COADY, Ann (2018). The Non-sexist Language Debate in French and English. Doctoral, Sheffield Hallam University. [Thesis]
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Coady_2018_PhD_nonsexistlanguage_(VoR).pdf - Accepted Version
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Coady_2018_PhD_nonsexistlanguage_(VoR).pdf - Accepted Version
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Abstract
The field of gender and language has gradually abandoned studies of gender-fair
language, perhaps considering that there is little left to say on the subject. However,
the debate over gender-fair language rages on in the media. Language bodies spend a
significant amount of time and money on producing guidelines, yet there have been
woefully few studies on what speakers think of these reforms, and the few studies that
have been carried out have tended to focus on small groups. In addition, there have
been very few analyses of how sexism gets debated and defined within media texts
themselves, whereas examining social evaluations of language is essential in
understanding the motivating force of language change. There is also a dearth of
comparative studies in gender and language, which would allow conceptions of
language in general, as well as feminist linguistic reforms, to be framed in their
cultural and historical perspectives.
This thesis aims at filling this gap in the field of gender and language by examining
discourses on feminist linguistic reform in the media from a cross-linguistic
perspective. A corpus of 242 articles (approx. 167,000 words) spanning 15 years
(2001-2016), whose main topic is (non-)sexist or gender-fair language was collected
from British and French on-line national newspapers. Apart from the obvious fact that
the media have an enormous influence on public opinion, this is where the debate on
sexist language has traditionally been carried out, and thus the media play a special
role in the debate. On-line newspaper texts were therefore chosen in an effort to find
discourses that readers are exposed to on a regular basis, and that could be classed as
widespread and familiar to the general public.
A corpus-based analysis was employed as a starting point to identify traces of
discourses that are used to frame arguments in the gender-fair language debate.
Frequency lists, keyword lists, and word sketches were carried out in order to indicate
possible directions for analysis. Hypotheses based on the literature review were also
followed up with searches for particular semantically related terms relating to
discourses found in other studies. Finally, a CDA analysis was carried out on relevant
concordance lines.
Twelve main discourses were identified in the two corpora, based on six principle
ideologies of language. Findings indicated that the overwhelming majority of these
discourses and language ideologies are found in both the English and the French
corpus, and across the political spectrum of newspaper groups. However, differences
in quantitative and qualitative use may indicate on the one hand, deeper cultural
differences between the UK and France, and on the other, core political and moral
values between the right and left wing.
The main contribution to knowledge that this thesis makes is in helping to revitalise
research on sexist language through an analysis of the discourses and language
ideologies that determine the success, or failure, of non-sexist language, as well as a
novel analysis of the origin of sexism in language (Chapter 3).
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