2. Gender and language?
1. Gender is a key element of social relationships often loosely linked
to perceived differences between the sexes. Gender relations are
encoded in linguistic and symbolic representations, normative
concepts, social practices, institutions and social identities.
2. Gender is a primary arena for articulating power, intersecting in
complex ways with other axes of inequality, like class, race, and
sexuality. Gender is understood as multi-faceted and always
changing.
3. SEX vs GENDER
SEX
• Biological and
physiological
category/characteristics
that define men and
women.
• Objective/scientific
criteria
• Male and female
GENDER
• Social and cultural
category refers to the
socially constructed roles,
behaviors, activities, and
attributes that a given
society considers
appropriate for men and
women.
• Social criteria
• Feminime and masculine
4. Some examples of Sex and
Gender Characteristics
• Women menstruate while men do
not
• Men have testicles while women
do not
• Women have developed breasts
that are usually capable of
lactating, while men have not
• Men generally have more massive
bones than women
• In the United States (and most other
countries), women earn significantly
less money than men for similar
work
• In Viet Nam, many more men than
women smoke, as female smoking
has not traditionally been considered
appropriate
• In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to
drive cars while women are not
• In most of the world, women do
more housework than men
• Nursing is often seen as a woman's
job, although many men enter the
profession
• In some countries women have to
cover their heads when they go
outside the house
5. Exclusive and preferential
features
• An exclusive feature is one
associated solely with a
particular user or group of
users or solely in a particular
context.
• Example: He, she, his, her, Mr,
Ms, etc.
• A preferential feature is one
that is distributed across
speakers or groups, but is
used more frequently by some
than by others.
• Example: Everyone,
Everybody, People, Human,
etc.
6. Direct and Indirect Index
• A linguistic feature directly
indexes something with social
meaning if the social
information is a conventional
implicature .
• Example: He, Susan, female,
• A linguistic feature indirectly
indexes something with
several other social meaning.
• Most variables associated
with, e.g., male vs female
speakers only indirectly index
gender that their distribution is
sex-preferential not sex-
exclusive.
• Example:
a. Cursing a lot, much of
vernacular prounciation,
belching
b. Being very polite, putting on
lipstick
8. Conversational Implicature
An inference that arises from interlocutors’ shared
understanding of the norms of conversation. Not part
of the semantics or inherent meaning of a
word/phrase.
Example:
•Cindy: there is a bookstore over there
•Linnea: no
•Cindy: why not
•Linnea: I‘m tired.
