Summary

Summary AQA English Language A-Level; Language and Gender Revision Overview

0 purchase

Course
Unit 3 ENGA3 - Language Explorations

Institution
AQA

An overview of the Language and Gender module from AQA's English Language A-Level, covering a wide array of theories and research from experts. This document is a good starting-point for those just beginning their Language and Gender revision for upcoming exams.

[Show more]

Preview 2 out of 6 pages

View example

Uploaded on February 21, 2024
Number of pages 6
Written in 2021/2022
Type Summary

english language
english
language and gender
revision
gender
summary

Study Level
A/AS Level
Examinator
AQA
Subject
English
Unit
Unit 3 ENGA3 - Language Explorations

$7.15

Add to cart

Save

100% satisfaction guarantee
Immediately available after payment
Both online and in PDF
No strings attached

AQA English Language A-Level; Language and Gender
Revision Overview

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Created by:
❖ Edward Sapir
➢ A linguist in the 1920s
❖ Benjamin Lee Whorf
➢ A psychologist in the 1950s
HYPOTHESIS: the structure of a language determines / greatly influences the modes of
thought and behaviour characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
➢ When we acquire language, we acquire ways of thinking
o We don’t consciously notice because they feel natural
▪ It’s like viewing the world through a particular pair of sunglasses

Anthropomorphism
❖ Giving something a human shape
➢ Human beings feel the need to project ideas of humanness onto the inanimate
world
▪ This also includes animals

Gareth Morgan (1986)
❖ Noted a number of qualities typically associated with men or women in Western
society
➢ Men: logical, rational, aggressive, exploitative, strategic, independent and
competitive
➢ Women: intuitive, emotional, submissive, nurturing and cooperative
▪ Morgan summarises these as implying that man is ‘a leader and decision-maker’
while woman is ‘a loyal supporter and follower’

Jennifer Herriman (1998)
❖ A study based on the cobuild corpus
• A collection of language texts of all kinds, totalling 50 million
words
➢ The study found that words for physical attractiveness were used most frequently
in association with women, whereas terms describing height, abilities and
personality traits were most frequently associated with men

Socialisation
❖ The language we use to talk about men and women is gendered

, ➢ The way we talk about the sexes indicates that we have a shared understanding of
the traditional roles, and what is deemed masculine and feminine
▪ This shared understanding is part of our social knowledge
▪ The framework we use to interpret the world
• The process by which we acquire social knowledge is called socialisation
The Process of Socialisation:
❖ We do not learn this knowledge explicitly
➢ The process includes all the things we see and hear from society
▪ The people we meet, what we read and see on television, the things we’re told,
etc.
• All these things shape our ideas of what it means to be a man / woman

Marked and Unmarked Terms
❖ We categorise people into groups, where some group members are seen as more
typical / representative than others, even though in reality they may be in the
minority
➢ We then construct a simplified and limited model from a few group members and
apply these to the whole group
▪ This is called stereotyping
• STEREOTYPING: the process of applying a simplified model to a real,
complex individual, often to negative / derogatory effect
❖ When we ‘mark’ or modify certain phrases, we are labelling departures from the
‘norm’ or typical situation
SEMANTIC DEROGATION
❖ Another form of marking is adding suffixes such as ‘-ess’ and ‘-ette’
➢ It has been claimed that terms marked in this way when referring to women have
a strong negative connotation to them, compared to the corresponding term used
to refer to men
▪ Mills (1995), following previous research by Cameron and Schulz (1975)
highlighted examples of lexical pairs where the male term suggests a positive
attribute and the female term suggests a negative one
• E.g. Master and Mistress, Governor and Governess

Liberal Feminist Tradition
❖ Miller and Swift’s The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1981)
➢ A moderate, liberal approach
➢ They think it is possible for language to be made more representative of different
groups
▪ This sometimes means inventing new terms where old ones won’t do
• One are they suggest needs attention is ‘discriminatory job titles’
 For example:

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller MJ1234. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $7.15. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

66184 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 15 years now

Start selling