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[Henry_Cowell]

darkhorse,

If for "evidence" you are using the writings of Robin Lakoff (especially her book Language and Women's Place [1975]), please note the following:

"... Lakoff's description of female speech style was based on her remembered impressions rather than on any systematic, quantitative observation. When subsequent researchers went out and counted things, they often found it difficult to confirm her observations. For instance, some studies found that men actually used more tag questions than women did...." [from http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000873.html]

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As a result, subsequent studies have found that a combination of factors (and not merely gender) govern the use of tag questions. Lakoff was/is not really an empiricist!