ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the ways in which sociopragmatic research has made an increasingly valuable contribution to the understanding of the relationship between language and gender over the past few decades. It considers the term sociopragmatics to cover research which examines the relationship between social context and discourse. The chapter focuses in particular on the pragmatics of power and politeness in language and gender research. Researchers working in the areas of pragmatics and sociolinguistics generally treat the term sex as a label for the relevant biological category and gender as a label for the sociocultural category. Language and gender research which focused on pragmatic issues was kick-started by Robin Lakoff, an outstanding pragmaticist, who profoundly influenced the direction of language and gender research worldwide with her ground-breaking article and book Language and Woman's Place. The chapter focuses on examples of how issues of power and politeness emerge in sociopragmatic research which examines the relationship between gender and language.
