Li2 Language variation: Li2 Language variation gender Today’s topics: Today’s topics Sex vs gender
Linguistic reflections of social attitudes concerning gender
Gender-based linguistic differences Inherent vs. grammatical gender: Inherent vs. grammatical gender inherent gender (sex) socially-constructed gender
3rd social gender in Oman: gay men
Some Native American groups distinguish 4 social genders
languages may grammatically encode either type of gender, or neither
Neither: Armenian, Turkish, Persian, Abkhaz
Inherent: Tukanoan; English (for humans)
Social: English dialects Linguistic reflections of social attitudes concerning gender: Linguistic reflections of social attitudes concerning gender 2 main theories of language/gender relationship
If a culture is misogynist, the language will be too.
Language itself can determine gender relations
e.g. languages with no grammatical gender
Gender markedness in morphology and vocabulary Gender in morphology: Gender in morphology nouns of occupation are simultaneously masculine and generic; female terms are marked:
sculptress, actress, usherette, Lady X…
NB in steward(ess) steward is formally/historically unmarked, but stewardess is semantically/pragmatically unmarked
masseuse , widow, nurse, seamstress, male ho
duck, cow, goose, moorhen
Armenian skesrayr is derived from skesur, opposite of normal m f pattern
because mother-in-law is more culturally salient, since wife always hates her?
cháirman vs. mílkmàn referring to female?
Unmarked/default gender interpretation of nouns with no overt marking: doll…
use of he vs. they for neutral singular pronoun—sometimes they is clearly better:
which Austin Powers star made THEIR movie debut in a film starring Elizabeth Taylor?
choices: Mike Myers, Michael York, Elizabeth Hurley
'their' is required here in order to avoid specifying gender
NB this 'singular they' is used only with indefinite referents
*Cathyi hurt theiri hand Gender markedness in vocabulary: Gender markedness in vocabulary 'Neutral' labels for men and women
female labels: Miss, Mrs., Ms.
male labels: Mr.
implication: more important for woman to show if she’s married
Historical outcomes of male and female pairs
Master : mistress
Slang for (promiscuous) men and women Slang for promiscuous men and women: Slang for promiscuous men and women Men:
cad, cocksucker/(Aus.) cock teaser, gigolo, horndog, hornytoad, John, lech, mack, motherfucker (?), pimp, playboy, player, slut (?), stud, sugardaddy
bimbo, bitch, chick, floozy, harlot, hooker, hussy, prostitute, skank, slag, slut, tart, tramp, trick, trollop, wench, whore/ho…
Total: 220 Sample from the Thesaurus of American Slang Gender-based linguistic differences: Gender-based linguistic differences NB what follows are group-preferential distributions (speakers from two groups both use a set of forms, but one group uses them more often) rather than group-exclusive patterns, in which speakers from one group use a form, while speakers from another group do not. Do the genders actually differ linguistically?: Do the genders actually differ linguistically? Traditional research (almost all by males, in 'male' academic climate) says YES
Labov, Trudgill, Lakoff, Eckert…
Predominant opinion of gender researchers in last 10-20 years (almost all by females, in 'feminist' research climate) says NO
all evidence is anecdotal, focuses on differences rather than similarities, creates artificially monolithic gender categories
From most recent Linguistics Department meeting: 'no scientific evidence for gender-based linguistic differences'
Is there any scientific/legitimate evidence for gender-based linguistic differences?
Yes, as we’ll see especially for non-canonical genders… Glasgow /s/: Glasgow /s/ From Stuart-Smith et al. 2000 again
The scatter plot shows the distribution of two measurements ('mean‘(X)/ 'spread‘(Y)) calculated from the overall energy spectrum of /s/ at the midpoint of the fricative.
The mean value reflects the overall pitch of the fricative, which is expected to be higher for female than male speakers.
Here females are higher tha