Generic Forms and Cognition (PC)

Question 1

What is the generic term and pronoun mainly used?

Answer 1

Man (term)
He (pronoun)
e.g. “mankind” and “anyone can choose to vote if he wishes”

Question 2

What does the generic term do?

Answer 2

It refers to everyone, however using them can make women seem invisible as the term “ignores” them.

Question 3

When the generic term is used what are women said to be occupying?

Answer 3

The negative semantic space

Question 4

What are marked terms?

Answer 4

Terms in which reveal a person’s gender

e.g wife, fireman

Question 5

What are the new terms in place of marked terms called?

Answer 5

Unmarked terms

Question 6

What are unmarked terms?

Answer 6

Terms in which do not reveal a person’s gender.

Question 7

What is common of marked terms expressing a female gender?

Answer 7

They have a feminising suffix

“actress”, “usherette”, “comedienne”

Question 8

What does the feminising suffix suggest?

Answer 8

That the male equivalent is the original and that the female version is inferior.

Question 9

What are generalisations?

Answer 9

Where no sex-reference is present but the writing does have a specific group in mind.

Question 10

What is non-parallel treatment?

Answer 10

Where there is a significant difference in the ways in which men and women are portrayed

Question 11

Who came up with non-parallel treatment?

Answer 11

Miller and Swift

Question 12

How many areas are there of non-parallel treatment

Answer 12

4

Question 13

First area of non-parallel treatment

Answer 13

describing:
women by appearance
men by achievement

Question 14

Second area of non-parallel treatment

Answer 14

describing:
women by their relationship to men
not describing men by their relationship to women

Question 15

Third area of non-parallel treatment

Answer 15

Referring to:
women as “girls”
men as “men” (the adult label)

Question 16

Fourth area of non-parallel treatment

Answer 16

Using fixed collocations where the male label occurs before the female equivalent
e.g. “he and she”, “husband and wife”

Question 17

What is lexical asymmetry?

Answer 17

Where a pair of words appears to have similar meaning but aren’t equally balanced
e.g “bachelor” and “spinster” - both unmarried names

Question 18

What is order of precedence?

Answer 18

Placing the male term first, suggesting they are of higher status
e.g. “his and hers”

Question 19

What are patronising terms?

Answer 19

Word which are used by speakers which imply superiority over the person they’re talking to
e.g. “love”, “dear”

Question 20

What is feminine inanimate?

Answer 20

Where female pronouns are used to refer to objects such as cars and ships. This suggests male ownership

Question 21

What are insulting usages?

Answer 21

Where there are many insulting words for females, but no equivalents for males

Question 22

What do insulting usages often do to women?

Answer 22

Compare them to animals e.g. “bitch”, “cow”

or have sexual associations e.g. “slut”, “whore”

Question 23

What are attempted changes

Answer 23

Where words using the male generic term have been changed to use a female equivalent
e.g. “herstory” instead of “history”