week 11

Question 1

dumais - the tension between prescriptive suggestions of how we should write/speak

Answer 1

• in written french, it’s hard to be gender neutral when the language is very gendered, where there are “agreements” needed for grammar regarding gender
• OQLF does not endorse the use of gender neutral neologisms, and instead ONLY using gender avoidance linguistic strategies by manipulating syntax

Question 2

dumais - what people are actually doing

Answer 2

• circumlocution: gender-avoidance strategies (ie. “une personne”
• neologisms: “iel”