gender and language

Question 1

Who established the ‘Males as the Norm Syndrome’ and When?

Answer 1

Dale Splender

Question 2

what is male is the norm syndrome?

Answer 2

The idea that the English Language itself is intrinsically structured to create power imbalance.

Question 3

What is linguistic determinism?

Answer 3

The notion that the language you speak predominantly determines your thought and feelings

Question 4

what is a negative semantic space?

Answer 4

using unnecessary words to specify who is doing the job

Question 5

In what ways does the ‘Male is the Norm’ study suggest the english language favours men?

Answer 5

• the use of male pronouns simply as a matter of convenience (e.g., you avoid saying ‘he or she’ and opt for using he)
• ‘man’ and ‘mankind’ being the automatic for generalising humankind

Question 6

what term did intersectional feminists coincide with in order to avoid the use of ‘men’ or ‘man’?

Answer 6

‘womxn’

Question 7

Are there any etymological points for Men being the norm?

Answer 7

In the bible Adam created Eve from his rib

Question 8

What did Dale Splender do?

Answer 8

Related how in the 1960s, when most primary school teachers were female, gender free articles referring to them were often ‘she’.

Question 9

What was the male minorities response to this development?

Answer 9

they wished to be included and some even insisted on the use of the male pronoun instead.

Question 10

What is marking in the context of David Splender’s theory?

Answer 10

A modifier that tells us a hidden undertone. For example a ‘single-mother’ is a Mother who is incapable of keeping a man and is therefor worth less than a married mother or a mother not given the prefix of ‘single’

Question 11

tautologous

Answer 11

make redundant

Question 12

what is a kinship term?

Answer 12

words used in a speech community to identify relationships between individuals in a family e.g. brother, mother

Question 13

cultural relativism

Answer 13

not judging a culture to our own standards regarding right and wrong and taking into account other cultural contexts

Question 14

what was the sex discrimination act?

Answer 14

In 1975 it became illegal to write. job advertisement that implied only people of one specific sex could apply

Question 15

what were the exceptions to the sex discrimination act?

Answer 15

(In 1975)
- if recruitment was targeted at a specific under-represented group

Question 16

Gender and address terms

Answer 16

women don’t always get given the same gender-free titles in the work place.
e.g., lady-doctor, headmistress, bar-maid

Question 17

what is a diminutive?

Answer 17

a suffix eg.,baroness

Question 18

what diminutive is added to signal less legitimacy in context to job titles?

Answer 18

-ette & -ess

Question 19

Who studied terms endearment? And when?

Answer 19

Goddard 1983

Question 20

what is a vocative?

Answer 20

a word or phrase used to address a reader or listening directly

Question 21

What is the basic principle of the O’barr & Atkins study?

Answer 21

the weak and uncertain language typically associated with women is used by both men and women in vulnerable positions with lack of power

Question 22

what is the diversity approach?

Answer 22

Focuses on the idea that sex and gender are different and that our sex doesn’t effect the language we use but gender does

Question 23

How did O’barr and Atkins investigate their theories?

Answer 23

• They took 10 features that Lackoff claimed and looked at the language used by a number of witnesses both male and female to see if Lackoff’s hypothesis was proved
  L they specifically used courtroom examples