Sexism and Attitudes Toward Gender-Neutral Language

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriane Sarrasin ◽  
Ute Gabriel ◽  
Pascal Gygax
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Sexist Language ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sexist Beliefs ◽  
Neutral Language

We examined the relationships between three forms of sexism (modern, benevolent, and hostile) and two components of attitudes toward gender-neutral language (attitudes toward gender-related language reforms and recognition of sexist language) across different contexts. A questionnaire study (N = 446) was conducted among students in the United Kingdom and in two (French- and German-speaking) regions of Switzerland. While we expected to find that all forms of sexism are generally related to negative attitudes toward gender-neutral language, we expected attitudes to be more positive and less related to sexist beliefs in a context in which gender-neutral language is firmly established (the UK) compared to contexts in which the use of gender-neutral language was introduced only recently (the German-speaking part of Switzerland) or is still seldom (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). We found that, across all contexts, modern and hostile sexist beliefs were indeed related to negative attitudes toward gender-related language reforms, while, intriguingly, benevolent sexist beliefs were related to positive attitudes in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Recognition of sexist language was significantly related to modern sexism only. Finally, British students were found to express more positive attitudes toward gender-neutral language (both components) than Swiss students.

scholarly journals Sikap Bahasa Penutur Shimakutuba Dialek Uchinaguchi Di Prefektur Okinawa

KIRYOKU ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Reny Wiyatasari
Keyword(s):  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Population ◽  
Language Attitude ◽  
Questionnaire Method

(Title: Language Attitudes Of The Speakers Of Uchinaguchi Dialect,  Shimakutuba Language In Okinawa Prefekture) This study aims to determine the language attitude of the speakers of the Uchinaguchi dialect, one of the dialects in Shimakutuba which is the language used in the Okinawa islands. Shimakutuba is one of the languages in the world set by UNESCO as an endangered language. Because the theme of this research is focused on language attitudes which is one of the topics in sociolinguistic studies, the data are collected using the questionnaire method through distributing questionnaires to respondents who are considered representative representing the research population and also using literature study methods. Then the data were analyzed using descriptive methods. Based on the results of the questionnaire, it was found that the language attitude shown by speakers of Shimakutuba was divided into two, namely positive attitudes and negative attitudes. A positive attitude consists of positive active and positive passivity.

The influence of socio-economic status, age, gender, and level of literacy on language attitudes

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-263
Author(s):  
Gerdine M. Ulysse ◽  
Khaled Al Masaeed
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Haitian Creole ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Literacy Level ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between socio-economic status, age, gender, and literacy level and Haitian Gonâviens‘ attitudes towards Haitian Creole or Kreyòl and French. Most studies that investigated language attitudes of Creolophones have found that they have negative attitudes towards Kreyòl. Nevertheless, previous studies often included participants who are affiliated with education such as students, teachers, and language policy makers, or those from higher social classes. The current study, however, utilized a language attitudes questionnaire to collect data from 78 adult informants from diverse backgrounds. These participants included 21 highly literate, 51 partially literate and 6 illiterate Haitians. Findings revealed that participants of higher socio-economic status have more positive attitudes towards French than those from lower socio-economic status. Results also showed that there is a tendency for age, gender, and literacy level to affect language attitudes. For instance, positive attitudes towards Kreyòl were found to be more prevalent among older participants than younger respondents. Similarly, male participants had more negative attitudes towards French than female informants. Moreover, respondents of lower literacy levels had more negative attitudes towards French than those who were highly literate.

We’ve Come a Long Way, Guys! Rhetorics of Resistance to the Feminist Critique of Sexist Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
Sherryl Kleinman ◽  
Martha Copp ◽  
Kalah B. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Sexist Language ◽  
Gender Neutral ◽  
The Status ◽  
Neutral Language

We provide a qualitative analysis of resistance to calls for gender-neutral language. We analyzed more than 900 comments responding to two essays—one on AlterNet and another on Vox posted to the Vox editor’s Facebook page—that critiqued a pervasive male-based generic, “you guys.” Five rhetorics of resistance are discussed: appeals to origins, appeals to linguistic authority, appeals to aesthetics, appeals to intentionality and inclusivity, and appeals to women and feminist authorities. These rhetorics justified “you guys” as a nonsexist term, thereby allowing commenters to continue using it without compromising their moral identities as liberals or feminists. In addition to resisting an analysis that linked their use of “you guys” to social harms, commenters positioned the authors who called for true generics as unreasonable, divisive, and authoritarian. We conclude with suggestions for how feminists can challenge the status quo and promote social change.

scholarly journals The students' language attitudes towards lecturers' code mixing: A SFL study

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marsandi Manar ◽  
Prapti Wigati Purwaningrum
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Millennial Students ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Insight Into

As the effort to have the insight into the existing status of a local language in Indonesia especially in the academic setting viewed as the respected discourse, this current study aims to delineate the attitudes of millennial students towards lecturer’s code mixing to Sundanese during courses. 42 responses reflecting respondents’ perspectives towards the issue were collected via qualitative questionnaire. To reveal the view of participants on the issue under the context of higher education, responses in the forms of 62 clauses were analysed by the transitivity framework of Halliday and Matthiessen. The findings of this SFL study shows that lecturer’s code mixing to Sundanese during courses were viewed by 74% of Sundanese and non-Sundanese participants in positive ways while the rest addressed it with negative attitude. The positive attitudes were respectively represented in material, mental, relational, and existential processes while the negative attitudes were constructed sequentially in relational, material and mental, verbal, and existential clauses. The main reasons in the positive attitudes as revealed by the transitivity analysis are associated with the needs to maintain and preserve local language especially Sundanese via the academic channel. HIGHLIGHTS: The processes of meaning making in positive-attitude responses are realized especially in material clauses to establish the importance of preserving local languages especially Sundanese through the academic channel. The processes of meaning making in negative-attitude responses are realized especially in relational clauses to give priority to the negative impact of using Sundanese on the academic aspect especially for non-Sundanese students.

scholarly journals Asymmetrische Plurizentrizität und Sprachbewusstsein / Asymmetric Pluricentricity and Language Awareness: The Swiss Germans' Attitudes towards Standard German

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Scharloth
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Community Influences ◽  
Evaluation Test ◽  
German Speaking

AbstractThe paper examines the language attitudes in non-dominating language communities of pluricentric languages. It asks in what way the fact of being a speaker of a non-dominating language community influences the perception of the own competence and of the evaluation of the different standard varieties of the pluricentric language. By examining the attitudes towards Swiss Standard German in German-speaking Switzerland it argues that speakers of non-dominating language communities often have the notion that their own standard variety being deficient combined with a feeling of lingual inferiority towards the speakers of the dominating community. Thus, the standard variety of the dominating community serves as a prestigious variety. In Switzerland these attitudes strongly correlate with the age of the acquisition of Standard German and the negative attitudes towards Germans. Finally the paper raises the question whether the concept of pluricentricity can adequately be used when there ist no awareness of pluricentricity among the speakers. The data presented derives from two empirical studies conducted in Switzerland in the summer of 2003: a survey on language attitudes and a subjective evaluation test.

Linguistic attitudes toward Shipibo in Cantagallo: Reshaping indigenous language and identity in an urban setting

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-487
Author(s):  
Liliana Sánchez ◽  
Elisabeth Mayer ◽  
José Camacho ◽  
Carolina Rodriguez Alzza
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Partial View ◽  
The City

Aims and objectives: This study aims to explore language attitudes among speakers of Shipibo, an Amazonian indigenous language from the Panoan family, in the community of Cantagallo in the city of Lima, an urban, Spanish-dominant environment. The study is motivated by the paucity of studies on language attitudes in urban indigenous communities. The Cantagallo Shipibo community was settled in the early 2000s and temporarily relocated in 2017. Methodology: Interviews were conducted based on questionnaires with two groups of participants in 2002 and 2017, 60 in total, focusing on their attitudes toward Shipibo and Spanish. Some of the participants answered the questionnaires both times, others answered only once. Responses were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Open-ended responses were classified into similar categories and tallied. Findings: Participants showed positive attitudes toward Shipibo-Konibo in 2002 and 2017, and strong identification with it, but language shift toward Spanish is now taking place, especially among the second generation. This development has triggered perceived changes in the performance aspects of linguistic identity. Furthermore, while in 2002 attitudes toward Spanish were mostly positive, in 2017 some negative attitudes toward the majority language emerged along with the perception of discrimination against the Shipibo-Konibo. Originality: The study’s originality rests on tracing the evolution of this community’s perspectives on language use from shortly after its arrival in Cantagallo, Lima, to its final relocation. Furthermore, few other studies have engaged this Shipibo community in Lima regarding language attitudes. Significance: The project highlights the importance of different factors in the successful language maintenance in this context. Specifically, although speakers still have positive attitudes toward Shipibo, they also see increasing advantages to speaking Spanish, a clear case of utility-maximization. Limitations: Although the study provides important insights, its methodology (a questionnaire/interview) gives a partial view of the language attitudes and maintenance in this community.

Linguistic Diversity in Appalachia

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-320
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Paul E. Reed ◽  
Erin Flannery ◽  
Carrie N. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
American English ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Appalachian Region ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
American English Speakers

This study investigates how American English speakers from within and outside the Appalachian region interpret negative auxiliary inversion (NAI). Previously observed in Appalachian and other English varieties, NAI has surface syntax similar to yes-no questions but receives a declarative interpretation (e.g., Didn’t everybody watch Superbowl 53, meaning ‘not everybody watched’). Previous work shows that NAI is associated with a reading in which some but not all people participated in an event, as opposed to one in which no one participated. Results from an interpretation task revealed that Appalachian participants tended to obtain the ‘not all’ and not the ‘no one’ reading for NAI. In contrast, non-Appalachian participants’ interpretations exhibited greater inter- and intraspeaker variability. Appalachian participants with more ‘not all’ interpretations reported positive attitudes toward NAI use, and they also distinguished between attested and unattested syntactic subject types (e.g., everybody, many people, *few people) in a naturalness rating task. Appalachian participants with more ‘no one’ interpretations had more negative attitudes toward NAI use and made no distinction between subject types. These results highlight how individuals from Appalachia interpret NAI differently than individuals from outside the region and suggest that language attitudes may impact semantic interpretation within a nonmainstream speaker group.

Psychometrical Properties of a French Version of the General Self-Efficacy Short Scale (ASKU)

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Jean Philippe Décieux ◽  
Philipp Emanuel Sischka ◽  
Anette Schumacher ◽  
Helmut Willems
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
German Version ◽  
French Version ◽  
Context Variable ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Valid Instrument ◽  
General Self Efficacy

Abstract. General self-efficacy is a central personality trait often evaluated in surveys as context variable. It can be interpreted as a personal coping resource reflecting individual belief in one’s overall competence to perform across a variety of situations. The German-language Allgemeine-Selbstwirksamkeit-Kurzskala (ASKU) is a reliable and valid instrument to assess this disposition in the German-speaking countries based on a three-item equation. This study develops a French version of the ASKU and tests this French version for measurement invariance compared to the original ASKU. A reliable and valid French instrument would make it easy to collect data in the French-speaking countries and allow comparisons between the French and German results. Data were collected on a sample of 1,716 adolescents. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a good fit for a single-factor model of the data (in total, French, and German version). Additionally, construct validity was assessed by elucidating intercorrelations between the ASKU and different factors that should theoretically be related to ASKU. Furthermore, we confirmed configural and metric as well as scalar invariance between the different language versions, meaning that all forms of statistical comparison between the developed French version and the original German version are allowed.

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Sexist Beliefs are Associated with Negative Attitudes Towards Condoms

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Snipes ◽  
Morgan L. Maxwell ◽  
Jasmine A. Abrams ◽  
Eric G. Benotsch ◽  
Sarah Javier
Keyword(s):  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Sexist Beliefs
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