Sex and Gender in Natural Language

Authors

  • W. Keith Percival

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17161/KWPL.1808.551

Keywords:

Grammar, Comparative and general-- Gender

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the relation between a real-world category (sex) and a linguistic category (gender). In the first part, the gender system of Indo-European languages is discussed. Then the gender-system in a language without grammatical gender is described. Finally, a few general comments are hazarded on the difficult question of the relation between sex and gender. The paper closes with a discussion of recent puristic efforts by the feminist movement in the U.S. to rid English of what are termed sexist words.

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How to Cite

Percival, . W. K. (1981). Sex and Gender in Natural Language. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 6, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.17161/KWPL.1808.551