Another element the text features that follows Lakoff’s theory is Lee Wilkinson’s choice of the woman being super polite and using unnecessary intensifiers being overly ‘dramatic’ ‘Thank you. Believe me, I’m very grateful’ almost apologetic, showing how she feels he is of a higher position and she has troubled him in some way.
In the same way the woman’s language is shown to be weak, the text portrays her as a character as being feeble in comparison to the man’s. She ‘struggled’, had hooves ‘bearing down on her’ (which later are described as harmless), ‘she said a trifle unsteadily…’, implying she’s sweet but shaky’, she has to pull ‘herself together’ as if fragile and broken in bits, needing the glue of a man to keep her together; ‘whisked her to safety’ and therefore ‘her rescuer’. She is also portrayed with a vulnerable, childlike tendency of being lifted and swung around ‘swept up’. Additionally he is original, having a ‘trace of an accent’, suggesting a mixture in his voice, his own unique sound, he can survive alone almost like a predator ‘raven’ or a Neanderthal man ‘fresh masculine scent’, ‘hard-boned’, ‘chiselled mouth’, where as she needs his shoulders to support her head, maybe even her brain, her thoughts. He also sets her down ‘so she could lean against the plastered wall of a building, suggesting that she can’t stand alone.
Her character is also given stereotypical female traits for example an obsession with shoes, the writer presents this by spending time to focus on her footwear, ‘this heel’ ‘court shoe’.
Wilkinson also presents her female character as taking a back seat in life ‘admired’ ‘stared at him as though mesmerised’ and lets the man take action, he is ‘on hand’ and is able to take control ‘restrain its desire to curl’.
The male furthermore proves to have control over his speech. The writer makes reference to his attractive voice, where as the woman is portrayed to be scatty in her speech, her views unnecessary against the knowledge of a ‘well educated’ man, his ‘perfect English’ mentioned suggesting his male speak is the norm, the correct way to speak. The choice of lexis of both characters’ speech follow Jesperson’s theory of women not thinking about what they are really wanting to say, focussing more on their emotions than their grammar and then Jesperson’s support of men developing the language as they aren’t at the risk of making it vague.
Overall this extract demonstrates the deficit model, obeying a variety of Lakoff’s and Jesperson’s theories.
