Writing skills

Created by

Megan Penny

Cards (21)

Gender scripts 
The idea that the sexes adopt roles because they are male or female. Behaviour is therefore ‘acted out’ like it would be by an actor - purely based on gender
Gender scripts (examples) 
Boys don’t cry
Women don’t swear
Generic terms and pronouns  
Use of the words He, His, Him or himself - when really the addressee wants to address all people not just males
Marking (marked term) 
A term can be ‘marked’ if it is designed to show some transgression from the ‘normal‘ assumption
Marking (marked term) examples
Actress
Manageress
Patriarchy  
Male controlled
Pejorative  
A word that has gradually taken on a more negative meaning over time
Marked (and unmarked) themes  
Words which do (and do not) encode gender
Marked (and unmarked) themes examples  
Headmaster, headmistress (headteacher)
Lexical asymmetry  
Where equivalent terms do not have equivalent meanings
Lexical asymmetry example  
Governor is a boss or ruler of a province, governess is a teacher/tutor
Semantic derogation  
Where male terms have positive connotations and female terms have negative ones
Semantic derogation examples  
Bachelor (male)
Spinster (female)
Amelioration  
The process whereby a word‘s meaning actually becomes more positive overtime
Connotation  
The associations a word has. The underlying idea you get when a particular word is used
Default assumption  
The immediate presumption that a particular role/job is carried out by someone of a particular gender
Denotation  
The actual dictionary definition of a word
Dysphemism  
Using a more crude alternative to the ‘average‘ choice
Empty adjective  
Lakoff proposes that these are an aspect that define women’s language. They are used frequently in women’s language but hold little meaning
Euphemism  
Dressing a word, phrase or message up so that it seems less harsh or more polite or less offensive
Folklinguistics  
Ideas about language encoded in popular sayings such as proverbs