genderlect

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

gender +‎ -lect. Coined by American linguist Wayne Dickerson in 1974.[1]

Noun[edit]

genderlect (plural genderlects)

  1. A dialect associated with a particular gender.
    • 2001, Laura B. Comoletti, Michael D. C. Drout, “How They Do Things with Words: Language, Power, Gender, and the Priestly Wizards of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Books”, in Children's Literature, volume 29, →DOI, page 125:
      The men who interact with Tenar, including men who speak in the Old Speech, use a genderlect that shows their dominance and superiority.
    • 2002, Harold Love, “Gender and authorship”, in Attributing Authorship: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 119:
      Hiatt has no doubt about the existence of a distinct 'feminine style' or genderlect and even offers a theory of how it arose, which is that the male world of action 'emphasizes events and decisions rather than perceptive observations of people'.
    • 2017 September, Tatik Irawati, “Analysis of Genderlect Style in Pygmalion”, in Journal of English Education, Lingusitics, and Literature, volume 4, number 1, page 19:
      The purpose of genderlect theory is to understand the language used by men and women. The first study in genderlect theory is exploring how gender-language patterns are always limiting between women and men. Further research begins with a focus on how different gender language patterns are used by women and men in both written and spoken results.

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References[edit]

  1. ^ Kramer, Cheris (1974) “Women’s speech: Separate but unequal?”, in Quarterly Journal of Speech, volume 60, number 1, →DOI, page 14:This paper will consider the evidence for there being systems of co-occurring, sex-linked, linguistic signals in the United States. [...] Wayne Dickerson has suggested that the term "genderlects" be used to describe such systems.