An Actor is a Person, an Actress is a Woman: A Qualitative Dictionary Study of Sexism and Female Gender Stereotypes in Male-Female Word-Pairs
Rinne, Riikka (2024)
Rinne, Riikka
2024
Kielten maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Languages
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-04-15
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202403223049
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202403223049
Tiivistelmä
This master’s thesis investigates sexism and gender stereotypes in word-pairs consisting of ‘male’ and ‘female’ counterparts in the context of dictionaries. A set of word-pairs is investigated in different dictionaries and the entries are looked into for signs of sexist or stereotypical views and attitudes about women. The focus is on the definitions, examples, and labels and usage notes offered for the entries of these words. Under scrutiny are the genus terms and referents used in the definitions and examples, the overall inclusion of examples for the counterparts of the word-pairs, the general descriptions of men and women in these entries, as well as the contents of relevant labels and usage notes.
The data for this thesis consists of entries of six word-pairs from the current available versions of six monolingual English dictionaries, of which five are online and one is a paperback. With six word-pairs in six dictionaries, the final number of entries analysed amount to a total of seventy-two. The data was collected by conducting searches of each word in the dictionaries and central parts of the entries were copied onto a document. Relevance was used as the criterion for selecting which definitions, examples, and labels and usage notes to include. The data was then qualitatively analysed by looking into the aforementioned features more closely and focusing on signs of sexism or stereotypical views of women in these.
The study concluded that the definitions and examples of the ‘male’ and ‘female’ words are different from each other, and the biggest differences occur between counterparts of the same word pair. The ‘male’ words are generally treated more neutrally than the ‘female’ ones in their genus terms and referents, content of definitions and examples, and favoured over their ‘female’ equivalents in terms of the number of examples provided. The ‘male’ words are more likely to be defined and exemplified in neutral terms, while most of the ‘female’ words are explicitly marked as ‘female’ by the suffixes -ess and -ette or by referring to them as women and girls or with feminine pronouns.
The study also found that all of the selected dictionaries utilize labels and usage notes in some of their entries and, thus, provide additional information about the possibly sexist or otherwise problematic nature of these words. Without the labels and usage notes the dictionaries and their entries seem more old-fashioned and ignorant of the issues of sexism and gender. By including labels and usage notes the dictionaries show that they are aware of such issues. When dealing with words such as the ones investigated in this study, additional information in the form of labels and usage notes is crucial, as the type of words may carry negative connotations and it is good to be mindful of these when using such words.
Including ‘neutral’ referents mostly for ‘male’ words, while ‘female’ words are explicitly marked as ‘female’ could be taken as indicating that female is not the norm, but a deviation from it. This keeps the two gendered words separated and even though the ‘male’ word could or should be used when referring to any persons, it might still be that the ‘male’ or ‘neutral’ word is used to refer to men since the other word is explicitly ‘female’.
The data for this thesis consists of entries of six word-pairs from the current available versions of six monolingual English dictionaries, of which five are online and one is a paperback. With six word-pairs in six dictionaries, the final number of entries analysed amount to a total of seventy-two. The data was collected by conducting searches of each word in the dictionaries and central parts of the entries were copied onto a document. Relevance was used as the criterion for selecting which definitions, examples, and labels and usage notes to include. The data was then qualitatively analysed by looking into the aforementioned features more closely and focusing on signs of sexism or stereotypical views of women in these.
The study concluded that the definitions and examples of the ‘male’ and ‘female’ words are different from each other, and the biggest differences occur between counterparts of the same word pair. The ‘male’ words are generally treated more neutrally than the ‘female’ ones in their genus terms and referents, content of definitions and examples, and favoured over their ‘female’ equivalents in terms of the number of examples provided. The ‘male’ words are more likely to be defined and exemplified in neutral terms, while most of the ‘female’ words are explicitly marked as ‘female’ by the suffixes -ess and -ette or by referring to them as women and girls or with feminine pronouns.
The study also found that all of the selected dictionaries utilize labels and usage notes in some of their entries and, thus, provide additional information about the possibly sexist or otherwise problematic nature of these words. Without the labels and usage notes the dictionaries and their entries seem more old-fashioned and ignorant of the issues of sexism and gender. By including labels and usage notes the dictionaries show that they are aware of such issues. When dealing with words such as the ones investigated in this study, additional information in the form of labels and usage notes is crucial, as the type of words may carry negative connotations and it is good to be mindful of these when using such words.
Including ‘neutral’ referents mostly for ‘male’ words, while ‘female’ words are explicitly marked as ‘female’ could be taken as indicating that female is not the norm, but a deviation from it. This keeps the two gendered words separated and even though the ‘male’ word could or should be used when referring to any persons, it might still be that the ‘male’ or ‘neutral’ word is used to refer to men since the other word is explicitly ‘female’.