Linguistic intersections of language and gender

Of gender bias and gender fairness

Dominic Schmitz, Simon David Stein, Viktoria Schneider

• Publisher: Düsseldorf University Press
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111388694
• Subtopic: Sociolinguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Linguists have been interested in the relation of language and gender for a long time, yet only recently has the field diversified extensively in both its research questions and its methods. However, few attempts have been made to bring together these diverse perspectives in a systematic exchange of ideas and approaches.

This volume offers a collection of the latest empirical research on language and gender from a variety of linguistic perspectives. Among other questions, the studies in this volume investigate the processing of gendered forms in spoken and written language, examine their morphosyntactic properties, model their semantics and pragmatics, and engage with the discursive and orthographic patterns of gendered language. They apply a wide range of corpus linguistic, experimental, and computational methods to a diverse set of languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Georgian, German, and English. This volume is a valuable resource for all scholars interested in the current state of research on language and gender and a much-needed kick-off for interdisciplinary collaboration in this field that takes into account the bigger picture.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Contents
• Linguistic intersections of language and gender: Introduction
• What if -*in is a new suffix?
• Of stars and colons: A corpus-based analysis of gender-inclusive orthographies in German press texts
• Women are sexy and men provoke – Gender stereotypes and the interpretation of the German adjective aufreizend
• Understanding (mis)gender(ing) and pronouns from a politeness theory standpoint
• Pronoun comprehension from a discriminative perspective: A proof of concept
• Effects of English generic singular they on the gender processing of L1 German speakers
• Form identity and gendered associations: L2 English -er facilitates the bias of L1 German -er
• Gender-inclusive or not? Covert gender patterns in Georgian
• Gender-inclusive language and male bias: Task matters!
• Theoretical and empirical basis for gender-fair language use: The case of Spanish
• Teaching Spanish in the Philippines: A queer-decolonial pedagogy
• Morphosyntax and me: The reflections of a non-binary linguist on English gendered language
• Notes on contributors
• Index