Deficit
Robin Lackoff(1975)- women use features within their language that make it appear inferior to men's language: fillers, hedges, intensifiers, hyper-correct grammar, tag questions, super-polite forms, apologise more, speak less, avoid coarse language, indirect requests, speak in italics, make less jokes.
Jenny Cheshire - boys use more non-standard English (less prestigious) disputes patriarchal hierarchy.
Pamela Fishman - tag questions don't represent uncertainty but are used to initiate the conversation. dominance?
Dominance
Zimmerman and West(1975) - in mixed sex conversations men tend to dominate by interrupting. reflect dominance or interest/involvement?
Deborah Cameron- women do in fact challenge each other.
Jennifer Coates - women use overlaps as a sign of support
Difference
Deborah Tannen(1990) - Summarises her book 'You Just Don't Understand' in a series of 6 contrasts between male and female language: status vs. support, independence vs. intimacy, advice vs. understanding, information vs. feelings, orders vs. proposals, conflict vs. compromise.
Janet Hyde(2005) proposed a gender similarities hypothesis "there are substantially more similarities than differences, and where there are differences, they are due to other contextual factors for example age, occupation, education etc. More contemporary
