On Sexism in Language and Language Change – The Case of Peninsular Spanish

  • Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

Abstract

The Spanish language has been described as a sexist language due to the peculiar characteris-tics of its gender morphology. It is indicated by the o ('masculine') and a ('feminine') gender morphemes which generally represent male and female respectively. This has led to an appar-ent confusion between grammatical gender and biological sex. Against this background, this paper attempts to discover the impact of anti-sexist language proposals on the Spanish language by analyzing sample Spanish newspapers. Of the 40 articles analysed from 20 representative newspapers, findings suggest that although some anti-sexist language elements have been adopted, their usage is erratic and the masculine generics are still used extensively. The results suggest that despite the challenges facing language reform at-tempts, the reinforcement of positive language policies is possible.
Veröffentlicht
2011-03-22
Zitationsvorschlag
Lomotey, B. A. (2011). On Sexism in Language and Language Change – The Case of Peninsular Spanish. Linguistik Online, 70(1). https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.70.1748
Rubrik
Artikel/Articles