Academic literature on the topic 'Linguistic feminisation'

The generic use of grammatically (or lexically) gender-marked nouns and pronouns (GM) to refer to women and men in Indo-European languages has been criticised as gender-asymmetric since the 1970s. Two main strategies for eliminating asymmetry have been suggested: visibility by feminisation and de-gendering by neutralisation. Feminisation strategies seek to contribute to women’s visibility in discourse by explicitly and symmetrically referring to women and men, thus continuing to highlight gender boundaries. In contrast, neutralisation strategies downplay gender boundaries by promoting the use of unmarked nouns and pronouns. We discuss feminisation and neutralisation strategies and review: (a) evidence (from our own work and that of others) on the effect of neutralisation and feminisation strategies on speakers’ and readers’ mental representations of gender and associated behaviours, and (b) evidence on individual variables facilitating and hampering the successful implementation of a less asymmetric—and therefore more gender-fair—language use. Based on this review, we suggest, in particular, to use feminisation strategies in contexts that are already gendered, and to use neutralisation strategies in nongendered ones (hence keeping the context gender-neutral).

Introduction. The paper reviews dynamics of language feminisation and inclusive writing emergence in the context of social change in Russia and France, identification of common patterns for the languages of the countries, adaptation difficulties of new elaborated spelling and punctuation rules, as well as indentification of sources of resistance to gender reforms in languages considered. The relevance of the study is conditioned by the growing interest of sociolinguists to the issues under consideration and by the importance of scientific record of changes in Russian and French against the backdrop of gender processes of recent years (the analysed material covers the period from 2017 to 2020). The features of direct correlation between social and language changes are reviewed not only within the context of language feminisation and feminism relationship, but also regarding historical aspects.Methodology and data sources. The study was conducted using the materials of French and Russian Internet articles, legal acts gouverning gender linguistic issues in France, statistical research data, explanatory and etymological dictionaries, Russian National Corpus, inclusive writing Instructional materials, video footages, official statements, interviews. During the selection of language material continuous sampling technique was applied; the analysis of the instances was carried out using both synchronic and diachronic approaches, allowing to look at the historical development of the languages in terms of containing feminitives. The study of language processes is carried out within the framework of sociolinguistic approach. The main methodology of language feminisation and inclusive writing study included comparative, descriptive, stylistic, and semantic- syntactic analysis.Results and discussion. The main result of the study is a review of the gender linguistic features of French and Russian. The collected and analysed language material allowed to draw the conclusion about an ongoing predominance of masculine grammatical gender over feminine in cases where using feminine grammatical gender would be reasonable and logically sound. Legal acts gouverning the use of feminitives and inclusive writing were also looked at. An inconsistency between language norm and current society needs, as well as the existence of misconception of feminist movement within society and misinterpretation of its objectives, including those related to language feminisation, are identified.Conclusion. Language is a social phenomenon that provides members of society with successful communication. Over the years people have been observing language changes that may have at first be prejudiced or may have faced rejections, but relented over time and became imperceptible and natural for native speakers. The feminisation of language is a logical process that meets civil, political and personal needs of 21st century people.

Ce travail porte sur le débat concernant la féminisation du langage et, plus particulièrement, le français inclusif généré par les opinions versées par les spécialistes du journal Le Figaro dans la chronique de langage (CDL) L’Actu des mots. Son objectif principal consiste à: 1) présenter, contextualiser et justifier le traitement donné à ce phénomène social et linguistique dans un genre journalistique singulier tel que le sont les columnas sobre la lengua Ce travail porte sur le débat concernant la féminisation du langage et, plus particulièrement, le français inclusif généré par les opinions versées par les spécialistes du journal Le Figaro dans la chronique de langage (CDL) L’Actu des mots. Son objectif principal consiste à: 1) présenter, contextualiser et justifier le traitement donné à ce phénomène social et linguistique dans un genre journalistique singulier tel que le sont les CDL publiées dans l’édition numérique du dit journal, et 2) constater le feed-back que ce genre de communication multidirectionnelle produit à partir de l’analyse des commentaires émis aussi bien en tant que réponse interne à la CDL que sur les réseaux sociaux et plus précisément, sur Twitter. En effet, notre intérêt est axé d’un côté sur cette question linguistique d’actualité qui met en relation la notion de genre avec la position de la femme dans une société patriarcale en constante évolution et, d’un autre côté, sur la nature de ces espaces médiatiques consacrés à la langue, afin de mettre en évidence leur orientation normative et leur charge idéologique, renforcées par les propres outils qu’offrent Internet. This work focuses on the debate related to the feminisation of language and, more particularly, to the inclusive French generated by the views expressed by specialists in the Le Figaro newspaper at the Chronique de langage (CDL) L’actu des mots. Its main aim consists of: (1) present, contextualise and justify the treatment of this social and linguistic phenomenon in a particular journalistic gender such as the columns on language (CSL) published in the digital edition of that newspaper; and (2) assess the feed-back that this type of multi-directional communication produces on the basis of the analysis of the comments issued both internally on the CSL and on social media, more specifically on Twitter. We are interested in investigating, on the one hand, this topical linguistic issue which links the notion of gender with the position of women in a changing patriarchal society and, on the other hand, the nature of these language-centred media spaces, in order to assess their normative power and ideological transmission, reinforced by the web’s own tools.

This article considers how language contact is gendered through an analysis of how inter-Indigenous Quechua–Aymara boundary maintenance practices and ideologies are feminised in the Peruvian altiplano. The analysis focuses on the semiotic regimentation of Indigenous ethnolinguistic boundaries, concentrating on the role of four Indigenous female figures: the Indigenous wife; the Indigenous female market vendor; the reimagined mythic Indigenous founding mother; and the Indigenous beauty pageant contestant. An ethnographically grounded, scalar analysis of Quechua–Aymara contact in the region shows how each of the female figures is ideologically linked to a specific aspect of inter-Indigenous language contact and boundary maintenance. Furthermore, the discussion shows the interconnectedness of these female figures and their associated ideologised practices and discourses, which lead to the feminisation of inter-Indigenous language contact in the region.

The spread of the feminitives (gender-marked nouns) is a modern trend of the language development resulting from the social processes. It is taking place within systemic identification and validation of the woman in texts. The history of sociolinguistic opposition of the French-speaking society to the use of feminitives andtext feminization has significant differences between various French-speaking countries, a subject researched by linguistics, sociolinguistics and geolinguistics. The Canadian province of Québec published its recommendations on use of feminitives as early as in 1979; later they were elaborated, refined and expanded. Swiss Geneva passed provisions for the feminisation of professions in 1988; a respective guide was developed in 1991. Respective Belgian regulations were introduced in 1993. However, all the French-speaking countries recognise France’s right to take any final decision regarding questions of the French language. The country had a waiting attitude and made its first steps towards gender identification in 1984, while the big changes that attracted the attention of the society took place in 1998. Since then detailed revision of the language policy became regular aiming at securing a strong position in the modern world. In 2018, the use of feminitives was ordered to be obligatory in the legal documents. French academic circles stress that “the natural evolution” of the language is taking place.

The spread of the feminitives (gender-marked nouns) is a modern trend of the language development resulting from the social processes. It is taking place within systemic identification and validation of the woman in texts. The history of sociolinguistic opposition of the French-speaking society to the use of feminitives andtext feminization has significant differences between various French-speaking countries, a subject researched by linguistics, sociolinguistics and geolinguistics. The Canadian province of Québec published its recommendations on use of feminitives as early as in 1979; later they were elaborated, refined and expanded. Swiss Geneva passed provisions for the feminisation of professions in 1988; a respective guide was developed in 1991. Respective Belgian regulations were introduced in 1993. However, all the French-speaking countries recognise France’s right to take any final decision regarding questions of the French language. The country had a waiting attitude and made its first steps towards gender identification in 1984, while the big changes that attracted the attention of the society took place in 1998. Since then detailed revision of the language policy became regular aiming at securing a strong position in the modern world. In 2018, the use of feminitives was ordered to be obligatory in the legal documents. French academic circles stress that “the natural evolution” of the language is taking place.

This article reports the results of a study on the perception of feminisation and gender mismatches in Italian. The study probes the intuition of native Italian speakers through tasks that highlight their linguistic habits. The results point to two separate but interrelated reflections. First, they show that semantic gender can override grammatical gender in partitives. Second, they reveal that the acceptance of feminine profession nouns is not widespread, especially for those nouns that refer to prestigious professions. The work presented here stems from an Italian adaptation of a study originally designed for French and German.

Non-sexist writing guidelines have been produced since the middle of the 20th century but often cause controversy. Taking only one aspect of such language reform, the feminisation of agentives, the present study aims to compare two similarly-structured, grammatically-gendered languages, French and Spanish, with regard to the visibility of women in the print media. After reviewing research that shows the use of masculine gendered agentives can induce, or reinforce, stereotypes which obscure female agency, prior studies of feminisation are classified by methodology and data source showing that little previous research has taken advantage of corpus techniques to analyse naturally occurring data, nor is there a significant body of contrastive research comparing feminisation strategies across languages or across countries with the same language. The collation of a cross-continental and cross-language corpus of media references to named people is therefore proposed and executed to allow both quantitative and qualitative analysis of naturally-occurring feminisations (or, indeed, their absence). Using electronic techniques, a corpus of over 5,000 references to named individuals was collated from press websites in France, Spain, Canada and Argentina. The form of the agentives referring to women was compared to strategies suggested in the UN-produced guidelines on gender neutral language, for French and Spanish, and discrepancies were classified. Classification of the agentives’ morphology was also made, to assign a 'predicted' base gender to each agentive. Quantitative and qualitative analyses performed on the data then drive the discussion of similarities and differences in feminisation strategies, across the chosen languages and countries. The study shows that prestige agentives cause feminisation difficulties across both languages, independently of morphology, whilst also identifying issues that are specific to one language group or one area. Possible reasons for both the similarities and differences are suggested and in turn suggest areas for further research using similar, corpus-based techniques.

Inspirée par divers débats clivants récents sur la féminisation des noms de métiers et defonctions (Rada Języka Polskiego : 2019, Krysiak : 2016, 2020), cette thèse vise à examiner les marqueurs du féminin existants en français et en polonais contemporains, en mettant un accent particulier sur la nomenclature professionnelle féminisée française et polonaise. L’objectif primordial de cette thèse était d’identifier, de nommer et de décrire les marqueurs du féminin à partir des textes règlementaires et mémétiques français et polonais. Notre corpus est constitué, d’une part, de textes règlementaires universitaires français et polonais, et d’autre part, de mèmes Internet dont le composant textuel s’appuie sur diverses subordonnées circonstancielles de temps, introduites par la conjonction « quand »/kiedy. Nous avons analysé 36 mèmes français, 44 mèmes polonais ainsi que 38 règlements universitaires français et 36 règlements universitaires polonais. Ces corpus sont consultables dans le deuxième volume de ce travail. Notre étude nous a permis de constater la régularité d’utilisation de ces différents marqueurs du féminin. Nous y avons analysé divers marqueurs du féminin : linguistiques (y compris explicites et implicites) et iconiques. Nous avons aussi examiné la manière dont les femmes sont représentées à travers les mèmes Internet (le marqueur iconique du féminin). Les investigations menées nous ont permis d’observer les marqueurs du féminin sous divers angles et à travers des genres textuels différenciés. Cette combinaison des textes étudiés n’est pas fortuite et présente un intérêt particulier – celui d’analyser les marqueurs du féminin des référents humains, tant sémantiquement neutres (noms de métiers et de fonctions issus des textes règlementaires), que familiers, argotiques, voire péjoratifs (ressortant des mèmes Internet). En outre, l’étude de ces marqueurs est combinée avec une description des facteurs extralinguistiques influençant la perception du féminin et des femmes en général. Cette thèse se compose de six parties. Dans les deux premières parties théoriques, nous expliquons et comparons la catégorie du genre ainsi que les classifications nominales existantes en français et en polonais contemporains. Ensuite, dans la troisième partie, nous passons à la confrontation des marqueurs du genre. Cette partie comprend également la description de diverses stratégies d’écriture inclusive et quelques obstacles empêchant l’usage systématique du féminin en français et en polonais. Nous y définissons et illustrons deux notions cruciales pour notre problématique : l’asymétrie linguistique des genres et l’invisibilité linguistique des femmes. La quatrième partie met l’accent sur diverses positions concernant la féminisation des noms de métiers et de fonctions. Tout d’abord, nous évoquons les positions récentes émises par l’Académie française et Rada Języka Polskiego. Ensuite, nous comparons les points de vue adoptés par divers linguistes français et polonais. La féminisation est également perçue comme un sujet sociopolitique, générant diverses discussions en France et en Pologne. Enfin, nous comparons les positions exprimées par des internautes francophones et polonophones sur ce sujet. Dans la partie analytique, nous décrivons d’abord les différents marqueurs du féminin des référents humains français et polonais émergeant des textes formels (règlements universitaires) (la partie V), en nous focalisant sur diverses stratégies d’écriture inclusive, dont la féminisation des noms de métiers fait partie. Dans la sixième partie, nous abordons les textes non formels, à savoir les mèmes Internet, en mettant en valeur leurs définitions, leur genèse, leurs composants, leurs caractéristiques et les concepts cruciaux pour leur analyse. Dans la même partie, nous comparons aussi les marqueurs explicites et implicites ressortant des mèmes Internet français et polonais. Cette thèse se termine par une synthèse des résultats des recherches menées
The impulse for writing this doctoral dissertation was the increasing number ofdiscussions eagerly undertaken with respect to the feminisation of job titles, ranks, degrees, and functions (Council for the Polish Language: 2019, Krysiak: 2016, 2020). The subject of the paper is a comparison of the feminine markers in personal designators in contemporary French and Polish, with a particular focus on the feminisation of job titles and functions. The main aim of this dissertation is to identify, describe and compare French and Polish linguistic feminine markers in personal designators. The analyses were conducted using university regulations and internet memes. The textual component of memes was based on various temporal subordinate clauses introduced by the conjunctions 'quand/when'. A total of 36 examples of French memes, 44 Polish ones, 38 French university regulations and 36 Polish ones were analysed. (The texts were collected in the second volume of the dissertation, where they can be reviewed). The analysis focused on both linguistic (explicit and implicit) feminine markers and iconic ones (characteristic of memes), as well as its frequency. The research material made it possible to examine the feminine markers from different perspectives. The analysis of the feminine markers was then combined with a description of the social context, taking into account extralinguistic factors influencing the perception of the feminine genus and women in general. It should be emphasised that the combination of memes with the texts of regulations is not coincidental – it enables a more comprehensive analysis of feminine markers in personal designators (women), both semantically neutral ones, such as names of professions, functions, ranks, and titles (from the regulations), as well as colloquial, informal, and even pejorative or offensive ones (from internet memes).The work consists of six parts. In the first two theoretical parts, the aim was to explainand compare the genus categories and nominal classifications found in contemporary French and Polish. Next, we compared Polish and French linguistic feminine markers with an emphasis on nouns denoting professions and functions. The section also contains a description of the various strategies of inclusive language, making visible women, as well as the obstacles that exist today preventing the systematic use of feminativum. In the third part, we defined two important concepts – gender asymmetry and the linguistic invisibility of women, along with French and Polish examples. The aim of the fourth part is to analyse the opinions relating to the progressive feminisation of job titles and functions. First, the positions towards linguistic feminisation issued by the Académie française and the Council of the Polish Language were discussed. A comparison was then made between the positions taken by other established French and Polish linguists. In the next chapter, the linguistic feminisation appeared as a political phenomenon widely discussed in France and Poland. The final part on the social reception of feminatives includes a comparison of the positions taken by French-speaking and Polish-speaking internet users. In the analysis section, formal texts such as university regulations were first compared. This genre was defined and the feminine markers in personal designators were then subjected to comparative analysis, with a particular focus on job titles and functions and on the various strategies of inclusive language. The next part examines informal texts, i.e. internet memes. It begins with a definition of the internet meme, its origin, and components. The next chapter contains the set of crucial concepts for the analysis of Internet memes. This part concludes with a comparison of the linguistic feminine markers (explicit, implicit and iconic) observed in selected French and Polish examples about women. This work ends with a summary of the overall findings of the conducted research

La tesi affronta la tematica del sessismo linguistico e analizza le proposte elaborate dalle autorità dei paesi francofoni (Belgio, Francia, Québec, Svizzera) per far fronte a questo problema e garantire una migliore rappresentazione delle donne nella lingua. Dopo una breve spiegazione sul sessismo linguistico, la tesi si sofferma sui decreti, le guide e le circolari ministeriali proposti nel tempo dai singoli paesi, mettendo in luce una sempre maggiore attenzione da parte delle autorità a questa tematica delicata. L'elaborato si conclude con un confronto fra le proposte dei vari paesi, da cui emerge come il Québec sia il paese più all'avanguardia in materia di femminizzazione dei nomi di mestiere, titolo, grado e funzione e la Svizzera lo stato più attivo in quanto a redazione non discriminatoria dei testi.

Des transgressions du genre apparaissent dans les brochures libertaires. Le masculin et le féminin y sont chambardés et ces modifications apportées à la langue font éclore un nouveau générique, dépassant le masculin générique. Les rapports entre l'opposition particulier/général et le genre vont montrer que ce dernier est à la fois grammatical, sémantique et social. Mais cette multidimensionnalité du genre doit être complétée par la construction du genre en discours, en tant que lieu d'articulation du pouvoir. Et dès lors que l'on agit par la langue sur des rapports de pouvoir, on se situe dans le champ de la rhétorique. C'est elle qui nous permettra de mettre en lumière les arguments qui sous-tendent ces modifications subversives et de pouvoir saisir en quoi les irrégularités les façonnent idéologiquement, dans un rapport complexe à la norme faisant émerger une micro-politique linguistique autogérée non-prescriptive. Ces perturbations émergent à la frontière entre féminisme et anarchisme, dans un féminisme qui prend le discours comme lieu de lutte et un anarchisme non-programmatique, dont les brochures sont depuis longtemps un support privilégié. Mais cela n'est pas encore suffisant pour épuiser ce que recèle cette subversion linguistique du genre et il est nécessaire de partir à la rencontre de ce qu'en disent les locuteurs qui la pratiquent pour tenter de comprendre dans quels paysages politiques peut advenir cette pratique langagière. Au travers des croisements sémantiques entre politique, genre et langage, on voit se dégager une réticularité qui combine hétérogénéité et partage de prémisses, où le rejet de l'institution et le caractère fondamentalement politique du genre, donc non-essentiel, sont associés pour placer cette perturbation linguistique dans une démarche émancipatrice.

This thesis explores modalities in two hagiographical collections from the late Middle Ages; the Legenda Aurea and the Gilte Legende by drawing inspiration from post-colonial hybridity theories.. It conducts a close textual analysis by studying the use of pronouns in five saints’ legends where female saints transcend traditional gender identities and become men, and focuses on how they transcend, live as men, and die. The study concludes that the use of pronouns is fluid in the Latin Legenda Aurea, while the Middle English Gilte Legende has more female pronouns and additions to the texts where the female identity of the saints is emphasised. This is interpreted as a sign of the feminisation of religious language in Europe during the late Middle Ages, and viewed parallel with the increase of holy women at that time. By doing this, it underlines the importance of new words and concepts when describing and understanding medieval views on gender.

Упершыню ў мовазнаўчым і сацыялінгвістычным полі Беларусі прадпрымаецца глябальная, шматвэктарная і міждысцыплінарная спроба сыстэматызацыі і пашы¬рэньня веды аб фэмінізацыі мовы. Зьява фэмінізацыі назваў пасадаў разглядаецца ўпершыню, як праблема, пытаньне ня толькі і не перадусім моўнае, а як праблематыка пазамоўных ці зьнешнемоўных чыньнікаў.Праца складаецца з трох частак. Першая асноўная частка ахоплівае тэарэтычна-мэтадалягічнае поле дасьледаваньня. Другая частка складаецца з аналізу розных дыскурсаў на прадмет фэмінізацыі мовы (мовазнаўчы, літаратурны, фэмінісцкі). Сюды ж уваходзяць вузкія мовазаўчыя аспэкты дасьледаваньня пытаньня фэмінізацыі мовы: гістарычная граматыка, дыялекталёгія, сацыялінгвістычнае вымярэньне, а таксама аналіз фэмінізацыі праз прызму двух стандартаў мовы: тарашкевіцы і наркамаўкі. Да ўсяго ў другой частцы месьціцца кампаратывісцкі падыход да фэмінізацыі – параўноўваецца фэмінізацыя назваў пасадаў у беларускай, украінскай, польскай, расейскай, летувіскай і францускай мовах. У трэцяй частцы разглядаецца сацыялінгвістычны, палітычны і гендарны аспэкт пытаньня, якое аналізуецца праз прызму каляніялізму ці моўнага імпэрыялізму (уплыў расейскай мовы) і патрыярхальнасьці (мужчынскае дамінаваньне). Як вынікае зь гістарычнага, мастацкага, сацыялінгвістычнага аналізу, фэмінiзацыя – важны і натуральны кампанэнт беларускай мовы цягам апошніх шасьці стагодзьдзяў. Моўная няроўнасьць і маргіналізацыя фэмінізацыі назваў пасадаў у Беларусі стала магчымай ня ў вынікаў проста пэўных нутрамоўных асаблівасьцяў беларускай і расейскай моваў, а ў выніку пэўнай палітыкі як унутры Беларусі, так і ў суседняй Расеі ў дачыненьні да беларускай (маргіналізацыя, ігнараваньне) і расейскай моваў (спэцыяльная падтрымка).
W niniejszej pracy po raz pierwszy w językoznawczym i socjolingwistycznym obszarze Białorusi podjęto globalną, wielokierunkową i interdyscyplinarna próbę systematyzacji i poszerzenia wiedzy o feminizacji języka. Zjawisko feminizacji nazw zawodów rozpatrywane jest nie tylko pod względem językowym, lecz także wpływu nań czynników zewnętrznych, pozajęzykowych. Praca składa się z trzech części. Część pierwsza obejmuje teoretyczno-metodologiczne pole badań. Część druga składa się z analizy różnych dyskursów dotyczących feminizacji języka: historii języka białoruskiego, dialektologii, wymiaru socjolingwistycznego, a także analizy feminizacji przez pryzmat dwóch standardów języka: taraszkiewicy i narkomówki. Dodatkowo feminizację omówiono w aspekcie komparatystycznym – porównano feminizację zawodów w językach białoruskim, ukraińskim, rosyjskim, polskim, litewskim i francuskim. W części trzeciej rozpatrywany jest socjolingwistyczny, polityczny i genderowy aspekt zagadnienia, które analizowane jest przez pryzmat kolonializmu czy imperializmu językowego (wpływ języka rosyjskiego) oraz patriarchalności (męskiej dominacji). Jak wynika z historii rozwoju języka białoruskiego, analizy utworów literatury pięknej oraz badań socjolingwistycznych, feminizacja była i nadal pozostaje ważnym i naturalnym komponentem języka białoruskiego na przestrzeni ostatnich sześciu stuleci. Brak równości językowej i marginalizacja feminizacji nazw zawodów na Białorusi stały się możliwe nie w rezultacie wewnętrznych właściwości języka białoruskiego, lecz wskutek polityki językowej prowadzonej zarówno wewnątrz Białorusi, jak i w sąsiedniej Rosji.
It is the first global, multi-faceted and interdisciplinary attempt to organise and expand the knowledge and understanding of language feminisation in the Belarusian linguistics and sociolinguistics. For the first time ever, the phenomenon of feminisation of occupational title names is considered as an issue which is not only and primarily linguistic but also as an issue of extralinguistic factors.The work consists of three chapters.The first chapter covers the theoretical and methodology part of the research. The second chapter consists of the analysis of different (linguistic, literary, feminist) discourses concerning language feminisation. It also includes specific linguistics aspects of the language feminisation research: historical grammar, dialectology, sociolinguistics as well as the analysis of feminisation from the perspective of the two standards of Belarusian: Taraškievica and Narkamaŭka. Besides, the second chapter includes the comparative approach to feminisation: feminisation of occupational title names is compared in Belarusian, French, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian.The third chapter examines the sociolinguistic, political, and gender aspects of the issue analysed from the perspective of colonial studies or linguistic imperialism (influence of Russian) and patriarchy (male dominance).According to the results of the historical, literary, sociolinguistic analysis, feminisation has been an important and natural component of Belarusian for the last six centuries. That linguistic inequality and marginalisation of feminisation of occupational title names has been possible in Belarus not as a result of certain linguistic features of Belarusian and Russian but as a result of a certain policy in relation to Belarusian (marginalisation, disregard) and Russian (special support) in the country as well as in the neighbouring Russia.