Gender asymmetry in modern mass media English

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Sumy State University

GENDER ASYMMETRY IN MODERN MASS MEDIA ENGLISH

Chulanova Halyna,

Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor

Abstract

feminitive neologism english gender

The article explores the functioning of feminitives neologisms in modern English. Feminitives are quite actively studied by modern linguists. Word formation studies the formation of feminitives, gender linguistics studies their use. The focus of linguistic gender studies is the study of the category of gender using linguistic tools, the representation of the category of gender in the language, the presence of gender asymmetry (this phenomenon is also called and rocentrism of the language), etc. Feminitives are a struggle against the and rocentrism of the language, in which the male norm is presented as universal.

In the article, gender is considered as a stratification category, as one of the parameters by which the social identity of the speaker is constructed in communication. The English language tends to be politically correct and use gender-neutral words. The prevailing ideology and moral norms have led to the fact that they have become the basis for the formation of the language policy of states. Gender is a product of the development of culture and society. Of great interest is the study of gender in professional communication, attention is paid to the ways of nominating persons of different sexes. So, the purpose of the study is to conduct a gender analysis of the ongoing changes in the modern world.

Key words: gender linguistics, gender asymmetry, feminitives neologisms, gender specification, category of gender, gender.

Анотація

ТЕНДЕРНА АСИМЕТРІЯ У СУЧАСНІЙ АНГЛІЙСЬКІЙ МОВІ ЗМІ

Чуланова Галина, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент Сумський державний університет

Стаття досліджує функціонування фемінітивів-неологізмів у сучасній англійській мові. Фемінітиви досить активно вивчають сучасні лінгвісти. Словотвір вивчає утворення фемінітивів, Тендерна лінгвістика -- їх вживання. Центром уваги лінгвістичної гендерології є вивчення категорії гендера із застосуванням лінгвістичного інструментарію, репрезентація категорії статі у мові, наявність гендерної асиметрії (це явище також називають андроцентризмом мови) тощо. Фемінітиви -- це боротьба з андроцентризмом мови, коли чоловіча норма видається за універсальну.

У статті гендер сприймається як стратифікаційна категорія, як один із параметрів, з якого у спілкуванні конструюється соціальна ідентичність того, хто говорить. Англійська мова тяжіє до політкоректності та використання гендерно нейтральних слів. Ідеологія, що склалася, і моральні норми призвели до того, що вони стали основами формування мовної політики держав. Гендер є продуктом розвитку © Chulanova H., 2023 культури та соціуму. Великий інтерес представляє дослідження гендера у професійній комунікації, увага приділяється також способам номінації осіб різної статі. Отже, метою дослідження є проведення гендерного аналізу змін, що відбуваються в сучасному світі.

Ключові слова: Тендерна лінгвістика, Тендерна асиметрія, фемінітиви-неологізми, Тендерна специфікація, категорія роду іменників, стать.

Introduction

Language is an actively changing system that is constantly connected with the social sphere of people's lives. So, every significant event in this area is accompanied by corresponding transformations in the language. There is a widespread increase in gender equality in the world, an active fight against discrimination and the strengthening of the role of women in all spheres of society is supported. Accordingly, there is a need to equally represent a man and a woman in speech, to eliminate linguistic sexism based on the representation of the male grammatical gender as primary and the female as secondary.

The society is forming a request for a new language reality that includes all participants in the society. Theoretical research on feminitives is extremely small, this term can only be found in scientific works of recent years. However, works on this topic have a high degree of relevance and are actively discussed both among the scientific community and among native speakers.

Due to the development of modern technologies and new realities, most communication is carried out on the Internet, and people also get acquainted with News via the Internet. For this reason, it is the Internet that becomes a platform for identifying current language changes. Therefore, it is of particular interest to conduct research in order to identify the peculiarities of the use and functioning of English-language feminitives-neologisms in the media. Thus, the topic under study is actual.

The object of the work is feminitive neologisms

The purpose of this work is to provide theoretical justification and practical analysis of the functioning of feminitive neologisms in modern English..

Research methods. The following methods were used in the work: linguistic analysis; method of comparative analysis; method of contextual analysis; method of continuous sampling of feminitives.Presentation of the main material.

The scientific novelty consists in a comprehensive consideration of the features of using feminitives-neologisms in the language of mass media.

Presentation of the material

Gender linguistics originated at the intersection of the sciences of linguistics and gender studies and has close ties with Sociology, Political Science, socio - and psycholinguistics. Gender linguistics studies language and speech behavior using the tools of gender studies. Gender research focuses on stereotypical ideas about male and female qualities, speech behavior of individuals in connection with their belonging to a particular gender, representation of the gender category in speech, the presence of gender asymmetry, and so on.

Reflections on the relationship between language and gender first arose in ancient times during the understanding of the gender category. The oldest and, for a long time, the only hypothesis explaining the functioning of the gender category in language was the symbolicsemantic theory. Scholars such as J. Grimm and V. Humboldt were proponents of this theory. They believed that grammatical gender emerged as a result of natural division, namely the existence of individuals of different sexes. However, it is worth noting that this theory ceased to be the sole truth after the discovery of languages in which the gender category is absent. Nonetheless, it is still recognized that the gender category itself can influence a person's perception of corresponding words and concepts (Freedman, 2003:132).

The essence of gender construction lies in polarity and opposition. The gender system, as a whole, reflects asymmetric and cultural values and expectations directed towards individuals based on their gender. O. A. Voronina argues that the gender system is a socially constructed system of gender inequality

The concept of gender allows us to explore a broader range of topics and provide a fresh perspective on the familiar phenomenon of gender. While the "sex" aspect is significant for analyzing the semantics of certain lexical units where gender is a component of meaning, gender studies in linguistics encompass a much wider range of issues by examining the construction of male or female identity as one of the parameters of linguistic personality. In this context, gender is understood as a conditional essence, which is its main distinction from sex as a biological category (Arkhangelska, 2011:80).

The relationship between the concepts of "sex" and "gender" can be revealed in linguistics in this way. Natural gender is a component of the meaning of lexical units that reproduce all personality parameters. Gender reflects both the process and the result of the individual's inclusion in the socially and culturally determined model of masculinity or femininity adopted in this society at this historical stage. Thus, " gender "is a broader concept, for the study of which it is necessary to study a much larger number of language phenomena than only those units of it whose semantics include the"gender" component.

The problem of formation and functioning of feminitives is closely related to the phenomenon of linguistic political correctness regarding the use of gender-marked words, problems of Word formation and cross-cultural differences in the use of gender-neutral and gender-marked words.

The formation of feminitives in different languages is due to both similar and different factors. Feminitives denoting professions, with rare exceptions, are paired categories of the masculine gender (Butler, 1990:98).

The formatation of paired feminitives in languages is provided by various language tools:

--the presence of word-forming types with a modifying derivational meaning of femininity in the sphere of noun formation, i.e. categories with the meaning of a female person motivated by masculine nouns with the meaning of a person (steward - stewardess);

-- forming complex words (chairman, chairwoman);

--using phrases (woman worker).

The concept of gender stereotypes is also associated with the definitions of femininity (the forms of behavior that are expected of women in this society) and masculinity (a set of social representations, attitudes, and behavioral characteristics that are attributed to men in the presented culture).

In 2008, the European Parliament adopted the so-called"gender-neutral language guidelines" The gender-neutral language guidelines contain recommendations for using gender-neutral vocabulary instead of gender-labeled vocabulary, for example:

--administrator (for both genders);

--assistant (for both genders);

--author (not authoress);

--manager (not manageress);

--mayor (not mayoress);

--midwife (for both genders; there is no accepted alternative for male mid-wives);

--nurse (for both genders; avoid male nurse);

--police officer (not policeman/policewoman unless the officer's gender is relevant) (Goldhill, 2015).

The English language tends towards political correctness and the use of gender-neutral words, which is due to the social ideology of equality formed in English-speaking societies on the basis of leveling the gender marking of concepts in the language expression. The current ideology and moral norms led to the fact that they became the basis for the formation of the language policy of states.

In the recommendations for gender-neutral use of the language, Oxford Dictionary calls for replacing the basis-man in compound words with gender-neutral - person (plural - people) or other alternative gender-neutral variants: barman - bar tender - bar tenders, spokesman - spokesperson - spokespeople. Moreover, it is recommended to replace the word man in relation to any person with human being.

Sometimes authors change nouns related to a job or position to indicate the gender of the person holding the position. This happens most often when a person's gender goes against generally accepted expectations. For example, some people may assume, perhaps unconsciously, that doctors are men and nurses are women. Phrases like "a female doctor entered the ward"or "a male nurse entered the ward" reinforce such assumptions. Unless the gender of the subject is important for the meaning of the sentence, it should be omitted (Glasser, 2008).

Another example of gender in English is how the addresses "Mr.", "Miss" and "Mrs. "are used. "Mr. "can refer to any man, regardless of whether he is single or married, but" Miss "and" Mrs. " define women by whether they are married, which until recently meant defining them by their relationship with men. A simple alternative when addressing or addressing a woman is "Mistress" (which does not indicate marital status).

At the same time, the UN adheres to a policy of gender inclusion in its six official languages. So, for example, in December 2017, it became known that employees of the British Armed Forces were advised to refrain from using gender-colored vocabulary. So mankind (humanity) was advised to replace with humankind, forefathers (ancestors) - with ancestors (The Importance..., 2020).

Over the past two centuries, linguists offering a pseudo-historical interpretation of the gender category in English have insisted that the female communication code is derived from the male one and cannot serve as a role model due to its subordinate status in relation to the male language. As an argument for "derivative", theoretical arguments about the original meaning of words in English, false etymological definitions, statements about excessive talkativeness of English women, even accusations of excessive detail and accuracy in the choice of language units or cloying politeness were used. Etymological research in the field of studying linguistic universals that serve to denote the category of gender in English confirms that the evolution of the English gender paradigm has been dominated for several centuries by research focused on proving the advantages of the masculine gender over the feminine at various levels.

In Old English, there was a system of three different genera, but this category broke up in the Middle English period, when along with the system of noun declension, the gender agreement was lost.

Cambridge English grammar classifies nouns by semantic compatibility with masculine, feminine, or middle gender, which is found in which third-person singular pronouns can replace them and in which combinations.

Let's present this classification.

1) single - gender nouns. This group includes nouns for which gender is lexical: terms of kinship and properties (mother, father, son, daughter, husband, wife, etc.), some titles (king, duke, count, prince, etc.) and their correlates of the feminine gender (queen, duchess, countess, princess), agent nouns with the formant-man (postman, policeman, congressman),woman, as well as female antropolexems genera formed by suffixation (actress, ballerina, heroine). Such nouns can only be antecedents for one of the pronouns he, she and their forms. Most inanimate, abstract nouns can only be antecedents of the pronoun it.

2) Dual - gender nouns.

This group includes nouns that can be combined:

— with the pronouns he / she (most gender-non-specific) antropolexem, writer, parent, nurse, friend, person);

— with the pronouns he / it (males of various animals, primarily domestic, stallion, bull, cock);

— with the pronouns she / it (female animals, mare, lioness, shegoat), sometimes ships (ship, the Titanic), and states (Country, America).

3) Triple - gender nouns.

This group includes nouns denoting children or animals whose gender is not known or important, baby, child, infant, horse, elephant, frog (Varikasha, 2008:84).

Suffix and other word formation of agent names for women in modern English is common due to the prevailing trend towards gender neutrality among native speakers. Most people who communicate in modern English use unmarked units (originally masculine). However, when considering female anthropolexes formed from male categories, the following trends can be observed::

1) suffix formation (adding a suffix to a masculine noun or replacing a formant that means belonging to the masculine gender):-ess (actor - actress, poet - poetess, prince - princess, author - authoress);

-stress (headmaster - headmistress);

-ine/ina (hero - heroine, ballet-master - ballerina);

-trix (aviator - aviatrix, administrator - administratrix);

-ette (usher - usherette, cosmonaut - cosmonette; one of the earliest forms is the noun suffragette with a neutral correlate (suffragist);

2) analytical education:

--he / she-composites-mainly used to form animal names( she-tiger, he-goat), but human categories (he-man and she-devil)are also known;

--composites with the man/woman formant (Englishman - Englishwoman, businessman - businesswoman, chairman - chairwoman). Due to the course towards gender neutrality, it is recommended to use gender-unmarked units instead of paired forms, firefighter instead of fireman/firewoman, chairperson instead of chairman/chairwoman, flight attendant instead of stewardess. This trend exists not only for anthropolexes, but also for abstract nouns, humankind instead of the previously common mankind;

--composites with the analytical Element woman/lady/female/girl (lady-professor, woman doctor, girl student).

Let's present the main features of speech androcentrism:

--identification of the concepts of" Man "and" Man", which leads to the invisibility of women in the language space (using he as a neutral pronoun, manhood, man-made);

--derivatives of female status in relation to male (asymmetric presentation and description of male and female categories);

--gender stereotyping (neutral or positive connotations in male names, negative - in female ones) (Gapon, 2002:245).

In English, there is a political tradition of correctness: for example, over the past two hundred years, the correctness of various names has been regularly revised in order to exclude linguistic discrimination against certain social groups. One of the most famous examples of the influence of political correctness on the language norm is the use of the third - person pronoun in the plural they as a neutral designation for a person whose gender is unknown or unimportant in the presented context.

Feminists in a number of Western countries express indignation at the signs of gender discrimination present in professional terminology and nouns denoting the type of activity. Activists of the feminist movement emphasize the fact that professional and specialized nomenclature reflects a biased attitude towards women, which, in turn, leads to the invisibility of women in the presented sphere of language use. In fact, issues of gender discrimination in the professional nomenclature are directly related to gender discrimination in employment.

Proponents of the use of non-sexist language use strategies of gender neutralization and gender speciation (feminization) to achieve their goal of creating a language system that ensures a balanced representation of the Sexes. Gender specification (feminization) is a strategy used to achieve linguistic equality by giving the "invisible gender" (in most cases women) a visible position in speech through systematic and symmetrical gender labeling (Borland, 2019).

The gender characteristics of the National Mass Communication space are poorly represented in the research discourse of Social Communications. Without a doubt, this situation is temporary and is largely determined by objective factors, primarily the relative "youth" of gender research as an interdisciplinary scientific direction in social communications.

In addition, in modern society, and in the media environment in particular, there is a weak understanding that gender issues exist, and that if there are many times fewer women as experts or heroines, this is the objective reality. However, this approach indicates a low gender sensitivity, which, according to existing definitions, is the awareness that the problems of discrimination in modern society are not completely solved, the understanding that the requirements that society imposes on men and women are different, and that such imposed restrictions do not benefit either women, men, or society as a whole (Varikasha, 2008:87).

Let's consider the features of the functioning of feminitives-neologists in the snake.

The use of feminitives in English-language articles is not very broad. For example, the word businesswoman attracts the attention of many, including masculine businessmen. This indicates that the content of news materials is more relevant to men, and the representation of women in the media is lower. At the same time, feminitives are used to clarify the article, and in other cases, the gender-neutral form of a business person or business manager is used. In addition, the feminine form is found if the article deals with women's involvement in business, with an emphasis on feminist ideas: they position themselves as curators, designers, entrepreneurs, directors and artists, claims to be self-made businesswomen.

The word heroine can be found in articles quite often, because this lexeme is often used when describing films, books, theatrical performances and other works of art: the most tragic English literature heroines, stories of a feminist heroine, a hotel-a new heroine wanders. In addition, a combination of hero and heroine is used in relation to cultural artifacts: heroes and heroines lead light from such souls. However, remembering the heroine, perhaps worthy of attention from the state, we believe that she still has a chance to become a national heroine, she did not become a heroine for English Canada (Freedman,2003:365).

It is noteworthy that among the administrators there was not a single one who would have thought that anglomans have publications, that they are used as an administrator. Moreover, this lexeme meets both for women and men. In addition, the word administrator is used prominently for an unknown group or to get acquainted with Saiman's information: administrators of a New York High School ask students...

Not as often, unlike ordinary people who see female doctors: one of the doctors, a female Doctor, is currently a midwife. Also, the word is just what you need in order to understand the stereotypical meaning of life: a nice lady-doctor, a witty and authoritative ladydoctor asked. In addition, Lex lady doctor is often used in our staff, adhering to feminism, feminist language and related linguistic norms: we do not call a female Doctor a doctor, a lady doctor, a male nurse and similar outdated terms.

Lexical units with an analytical element can be used in cases where the text mentions participants in the academic process who differ in their gender characteristics or when searching for a specific address. Here are some examples:

A female professor gets into a fight after a male colleague tries to capture her on video.

How do I contact a 40-year-old female professor?

In European languages, a woman often plays the role of a subject rather than an object, that is, her representation occurs either through terms denoting a man or through her attitude to a man. English is no exception. As in most other languages of the world, the dominant position in it is occupied by a man (Gapon, 2002:218).

In the English language, the secondary role of women prevails among the rulers of the "generic male principle", they see for yako, lexemes a man and he serve not only for the linguistic meaning of men, but also for generation, that ultrasound is a dirty person, regardless of gender: humanity, labor, man-made, the best person for work, a doctor treats his patients.

This is the object of criticism of supporters of gender-neutral - that is, free from sexist frameworks-language. The constructiveness of criticism is confirmed by the research of scientists. Thus, the generalization function was refuted by D. Miller and D. Smith: for a person, he is no different from others. His back hurts, he breaks easily, and his women have difficulties giving birth. Another example of language inequality in English was given by American linguists V. Kromkin, R. Rodman and N. Hayams: if a woman is thrown from a ship into the water, the cry "man overboard"is heard. If she dies as a result of a hit-and-run by the driver, the charge will be charged as manslaughter. If she is injured in the workplace, the insurance coverage will be covered by employee compensation. But if she approaches a threshold labeled "men only", she knows that the warning is not intended to prohibit entry to animals, plants, or inanimate objects. This is intended for her.

In the United Kingdom, prominent examples of organizations that encourage the use of gender-neutral language include the London School of Economics and Political Science, the National Health Service, the Financial Times, The Guardian, and many other companies. Each of the above organizations has a set of rules governing and postulating the use of genderinclusive language. However, the most important change of all that has occurred with the popularization of anti-sexist language can be considered the law passed at a debate in the House of Lords in 2013. According to the requirements of the winning party in the debate, the British legislation was transformed so that it meets the criteria of a gender-inclusive language (Perez, 2022).

In the United States, legal acts of this scale can be attributed to the code of conduct presented before the 117th Congress in early 2021, which is not mandatory, but encourages the use of gender-neutral language in official documents. In addition, the result of this code was the renaming of some official terms: instead of Office of the Whistleblower ombudsman, Office of the Whistleblower ombudsman will be used. As for the non-legal field, in the United States of America, as in the United Kingdom, there are many organizations that have stopped using androcentric language. These include high-status newspapers, including the New York Times and Forbes, the IBM computer corporation, and all high-status universities. As for the latter, the same can be said about the UK.

And yet, despite the fact that the population of developed countries, in the first ranks of which are both the United States and the United Kingdom, is mostly liberal, these states still have not passed global laws insisting on the use of neutralization or gender specification.

Turning to the online versions of American and British newspapers and magazines, we will present examples of the use of feminitives.

1. Affixal method of forming feminitives:

--American publications:: -ess: actress, countess, hostess, heiress, princess, empress, waitress; -e: debutante; -stress: songstress;

--British publications: -ess: hostess, actress, princess, priestess, duchess; -trix: dominatrix; -ette: suffragette.

2. Gender-labeled method, which consists in replacing a masculine noun with a suitable feminine noun:

American publications: spokeswoman, councilwoman, congresswoman,

washerwoman, superwoman, godmother, grandmother, grandmother;

British publications: headmistress, godmother, scotswoman, spokeswoman, her majesty (Glasser, 2008).

3. gender-marked method, which consists in adding elements indicating the feminine gender to gender-neutral lexical units:

American publications: girlfriend, woman in power, imperial woman, woman of color, "mean girl", female officer;

British publications: girlfriend, bosswoman.

In addition, lexemes are often used that initially carry a grammatical category of the feminine gender:

American publications: Woman, Lady, geisha, aunt, maid, wife, girl, queen, sister, daughter, prostitute, mother;

British publications: housewife, tomboy, queen, lady, dame, Madame.

Neither American nor British newspapers have a specific way of forming feminitives that stands out for its frequency. This can be attributed to the low performance of all three methods, which means that only tokens that are fixed in the language are often used in articles, which are evenly distributed according to the methods of formation.

Conclusions

Gender linguistics studies language and speech behavior using the tools of gender studies. Gender research focuses on stereotypical ideas about male and female qualities, speech behavior of individuals in connection with their belonging to a particular gender, representation of the gender category in speech, the presence of gender asymmetry, and so on. Gender Research is based on the principle of interdisciplinarity, which is implemented both at the level of studying specific problems and at the level of justifying the gender asymmetry of social development in general. To this day, there is no single view of the nature of gender in science. It is called mental constructs or models designed to more clearly describe the problems of gender in language and distinguish between its biological and socio-cultural functions. On the other hand, gender is considered as a social construct created by society, including through language.

Feminitives are feminine words that are alternative or paired with similar masculine concepts that apply to all people, regardless of their gender. The problem of the formation of feminitives in different languages is relevant in connection with the nature of the anthropocentric paradigm of modern linguistics, in which considerable attention is paid to gender factors in the development of Modern Languages, their androcentrism, which causes the predominance of male over female in speech.

The English language tends towards political correctness and the use of gender-neutral words, which is due to the social ideology of equality formed in English-speaking societies on the basis of leveling the gender marking of concepts in the language expression. The current ideology and moral norms led to the fact that they became the basis for the formation of the language policy of states.

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