Gender, Grammar and Discourse: the Case of German

In this article, we try to show how the discourse about grammatical and natural gender has changed over time starting with grammars from the 16th and 17th century, where we find a neutral and symmetric presentation of the genders, through the 18th and 19th centuries, when this discourse radically changes, up to the end of the 20th century, where we again reach a neutral presentation which is less symmetrical, though.

Gender and gender linguistics at the border of the millennium

The issue deals with the transformations taking place at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries in the understanding of gender and gender studies; the presence of two trends is established – the globalist trend towards rejection of the binary model of gender and gender correlation, as well as the fundamentalist patriarchal model of gender and their interaction in our country. The history of development and the main features, results and problems of gender linguistics in Russia are also characterized.

Dynamics of gender representation in online communication in Chinese

The article describes changes in the vision of gender of the Chinese that are currently taking place due to globalization and the increased role of the feminist movement in the world. The article aims to describe words and phrases that reflect the contemporary gender vision of native Chinese speakers as well as to analyze the influence of global agenda on the formation of ideas about femininity and masculinity. The paper reviews the theoretical studies of Chinese scientists in the field of gender linguistics, determines the areas where the influence of Western theories is the most significant. The article describes the social status of men and women in three main periods: pre-imperial and imperial China, communist China in the 20th century, modern China in the 21st century. However, the main focus of the article is on the modern Chinese language, as there is a lack of studies in this field. Gender representations reflected in the Xinhua Internet Dictionary （新华 网络 语言 词 典） and the online dictionary 小鸡 词典 were selected as the research material. We selected words and set phrases containing such characters as 女 “woman” and 男 “man”, studied their description provided by vocabulary entries, reviewed gender representation in media.

Features of the concept “Individualism” in the consciousness of the Chinese and Russians (based on the corpus of the Chinese and Russian languages)

The article presents the results of statistical processing of collocations for the word “individualism” obtained from the corpora of the Chinese and Russian languages. The software sorts the collocations of the selected word by frequency and classifies and compares high-frequency words by parts of speech. The concept of individualism is one of the cultural dimensions of the expression of values used in the socio-psychological and pedagogical fields. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author analyzes the content of “individualism”, its features which are translated into the mass consciousness of the Chinese and Russians with the help of language. National culture influences the value orientations and linguistic consciousness of a particular nation. The current study of lexical units and their content in the minds of speakers of different languages is of great importance for cross- cultural communication. Comparing features of the content of the concept “individualism”, national and cultural specifics are also found with the Chinese and Russians. The examples demonstrate that the content of a specific concept in the minds of members of different cultures becomes more obvious as a result of the comparative study.

Emotional-expressive means of language in the written speech of teens: psychological-pedagogical aspect (Based on the material of Russian as a native language)

The article analyzes the conditions and factors of pupils’ use of emotional- expressive means of language in written speech in grades V, VII, VIII. Using empirical evidence, the types and amount of these means in the compositions of pupils on a given topic are registered. We have identified the learning conditions and psychological factors that influence the age and individual differences in this aspect of stylistic design of the essays by teenage students. It has been established that they use a wide range of expressive means of the text, but the differences in their choice and quantity in the texts of written works depend on three factors: organizational conditions of school education, stage of adolescence and gender of the subjects. It has been revealed that the most influential factor among the conditions of the teaching process is the mixed sex/separate education of boys and girls. The effect of this factor is clearest at the age of 13 – 14 (8th grade). Prior to this period, the trend of gender differences in the emotionality of the written speech of adolescents is not detected. There has been revealed a statistical relationship between the development of imagination in adolescents and the emotional coloring of their texts in their essays. It was detected via the analysis of how some personal and cognitive characteristics of schoolchildren influence their use of the above means in the written speech. Emotionality as a personal and/or characteristic quality does not actually determine the use of emotionally expressive means of language.

Gender Representation in the Russian Recruitment Discourse (In Job Advertisements and Cvs)

The article describes gender representation peculiarities in the Russian discourse of employment, revealing the role of gender stereotypes in responding to a job advertisement and the ways employers inform candidates about the gender of the employee desired. We used the methods of content analysis and semantic interpretation, as well as ethnographic and quantitative methods. The corpus for analysis includes job advertisements and resumes that reflect the peculiarities of the interaction of languages and cultures in the context of globalization. The subject of the current research is gender representation ways in job advertisements and resumes in the Russian employment discourse. The results show that masculine gender predominance in the position names in job advertisements does not influence female candidates’ desire to apply for a job. Moreover, the research suggests that female candidates tend to apply for the professional spheres that were conventionally regarded as those of males, i.e., IT or telecom. At the same time, the resistance of Russian employment discourse to the global feminist one was reviled, as no so-called feminitives have been found in its corpus. The study demonstrates the growing influence of English-based patterns on Russian employment discourse conventions, expressed by informal, personalized, and individual-focused interaction with a candidate in job advertisements. The findings also indicate that professional skills and gender specificity of a professional sphere influence the desire of a candidate to apply for a job rather than a masculine gender in the vacancy name. Moreover, to implicit the gender of a candidate, employers can use either visual or text opportunities of a job advertisement. Besides, some cases of gender specificity blurring have been detected in the professional spheres that were conventionally considered as the ones for females (domestic staff or beauty sphere) where male candidates now tend to be of demand.

Gender aspects of naming in dance subculture

The article addresses the issue of gender representation in the names of teams in modern dance competitions. The research material consists of 1260 names of teams that participated in the Project 818 dance championship held in Moscow in the period 2017–2019. The applied methods include semantic interpretation, observation, and ethnography of speech (interviews, surveys). The results of the study have shown that gender-neutral meanings prevail in the names of the teams as well as among the gender-labeled names, with the share of “female” names being higher than that of the “male” ones. It has also been revealed that there is no connection between the gender marking of the name and the actual composition of teams: men can member the teams with pronounced “female” names, and vice versa. At the same time, gender is not a determining parameter when choosing a team name: preference, as a rule, is given to the originality and sonority of the name rather than the inherent gender meanings.

New trends in the linguistic study of gender, its conceptualization and representation in modern English

The article examines recent shifts in the English-based research on language and gender. It addresses the denial of gender binary structure, recognition of gender identity fluidity, which may transcend the established ideas about masculinity and femininity or constitute a complete rejection of gender. In the discursive practices of everyday life, these tendencies manifest themselves in the creation of new words and affixes, a change in the reference and combinability of the words that make up the core of the gender concept, as well as the emergence of new communicative norms and practices that legitimize individuals’ right to gender self-identification, non-heteronormative language and degenderization of communication. Research sample includes 250 text fragments from the English-language media, academic and specialized portals, lexicographic online resources, and everyday communication.

Post-Event Internet Discourse and Its Peculiarities in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

The article is devoted to post-event discourse which plays a major part in comprehending experience and forming the image of reality in one’s mind. The aim of the research is to define the peculiarities of post-event internet discourse in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, that has affected all the aspects of human and social activity in an unprecedented way. The approach applied was approbated earlier and comprises the description of the main referential objects of discourse and their qualitative changes in the process of discussion, as well as the characteristic of intentional content and discourse structure.Diversity of message sources and internet platforms has determined the variability of intentional characteristics of post-event discourse during the pandemic. In translating opinion and seeking support of the audience, prime significance is attached to dialogical intentions, e.g., asking for information, clarifying, finding out an opinion. Negative intentions, linked with the expression of emotional states and criticism of the discussed objects, are also relevant. At the same time, positive directionality of communicants is revealed, with the focus on the intention to support the interlocutor and express gratitude to those who distinguished themselves throughout the pandemic. Considerable modification of referential objects in the course of the discussion, their generalization and replacement and increase in number as compared to the initial message have also been uncovered.

Reproduction of Semantic Content of Subjects, Predicates, and Objects and Its Dependence on the Use Of Attributes and Adverbial Modifiers in Sentence Composition

In the article describes the influence of syntactic organization of speech utterances on peculiarities of actualization and reproduction of their subject-semantic content (meanings). There has been tested the hypotheses that the semantic content of subjects, predicates, and objects is reproduced more efficiently: 1) when attributes are used in the composition of statements with nouns (subjects and objects), and with verbs (predicates) – adverbial modifiers; 2) when there is a deliberate focus on highlighting the semantic content of nouns or verbs in the composition of statements. The methods of varying lexical and syntactic means in the text composition presented to respondents were used as independent variables. The language means respondents used to manifest fragments of semantic content were analyzed as dependent variables. The study involved 90 respondents (72 men, 18 women) aged 25-40. While the first hypothesis has been confirmed, the second still requires additional research. The results obtained indicate that in updating and reproducing the subject-semantic content of speech utterances it is the attribution of signs and properties to objects and processes that is of great importance.The experimental organization scheme used in the study reveals a wide range of patterns that can serve to confirm / refute various hypotheses and theoretical models in psycholinguistics.