|5| The Language of Men and Women (Level 2)

Text level 2

Thought and language influence each other in no small way. It is actually an issue* among scientists whether one could exist without the other. Although humanity has been in possession of language for only a few per cent of its evolutionary* path to the present day, it has allowed language to influence the development of societies as well as individuals. By tradition, human societies have been dominated by men. The language of the church, the legal system, and the working community has, for generations, reflected and reinforced the male outlook on life. Also after universal suffrage*, the impact of male language is evident. It affects our daily life in thought and deed*. In recent decades, with a striving towards equality between men and women, language has been focused upon as a biasing* and preserving* factor. There is now general awareness of the fact that your language reveals basic gender* attitudes. In 1992 the Linguistic Society of America issued recommendations to its members in order to avoid sexism in linguistic examples. Both vocabulary, grammar, and style are infected with biased language. In vocabulary there is now a tendency to replace male words where a more generic* meaning is actually intended. A word like chairman is replaced by chairperson, salesmen become sales assistants, and so on. In grammar a lot of focus has been on the fact that the English language lacks* sex-neutral third person pronouns. A sentence like "Also a managing director is supposed to address his clients with respect" assumes that managing directors are generally men. "Any teacher surely understands that she must work for a low pay" assumes that teachers are all women. When it comes to style, the focus is on the choice of words. Typically, if you try to be unbiased you use the word humanity in stead of mankind, you try to refer to women and men in the same way. This is not always the case in newspaper headlines. "Clinton faces trial", "Hillary's on the go" are examples of a surname being used for a man and a first name about a woman. Studies seem to indicate that since the 60's changes are beginning to happen. One study, by R. L. Cooper in 1984, shows that indiscriminate* use of the two words he and man fell from about 12 occurrences* in 5,000 words to about 4. Things might have been different if God had been a black woman in stead of a white man. Let's end off with a riddle A man and his son get involved in a car accident. The father is killed instantly. The son survives and is taken to hospital. They need to operate on him. The surgeon* sees the boy and says, " I cannot operate on this boy, he's my son." How is that possible?