Pdf language, gender, and identity pia pichler academia. Key terms and concepts in understanding gender diversity. Language production will be considered both between and within gender groups and in relation to potential frameworks of dominance and difference and diversity. Gender neutral language and the problem of english pronouns over the past couple of decades, a great deal of gender specific terminology in english has been replaced by gender neutral terms. Gender studies, feminist studies and sociolinguistic studies all currently lack consensus as to reasons for.
These concepts are expressed in different ways by different societies. Information and translations of language and gender in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Definition of language and gender in the definitions. Chambers, peter trudgill, and natalie schillingestes the handbook of historical linguistics edited by brian d. Literacy gender parity index gpi is the ratio of the female to male adult literacy rates which measures progress towards gender equity in literacy and the level of learning. They begin by reflecting on their own experiences of gender based social pressures, deepening their understandings of the relationships between language, gender, culture, and identity. Envisioning your audience is a critical skill in every writing context, and revising with a focus on gendered language is a perfect opportunity to practice. The handbook of language variation and change edited by j. Key gender concepts nderstanding gender and the key concepts is critical to being able to clearly articulate gender. Language gender and culture in this module, students interrogate gender norms and the ways social pressures enforce those norms. Sexist bias can occur when pronouns are used carelessly, as when the masculine pronoun heis used to refer to both sexes or when the masculine or feminine. It is everpresent in conversation, humor, and conflict, and it is called upon to explain everything from driving styles. It will help you avoid stumbling through concepts when you are talking in front of an audience, writing, debating or being interviewed by the press.
This chapter will capture some of the complexity, heterogeneity and even contradictory nature of gender performances that are at the core of the social constructionist approach to language and gender with a particular focus on the rich and varied. Retaining many of the foundational entries that have made the volume so popular, the second edition has been fully revised, and now includes 23 new articles and two entirely new sections. This list is generated based on data provided by crossref. Gender bias and sexism in language oxford research. Gender definition is a subclass within a grammatical class such as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms. Language and gender 4 10 sexism in language avoid ambiguity in gender identity or gender role by choosing nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that specifically describe people. The succinct explanations here are neither comprehensive nor definitive. Working at the intersections of gender, race, and class, education scholars have tried to understand which students are disadvantaged by particular contexts and what can be done to address these inequities. When the sociology of gender emerged, inequalities between women and men were the focus. Cambridge university press, 1996 in the first phase of languagegender research, many of us were eager to piece together an overall portrayal of differences in the speech of women and men. In truth, however, language can operate in all of these ways. The following research study investigates the extent to which gender can be identified as a determining factor in language variance in unacquainted femalemale group interaction. Using gender inclusive language means speaking and writing in a way that does not discriminate against a particular sex, social gender or gender identity, and does not perpetuate gender stereotypes.
So gendered language is commonly understood as language that has a bias towards a particular sex or social gender. It is also evident that there may be social contexts where women are for other reasons more or less the same as those who lack power. We endogenize the definition of masculine and feminine domains by assuming that a. The handbook of language and gender edited by janet holmes and miriam meyerhoff. As these stories illustrate, language affects many facets of human. Perhaps the best test for gender inclusive language is to imagine a diverse group of people reading your paper. Language and gender language teaching cambridge core. Whereas other languages might have masculine and feminine forms for nouns depending on the verbs.
The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release. It crosses disciplinary boundaries, and, as a bare minimum, could be said to encompass work notionally housed within applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, conversation analysis, cultural studies, feminist media studies, feminist psychology, gender studies, interactional. A cop entails shared practices linguistic and otherwise, it thus extends the notion of speech community practices have implications for identity people ascribe properties to others because of class membership. Discussion of womens relative lack of access to wealth and other resources was gradually overtaken by concerns with language and meaning. Gender and language studies to date have evolved from frameworks largely designed and imposed by men, to a feminist perspective aimed at exposing sexism in language and further to studies that consider paradigms of dominance and difference in language from a variety of perspectives. The handbook of language and gender linguistics network. Gender responsive objectives are programme and project objectives that are nondiscriminatory, equally benefit women and men and aim at correcting gender imbalances. An introduction to gender we are surrounded by gender lore from the time we are very small. This article has been cited by the following publications. Regarding gender, extensive research on language, culture, and identity has sought to uncover the logic of the encoding of sex differences in languages, to analyze the oppressive implications of ordinary speech, to explain miscommunication between men and women, to explore how gender is constructed and interacts with other identities, and to investigate the role of language in helping. Language and gender university of wisconsinmadison. For quite a long time, language and gender study has been a heated issue in sociolinguistics and pragmatics. The promise and problems of this shift within ideas about gender are the subject of.
A sociolinguistic study of language and gender in desperate. Gender definition and meaning collins english dictionary. Language and gender presentation linkedin slideshare. Authors are strongly encouraged to explicitly designate information about the gender identities of the participants making up their samples e. Language, gender, and power are major concepts in many academic disciplines. United nations official instructions with regard to the use of gendersensitive language.
Janda the handbook of language and gender edited by janet holmes and miriam meyerhoff the handbook of second language acquisition. In linguistics, grammatical gender is a specific form of noun class system in which the division of noun classes forms an agreement system with another aspect of the language, such as adjectives, articles, pronouns, or verbs. The language around gender and sexuality continues to evolve rapidly, even as this resolution was being written. Therefore, practices in language and gender may also vary in a particular. As he swaggers and sticks out his chest, he is doing everything he can to be like his father to be a. Gender and language it is not a myth that gender influences language usebut that is not simply because men and women are naturally different kinds of people.
These are intended to help you explore some of the key ideas and issues in gender and development and their implications for policy and practice. Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. Language is one of the most powerful means through which sexism and gender discrimination are perpetrated and reproduced. Rebecca freeman and bonnie mcelhinny, language and gender.
The first part begins with the relationship between language and gender, the second describes variation in language use across gender, the third part talks about gender revolution in society and the final part discuss about how gender shapes social relationship. The content of gender stereotypes, according to which women should display communalwarmth traits and men should display agenticcompetence traits, is reflected in the lexical choices of everyday communication. Selected concepts central to gender and development thinking are explained here. Gender is the state of being male or female in relation to the social and cultural roles. Gender offers an added layer of specificity when interpreting patterns or phenomena of human behavior. The main idea of the paper is drawn from the literature on the gender differences in communication that has been much discussed in the literature of language and gender. Language education and gender introduction in the past three decades, gender issues have received a wide coverage in the education literature. The analyses are taken from four different articles. The relationship between gender and language has been studied with main focus on differences between the language of male and female from different. Examples of gender sensitive language, page 3 of 3 biased biasfree man of the world manhour motherly oneupmanship statesman workmanship sophisticate staff hours, hours of work loving, warm, nurturing upstaging, competitiveness diplomat, public servant, political leader quality construction, expertise 5. A reader responds to the wealth of research that has shaped the field since its initial publication in 1998. Gender language synonyms, gender language pronunciation, gender language translation, english dictionary definition of gender language. This article will define gender sensitive language and illustrate its importance in communication, especially business. George keith and john shuttleworth 2008 in living language p.
Pdf importance of gendersensitive language and some. Research into the many possible relationships, intersections and tensions between language and gender is diverse. Gender sensitive language is a relatively new aspect of linguistic studies. Gender language definition of gender language by the. Words and their definitions change or become refined as our understanding of complex constructs related to sexuality and gender evolves. Examples of gendersensitive language service growth. The ways in which words are used can both reflect and reinforce social attitudes toward gender. Gender variation in l2 writers complimenting strategies. Baseline definitions of key concepts and terms unesco. In english, this would include using gender specific terms referring to professions or people, such as businessman or waitress, or using the masculine pronouns he, him, his to refer to people in general, such as a doctor. If you know what you are talking about, say it with confidence and are able to show.402 28 1680 843 155 309 1167 151 1431 932 14 842 776 1628 59 877 749 837 1226 310 1393 994 1431 200 420 1437 1029 783 1326 1129 1420 1651 128 1182 651 946 1328 1124 1464 362 360 1006 1051 456 1108