Final answer:
Robin Lakoff's research focuses on the gender differences in verbal communication, suggesting that women are socialized to speak in ways that subordinate them to men. However, more recent research challenges these notions and finds minimal differences between boys and girls in verbal communication. Deborah Tannen expands on this research, describing different communicative subcultures for men and women based on social motivations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Robin Lakoff's research on gender differences in verbal communication, as described in her influential book Language and Woman's Place (1975), argues that women and men are socialized to speak in distinctive ways that empower men and subordinate women. Lakoff identifies women's speech as uncertain, excessively polite, and full of hedges, emotional language, euphemism, and tag questions. Other researchers have found that men tend to interrupt women more often, even in professional settings.
However, more recent studies, such as Janet Hyde's meta-analysis (2005), have challenged these notions and found that there are minimal differences in verbal communication between boys and girls. Hyde's research showed that boys and girls exhibit similar abilities in reading comprehension, verbal reasoning, and vocabulary. The only significant differences found were in smiling and correct spelling, with girls exhibiting more of both.
Deborah Tannen further expanded on this research by describing two different communicative subcultures for American men and women. Tannen argues that men use conversation to assert their social status, while women focus on building solidarity through social connections. These differences in speech styles are often linked to cultural factors rather than biological differences.