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Identifier

000467060

Title

Το γενικευτικό γένος στα ελληνικά : δεδομένα από τα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης / Ειρήνη Χρυσοβαλάντη Γιαννικουρή.

Alternative Title

Generic gender in Greek : data from social media

Author

Γιαννικουρή, Ειρήνη Χρυσοβαλάντη

Thesis advisor

Χατζηκυριακίδης Στέργιος

Abstract

The present paper is divided into three parts, always examining the use of the generic gender in Greek during its use on the internet. The first part examines the terminologies surrounding the issue. "Gender" and "sex" are two terms, which are related, but not identical. The first is a grammatical category, which plays an important role in the international linguistic literature, while at the same time it can refer to the second, gender. The generic gender, the gender which is used to refer to an indefinite person or to a person of unknown gender and identity does not require the knowledge/information of the gender. This paper focuses on the interpretation of gender, and specifically the generic one. It shows how it is expressed in various languages, which either have gender in their grammar or not (Swedish, English, French, German, Turkish, Hebrew). In the context of its' description, the criticism that the exclusive use of the masculine gender has received from the point of view of feminist linguistics is presented. The objectives of the field are presented and how more neutral referring practices are proposed, as well as the need to highlight them. In the third part of the paper, the case of Greek is taken into account, where the masculine generic gender predominates. On the occasion of the alternative forms of inclusion in the language, e.g. the use of gender neutral and the @ symbol, which appear in social media, a bipartite survey is conducted. In it, it was examined whether the linguistic change of generic gender depends on a) age and b) gender. The survey involved 45 participants, who judged the grammaticality of sentences and answered whether they would use them. From the results of the questionnaires, it appeared that younger women use neologisms and language neutralization practices more than men or other generations. In terms of grammatical judgment, women are more likely to accept the parallel use of masculine and feminine genitive forms than some other neutralization practice.

Language

Greek

Subject

Generic gender

Masculine generics

Neologisms

Social media

Αρσενικά γενικευτικά

Γενικευτικό γένος

Μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης

Νεολογισμοί

Issue date