Transcultural Englishes and Gender-Inclusive Reform of Language

Presentations

Presentations of TEaGIRL research
Neutralising person and the personing of neutral inclusivity: tracing morphological change. Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society, Monash University, Melbourne, September, 2005. Jo Winter and Anne Pauwels The University of Western Australia. Abstract Feminist linguistic reforms are part of planned social language change seeking to ensure inclusivity and equality in the linguistic representation of women and men. Gender-neutralisation has been promoted as the preferred strategy for gender-inclusive representations in English. The strategy has included options such as lexical replacement, e.g., flight attendant instead of hostess; neologisms such as firefighter for fireman and morphological compounding with zero morphs chairØ and compounds with –person. Interestingly, some -person compounds have emerged into the gender-inclusive language landscape that were not promoted or supported as part of feminist language planning/guidelines e.g., waitperson. Our discussion focuses on the gender-neutral morphological compounding evident in a number of occupational nouns. Drawing upon on-line survey data (www.teagirl.arts.uwa.edu.au) we trace the spread and diffusion of –person compounds through lexical ‘fields’ and the (non-) uptake patterns for self-identified (non-)users of gender-inclusive language. Our findings reveal that degrees of social-gender loading and occupational prestige interact with positions about gender-inclusivity in confounding ways. Gender-neutralisation through the adoption of –person compounds faces challenges from so-called PC debates about linguistic prescriptivism and the availability of zero morph compounding through the creation of neologisms, e.g., chair.
MISSING ME AND MSING THE OTHER: COURTESY TITLES FOR WOMEN IN ENGLISHES National Congress of The Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, Melbourne University, September 2005 Jo Winter & Anne Pauwels, The University of Western Australia Abstract The introduction and spread of Ms as the courtesy address title for women is a cornerstone of feminist linguistic planning for English. Its introduction aimed to eradicate the discriminatory inequity in the address system that exposed women through their (non)marital relationship with men. Ms is viewed as a replacement for Mrs and Miss. The understanding, use and impact of the courtesy title are fairly well documented, particularly for Englishes of Australia (e.g., Pauwels 1987, 1998, 2001, 2003); US and Britain (Romaine 2001) and New Zealand (Holmes 2001). Trends from these locales have shown almost universal awareness of the form, an increased uptake of the courtesy title over time, especially by professional women and increasing understanding of its promoted meaning, i.e., a courtesy title for women. We have less knowledge of the form’s spread, impact and use by speakers for whom English is not the dominant language but forms part of their linguistic repertoire. Graddol (1997) argues that English-speaking bilinguals will outnumber first language speakers and ‘increasingly will decide the global future of the language’ (p.10). Such contexts of English – second/third/foreign – usage loosely align with locales Kachru (1997) identified as ‘expanding circles’ and to some extent many of the ‘outer-circle’ Englishes, e.g. Hong Kong. In our presentation we explore the practices of courtesy title use for women for English-speaking bi-/multilinguals. We draw upon on-line survey data (www.teagirl.arts.uwa.edu.au) to probe respondents’ strategies for addressing unknown women as well as women’s use of courtesy titles for themselves. Our findings show that Ms use maps with locale and regional conditions associated with the status and function of English. Our mapping reveals an unexpected pattern of diffusion with implications for planned social language change and language policy. In relation to Ms the implementation of feminist linguistic policy does not cohere with a pattern of inner ‘ outer ‘ expanding ‘circles’ or ‘first language’ ‘ ….. ‘’foreign language speaker spread.
Occupying chairs and taking up speaking positions: Gender-inclusive language in public contexts. Presentation in Linguistics Public Seminar Series @ The School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics March 2005 Monash University Abstract
MEN STAYING AT HOME LOOKING AFTER THEIR CHILDREN: FEMINIST LINGUISTIC REFORM AND SOCIAL CHANGE. Presentation to The Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Seminars @ The School of Languages March 2005 The University of Melbourne Abstract
Presentation to the Congress of the International Federation of University Women. August, Perth 2004 Gender, power and communication in a transnational world Powerpoint presentation [download]
Paper presented in Berlin 2004 Globalisation of English and the spread of gender-inclusive language reform GenderKompetenz -Zentrum Humboldt University Berlin 16 June 2004 Abstract In this paper I examine the question of gender-inclusive language reform (also known as non-sexist language planning) in a pluricentric and also increasingly ‘global’ language. Awareness and adoption of gender-inclusive language reform first took hold in US English, swiftly followed by Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English and later by British English. These varieties of English have been labelled and described as ‘inner circle’ Englishes (Kachru 199 ). To date research on the adoption and spread of gender-inclusive language in those varieties of English labelled ‘outer-circle Englishes’ (eg. English in Hong Kong, Indian, the Philippines and Singapore). This is also the case for so-called ‘expanding circle’ varieties of English (i.e. English as a foreign language as used in countries such as China, Germany, Japan, Brazil etc.). The rapid expansion of English as a language for global communication offers an interesting opportunity to investigate whether it is a gender-inclusive version of English that is being spread and adopted. In previous work (eg. Pauwels 1998, Pauwels 2003, Winter & Pauwels 2003) we identified not only the main changes taking place in some inner circle varieties of English but also the main agents and sites of change . Here I will compare developments in gender-inclusive language use in Australian and in Singapore focussing on the presence and use of gender-inclusive nouns ans pronouns and female titles of address. I will discuss the agents and sites of change and suggest some implications for work on other pluricentric languages. References Pauwels, A. (1998) Women changing language. London: Longman. Pauwels, A. ( 2003) Linguistic sexism and feminist activism. In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 550-70. Winter, J & Pauwels, A. (2003) Mapping trajectories of change - Women's and men's practices and experiences of feminist linguistic reform in Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 26.1: 19-37. Powerpoint presentation [download presentation]
Paper presented @ Applied Linguistics Association of Australia Congress 2003 Gender inclusive language reform in the English of Singapore and the Philippines Abstract
Paper: International Gender and Language Association [IGALA] 2004 Discourses on gender-inclusive language in ‘outer-circle’ Englishes: A case study of the higher education sector in Singapore Abstract