The Category of Gender in Present-day English : Issues of Grammar and World View
The Category of Gender in Present-day English : Issues of Grammar and World View

Summary/Abstract: This paper demonstrates that in Modern English gendered references depend on the context and register of discourse as well as the attitudes of speakers. Two interesting features, largely ignored by prescriptive grammar, can be identified in present-day non-dialectal spoken English. One is related to the influence the sex of the speaker has on the choice of the pronominal substitute. Thus, women are more likely to use masculine forms in a number of contexts where male speakers prefer their feminine counterparts, particularly in domains associated with gender-related behaviour (e.g. cars, tools, etc.). The other interesting feature is the use of the feminine pronoun she to refer to a hard-to-identify referent or to an entire situation, a usage shared by male and female speakers alike. This usage has been identified in basically all major varieties of English.

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