Terminology

• Sex

  the biological differences between male and female
• Gender

  the social and cultural differences between male and female
• Socialisation

  from birth onwards we are given certain types of toys, ways to dress, talked about and to in different ways. We are socialised through our peers and society
• Androcentrism

  placing male human beings/ the male point of view at the centre of one's view
• Generic terms

  terms the generalise a category e.g man for all people
• Marked terms

  Words that with a specific term added prior apply certain connotations
• Diminutive suffixes

  suffixes added to certain words to make them seem smaller or less significant
• Semantic Degoration

  describes the process by which negative connotations became attached to lexical items over time.
• Unmarked terms

  the norm at which marked terms are judged
• lexical asymmetry

  where words intended to mean the same thing for male and females develop differing meanings
• Hedging

  • 'it seems like', 'kind of', 'sort of'
• Tag Questions

  • 'it's a bit warm in here, isn't it?'
• wh- Imperatives


  • 'why don't we go to the shops now?'
• Qualifiers

  • i think that
• Modal Verbs

  • 'I think we should go together'
• Uptalk

  • going up in tone at the end of sentences to turn declaratives into interrogatives
• Genderlect

  Dialect associated with the different genders
• Polari

  in 1950s and 60s, British gay men spoke Polari, a coded form of language that let the men speak publicly about their sexuality
• Heteronormativity

  • concept of binary, complementary genders assumes heterosexuality as the singular sexual orientation and norm
  • heteronormativity is a bias so entrenched that many people don't notice it