Sexism in Language: Do Fiction Writers Assign Agentive and Patient Roles Equally to Male and Female Characters?

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Sexism in Language: Do Fiction Writers Assign Agentive and Patient Roles Equally to Male and Female Characters?
Authors:	Ochieng, Dunlop¹ dunotis@yahoo.com
Source:	Journal of Language & Linguistics Studies. Oct2012, Vol. 8 Issue 2, p20-47. 28p. 4 Charts, 5 Graphs.
Subject Terms:	Sexism in language, Gender differences in language, Literary characters, Social role, Stereotypes, Sex discrimination
Abstract:	Problem Statement: Studies have shown that language is used discriminatorily to women and men. Hence, there have been movements against gender biased language-the movements which are reported so successful especially in the West. Purpose of Study: This paper however argues that discrimination stems from speakers' minds; and hence performing gender neutral language alone does not confirm gender neutrality of the performer. The reliable way of judging gender neutrality would then be studying the speakers' minds. Method: The study applied psychoanalytic literary criticism as a gateway to the unconscious minds of American authors-to find out how gender neutral they were at cognitive level. Through psychoanalytic literary criticism, authors' suppressed desires would find their way out onto their works in a distorted form. Along these lines, the study assessed the equality in assigning agentive and patient semantic roles between males and females in American fictions-to find out who between males and females were frequently assigned agentive and patient roles of the reciprocal verbs: kiss, hug, marry, and divorce. Findings: The study found out that males were assigned more agentive roles in kiss and hug, and females in divorce. Moreover, both were assigned almost equal roles in marry. Conclusion: The implication of the findings is that speakers' unconscious mind is basically gender biased along gender stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	Problem Statement: Studies have shown that language is used discriminatorily to women and men. Hence, there have been movements against gender biased language-the movements which are reported so successful especially in the West. Purpose of Study: This paper however argues that discrimination stems from speakers' minds; and hence performing gender neutral language alone does not confirm gender neutrality of the performer. The reliable way of judging gender neutrality would then be studying the speakers' minds. Method: The study applied psychoanalytic literary criticism as a gateway to the unconscious minds of American authors-to find out how gender neutral they were at cognitive level. Through psychoanalytic literary criticism, authors' suppressed desires would find their way out onto their works in a distorted form. Along these lines, the study assessed the equality in assigning agentive and patient semantic roles between males and females in American fictions-to find out who between males and females were frequently assigned agentive and patient roles of the reciprocal verbs: kiss, hug, marry, and divorce. Findings: The study found out that males were assigned more agentive roles in kiss and hug, and females in divorce. Moreover, both were assigned almost equal roles in marry. Conclusion: The implication of the findings is that speakers' unconscious mind is basically gender biased along gender stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	1305578X