI will use four different television chefs, two male and two female. I shall watch and transcribe a recipe for a cake from YouTube, taking into account emphatic stresses, intonation, fillers and pauses.

Analysis Adjectives

A common linguistic feature is the use of adjectives; cooks often use these to help promote their recipe. Lakoff suggested that when talking women tend to use more empty adjectives. The information I have found on adjectives, rejects Lakoff’s theory that women us more empty adjectives than men. It is clear to see that it is in fact the men that use more empty adjectives, and the women that use more affective adjectives to help describe their recipe. When looking at my data it is clear to see that Nigel Slater, a man, has used the most empty adjectives in total. Below is a table to show the adjectives used by each cook, highlighted in the table are empty adjectives:

Male FemaleJamie Oliver Nigel Slater Mary Berry Nigella Lawson

Lovely x 4 Simple Creamy x 2 FudgyFantastic Golden Light MeltingShiny Butterscotch Thick Dark x 3Creamy Good Fine BittersweetSilky Creamy Beautifully ChocolatyBeautiful Light Posh CrazyFantastic Large Hot SweetnessBeautiful Fine Slowly Gorgeous

Great Lovely GentlyRicher Expensive LighterMoist Perfect SpeckledLight Denseness DeepStar Fresh GooeyStrange Stiff TripleLoveliest Smooth MeltedIntoxicating Difficult ExplosionSoft ButteryCreamy OozingJuicy ChewyMoist CoaxHerbySweetSharpStickyRainy

Nigella Lawson uses adjectives effectively to entice and attract the attention of the viewer, thus encouraging them to try her recipes. In the sentence ‘there’s just something about them (.) chewy (.) fudgy melting bellied’ Nigella has used the rule of three to create a grammatically incorrect sentence that helps to lure in the viewer, giving her own opinion and giving the viewer an insight as to what is to be expected from the recipe. As seen from the table, Jamie Oliver uses the empty adjective ‘lovely’ four times. The use of this empty adjective is only affective to the person saying it, as only they can define what ‘lovely’ means to them. Although ‘lovely’ is an adjective, it is not as effective as those used by Nigella – ‘fudgy’, ‘Buttery’ or ‘Chewy’ – all adjectives which conjure up images of the finished product. This helps to highlight the aim of the show which is to excite interest with the audience. Nigel Slater has used the most empty adjectives, and has also used the most intensifiers. This is revealed in the phrase ‘really good colour’ Nigel has used the pre-modifying empty adjective ‘good’, combined with the intensifier ‘really’ to try and emphasis what the cake should look like, he is relying on the visual stimuli rather than describing what it should be like.

Deixis

All of these transcripts require some degree of contextual information, due to the fact that people normally watch the program; the information may not necessarily make sense when read out. However when paired with the actions of the cook, the viewer is given information visually as well as aurally. This is shown specifically when Jamie Oliver speaks, for example when he says ‘that’s what it should be like’ the viewer is obviously provided with a visual aid in order to understand what their cooking should look like. This appeals to the audience as it helps them to improve and understand what they are doing. Nigel Slater also uses deictic sentences, for example when he says ‘just smooth that down a little bit’. By simply reading this we unsure what ‘that’ is, however, when provided with the image of Nigel smoothing the surface of the cake, the sentence immediately makes sense.

Spoken Mode Features

In Lakoff’s theory, it is said that women use hyper correct grammar, this has been proved in my findings. Jamie Oliver often uses grammatically incorrect language, something that is prominent in spoken mode. However, he uses this to the extreme in order to create synthetic personalization, making the viewer feel more comfortable and able to learn. This is shown in sentences such as ‘Two nuts chocolate torte (.) cheesecake mold but you can pretty much use anything you like really I just find it easy cos you click it out’. The use of ellipsis is common in spoken mode; however this has been done purposely to create a punchy and direct first sentence and attract the viewer’s attention. Jamie Oliver often uses incorrect grammar to include the audience and not alienate them with the use of unfamiliar words.In sentences such as ‘we’re gunna whiz it up ‘til it’s a powder’ deletion – ‘til’ and and the colloquial verb ‘gunna’ have been used to create a grammatically incorrect sentence. Jamie often misses out letters in words, or assimilates them; this is shown in the sentence ‘it’s nothing’ where he replaces the ‘th’ with a double ‘ff’. However his use of deletion and glottal stops aren’t a sign of laziness, but are commonplace in a person from the London/Essex region of England. However, I think these are sometimes accentuated in order to appeal to the viewer, and help include them. As well as this, his use of informal lexis such as ‘alright’ are very common and often repeated, helping to converge towards the audience, and appeal to their language use, making them more inclined to listen and try the recipe.

As the program is pre-recorded and an auto-cue is used, many of the transcripts do not contain as many non-fluency as we would expect from normal speech. However, there still are a few features that I find interesting, for example the use of vocalization, this is shown in the table below:

Jamie Oliver Nigel Slater Mary Berry Nigella LawsonUm Uh Uh

Ooo Uh MmmOooooooooooh UhOoh UmMmm

As you can see, Jamie Oliver uses the most vocalizations, and Nigel, the least. In the case of Mary Berry, she has used many of the same fillers, however this could be due to hesitancy, or the fact that she is older, and therefore could be more forgetful. Nigella has used the vocalization ‘mmm’ in the context the sentence ‘no one’s gunna miss one (.) are they (1) mmm’ this implies that she is enjoying what she is eating, and is encouraging the viewer to try it out for themselves. Jamie Oliver’s vocalizations create a tenor of excitement within his program, using vocalizations such as ‘ooooooooooh’ with a rising intonation suggest that he is enthusiastic about his recipe and help to create a semantic field of invention and enjoyment.

Use of pronouns

An interesting feature of these transcripts is the cooks’ use of personal pronouns to create a sense of synthetic personalization within their show. In the table below is a list of the pronouns I found in the transcripts:

Jamie Oliver Nigel Slater Mary Berry Nigella LawsonYou x 11 You x 2 You x 14 You x 8I x 17 I x 14 I x 6 I x 10Me x 3 Me x 2 Me x 2We x 13 We x 2 We x 2

Your x 1No one x 1

This use of pronouns is particularly prominent in Jamie Oliver’s show, where he has used twenty first-person pronouns in total. This is of interest as it shows how he is referring to himself when talking, rather than the viewer. He is very much focused on what he is doing. However his use of the second person pronoun ‘we’ is used more than any other cook, this helps to create a forced relationship between cook and viewer and helps to include them in the show. Sentence function Sentence structure

DiscoursePhonology

Specialist lexisSpoken mode features