One study about gender and language I would like to see done is the language of innuendo. I am not sure what it would exactly show, but I have a working hypothesis for it. When two people are building to a point of high emotion, the signal that an eruption is about to happen is the use of innuendo. I don't know if it would show that women or men use it more, but I think the study would conclude that women use it to get matters to change, men use it to warn that matters have gone too far.
If the analogy to eruption holds true also for innuendo, there would be particular placement for these eruptions equivalent to the Pacific Rim - right around the tectonic plate boundaries. The "seams" that cause people's relationship to "rumble" from time to time are the cracks in the lower strata where magma leaks through to form a chamber right below the surface. When the pressure is great enough, the magma forces its way through the mountain top in a violent spewing show. Eruptions don't happen that often, but they change the landscape around them when they do happen.
It would also be interesting to see what topics trigger an innuendo and subsequent eruption. Simple linear regression would be the statistical tool of choice since it is both predictive and descriptive. I'll add this study to my bucket list for the next decade.
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