Categories of female talk

Coates

Looked at Deborah Tannen and Robin Lakoff's work and decided to build on it further.

Categorises the female 'Gossip', women's oral culture, into 4 categories:

House Talk - the exchange of information and resources connected with the female role as an occupation
Scandal - judging behaviour of others, women in particular. Usually made in terms of 'domestic morality, of which women have been appointed guardians' - someone has done something wrong domestically
Bitching - overt expression of women's anger at their 'restricted role and inferior status', expressed in private to women only. Women bitching do not expect change, but want to air their complaints to make their anger understood and expected.
Chatting - most intimate form of gossip, a mutual self-disclosure, a transaction where women use to their own advantage the skills they have learned as part of 'their job of nurturing others.

So women use language and communication to build relationships and nurture with other women or to critisice, all without expecting meaningful results.