Gender Neutrality of Language and its Impact on Language Norms
Abstract
This study is devoted to the process of neutralizing the English language, the main means and methods for achieving it. The language, due to the fact that it reflects the level of development of the people who speak it, is very mobile and sensitive to various political and social processes. The policy pursued by the state, changes in the social system, revision of views on traditional rules and foundations - all this is reflected in the language. The change in the position of women in society and the subsequent revision of the entire gender structure as a whole had a significant impact, in particular, on the English language. Various theories have emerged regarding gender neutrality, as well as points of view as to whether the concept of gender neutrality should be pursued at all. In many English-speaking countries, policies have begun to eliminate the gender "marking" of words. At the international level, practical recommendations are being published on the use of gender-neutral language. Various rules and methods of word formation have appeared. So, they, one became a replacement for gender pronouns. New ones were also proposed to replace the commonly used he. Increasingly, they began to move away from suffixes denoting gender in words, replacing the word completely. The morpheme man has also fallen out of general circulation - the use of neutral synonyms is preferred. The order of addressing women and men was also revised. Instead of the traditional Mrs and Miss, new constructions began to be used, and in business correspondence they try to completely abandon this kind of appeal. In the course of the study, the above aspects, the main issues of gender-neutral words from the point of view of use in business and legal literature when using such research methods as sampling method, component analysis method, descriptive method and method of linguocultural analysis of language material are considered. Based on the results of the study, the main conclusions are formulated regarding the use of such words, their influence on the language, on the process of business communication.
About the Authors
E. D. KovalevaRussian Federation
Ekaterina D. Kovaleva, Student
Faculty of Law
305040
50 Let Oktyabrya str. 94
Kursk
A. S. Koshmina
Russian Federation
Anna S. Koshmina, Student
Faculty of Law
305040
50 Let Oktyabrya str. 94
Kursk
N. I. Vlasenko
Russian Federation
Natal'ya I. Vlasenko, Cand. of Sci. (Philological), Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Languages
305040
Kursk
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Review
For citations:
Kovaleva E.D., Koshmina A.S., Vlasenko N.I. Gender Neutrality of Language and its Impact on Language Norms. Proceedings of the Southwest State University. Series: Linguistics and Pedagogy. 2022;12(3):68-76. (In Russ.)