Previous research has shown a difference on the athletes’ portrayal based on gendered language use on television broadcasting of sporting events. A content analysis on the 2018 Tennis US Open Championship Weekend for both men’s and women’s tennis matches explains the structure of the broadcasting commentating done by the network that has the rights to this tournament. The study looks at different categories of the content of the comments and the descriptors that are used to refer to both female and male athletes. Framing and priming theories were the theoretical frameworks for this study. Findings revealed no significant change was observed with athletic skill and strategy-based comments for either gender. The findings also showed that descriptors related to emotionality were more common in the commentary with women.

<p>This study addressed the use and perception of Japanese self-reference terms for Japanese native speakers and second language (L2) learners of Japanese. Participants completed a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and a Felicity Judgment Task (FJT) for quantitative analysis. Individual follow-up interviews were also conducted, which provided additional insight into native speakers’ and learners’ understandings of the uses of self-reference terms in Japanese. The results indicated that overall Japanese native speakers employed different self-reference terms depending on gender (of the speaker and listener), power differences, and situational formality. While some of the findings related to Japanese native speakers’ use and perception of self-reference terms align with previous studies, such as the use of the self-reference term <i>watashi</i> when speaking with higher power listeners (e.g., Ide, 1990b), there were new findings regarding the usage of other self-reference terms including <i>ore</i>, <i>jibun</i>, and <i>uchi</i>.</p><p> </p><p><br></p><p>This study also investigated the effect of a pedagogical intervention for L2 learners focused on Japanese self-reference terms. In addition to the DCT and FJT (as pre, post, and delayed post-test) and individual follow-up interviews, L2 learners also participated in a myriad of other classroom intervention activities within a learners-as-researchers framework (e.g., Tanaka, 1997; Ishihara, 2006) about Japanese self-reference terms (e.g., blog entries, interviews with Japanese native speakers). The L2 DCT and FJT results indicated that before the pedagogical intervention, L2 learners relied heavily on <i>watashi </i>while neglecting other self-reference options compared to Japanese native speakers. After the intervention, L2 learners were able to employ a broader range of self-reference terms (e.g., <i>ore</i>, <i>boku, atashi</i>). This indicates that the intervention helped facilitate L2 learners’ pragmatic competence with self-reference terms. The analysis of L2 usage of self-reference terms in blog entries and individual interviews with learners indicated that some learners employed different self-reference terms without resistance, while others displayed a stronger resistance to using new self-reference terms. Some learners overcame this resistance over the course of the semester, while others stayed with <i>watashi</i> until the end of the semester. Collectively, the results indicate development in pragmatic competence and also various developmental trajectories for different learners.</p><p><br></p>

The pursuit of the perfect language intrigued and obsessed the literary circle of the seventeenth century, as political turmoil and chaos initiated the desire for the stable even in the aspect of language. As the perfect language is self-explicative, it indicates a perfect correspondence between the signifier and the signified in order to guarantee the purity and singleness of the meanings to avoid confusion and ambiguity inevitably occurring, for instance, in postlapsarian language. The concept of the perfect language, nevertheless, finds evidence in Milton¡¦s prelapsarian world, where unfallen Adam is endowed with divine insights to discern the nature of the animals and translate his comprehension into perfect matching names. However, the presumption of the perfect language in the prelapsarian Eden is challenged by critics as the preconditioned absoluteness could not possibly exist for it would have preempted any possibilities of inferring, implying, and guessing from the context. In my thesis, I argue that languages marked by gender as masculine and feminine dominate in the characterization and narratives of Adam and Eve, for gender is the sole mark distinguishing the first couple along with their hierarchical roles as man and man¡¦s helper. I examine Eve¡¦s gendered discourse in particular as Eve as a lesser vessel turns out to be the main target of Satan¡¦s verbal temptations and sophistries. I analyze the traits of gendered discourses and discuss how they render Eve more vulnerable, disadvantaged, and disempowered in face of Satan¡¦s rhetoric and eloquence. Also scrutinized are the critics¡¦ viewpoints concerning Eve¡¦s gendered discourse, which significantly reveals certain ingrained biases attached to stereotypical expectations for women shown in the critics¡¦ word choices and arguments in regard of Eve.

abstract: Gendered language has been a topic of study for centuries. The most recent efforts to promote inclusive language have been championed by parents, teachers, and social reformers over the last thirty years. Replicating in part a research study that was done over thirty years ago, this study examines what effects have taken place in children's perceptions of male and female roles in regards to specific activities and occupations and how their perceptions compare to the current work force, what role children's literature has played in these changes, and what children's natural speech in describing personified animals can tell us about their subconscious gender labeling. The results were remarkable in two ways: native language evidently exudes little emphasis on pronoun choice, and children are more readily acceptable of gender equality than that portrayed in either Caldecott winning children's books or real life as seen through current labor statistics. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

This study examines the difference in perception of a character in a male and a female guise amongst university students in Seychelles, and elaborates on how such difference reflects gender hierarchies in general. The students were given a questionnaire consisting of five scenarios, in which two or more characters communicated, and then answered questions about their perception of the characters. The character’s gender mattered to how he/she was perceived for at least one of the characters in the dialogue, in four of the scenarios, and in one scenario there was no difference in perception of the male guise and the female guise. The biggest difference in perception of a male guise and female guise was in a scenario in which one character commented on his/her colleague’s appearance. The male guise was perceived more negatively both when commenting and when rejecting such comment. However, the space in which the interaction took place, and the relationship between the characters influenced how they were perceived. So, when a group of people commented on an unknown person’s appearance, on the beach, the respondents perceived both the male guise and the female guise of the character similarly both as commenters and as receivers of the comment.

The aim of this study is to examine Japanese gendered language use in online game streaming, and the differences in gendered language use between male and female streamers. The main aim of this thesis is to examine how, and to what extent, young Japanese adults use gendered language when broadcasting gaming streams online. I will examine how pronounced the differences in gendered language use are between male and female streamers, and see if the major theories about gendered language apply in the Japanese streaming community. To collect the data, I looked at 20 game streamers, with each stream lasting 15-30 minutes. I transcribed the streamers’ commentary, and examined the frequency of certain sentence ending particles, personal pronouns, and polite speech/word choice. The streamers were chosen with regards given to certain criteria to prevent skewed results, and to control the independent variables to a certain extent. For example, the streamers must be playing alone to ensure that the streamer is the only person speaking. I analyzed the results using a qualitative method, which indicated that the greater gender differences are found in the use of personal pronouns, but not as much in the use of sentence ending particles or politeness level.

This thesis studies Italian journalists' perceptions and experiences of the use of gendered language in the representation of women in the Italian press. Previous research has shown that Italian media misrepresent women by producing gender stereotypes. This is, to a certain extent, related to language: Italian is considered to be a gender language, meaning that every noun, pronoun and adjective have a gender. The research questions that guide this study are: what are the Italian journalists' perceptions and experiences of gender in the articles they write?  What is the place and role of language in the journalists' evaluation of gender equality in news? What are the reasons behind the journalists' use of language when they write a piece about a woman? Using an ethnographic approach, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed following the journalistic culture perspective proposed by Hanitzsch (2007). The results show that there are many different approaches to gender, from the one suggesting to neglect gender as a category at all in the news production, to the one that sees gender as a category that is newsworthy as such and a starting point for an article. Also the role of language is interpreted in very different ways. On one side there is the idea that, compared to the gender gap being a broader social problem, language is secondary; on the other, language is considered to be able to drive a change in the society. Finally, also the reasons behind the journalists' use of language are diverse: the ethical codes do not apply to all the journalists or reveal a lack of guidelines that oblige journalists to rely on their morality, gender sensitivity, or interest to the topic of gender equality; or on the newspaper's own guidelines. The readers' assumed expectations, as well as the kind of journalism (with its requests in terms of time and space) influence the use of language with regard to gender equality. The results show also that, beside some context-dependent elements, which make Italy a specific case, there are some universal considerations that can be made. In particular, basing on these universal elements, the addition of a linguistic dimension to journalistic cultures (Hanitzsch, 2007) is suggested. In this dimension, it will be proposed to include two levels: the influence of language on social reality and the influence of journalism on language.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage and frequencies of amplifiers in the English language and whether there are differences in usage, collocations and in gender. The material used is the Swedish-English Corpus (SWENC), a collection of Swedish native speaking journalists writing in English, and the Corpus of American Soaps (SOAP), a collection of American soap opera scripts. The size of the two corpora is quite different and therefore the number of tokens varies largely, but by using normalization, the frequencies have been compared. The results show differences in frequency and collocations between the different corpora and the conclusion drawn from this study is that there in fact are some amplifier differences when it comes to gender and collocations.   KEYWORDS: adverbs, amplifiers, collocations, corpus-studies, gendered language, linguistics, normalization

This essay examines YouTube comments to videos with male and female streaming players of the online game League of Legends. The research carries out a critical discourse analysis with the aim to find gender relevant language in order to analyze ideologies about gender stereotypes among viewers of streamers. The results showed that comments concerning players’ bodies and appearance were more common in comments on female than male players. There was also a higher expectation for female players to match sexual stereotypes close to the imagery of avatars than for male players to do so. Female players received more comments with sexual implications. Both male and female players received offers of sexual acts, but violent acts were only aimed against women. Written comments defending female players showed that there are ideological power struggles between viewers in this specific genre and that some viewers defend the female players’ place in the scene of streamed gaming. / Denna studie undersöker kommentarer på YouTube-videos med spelare av ett online-spel vid namn League of Legends. Undersökningen för en kritisk diskursanalys med syfte att hitta diskurs relevant för kön för att utreda vilka ideologier om kön och sexuella stereotyper som återfinns bland konsumenter av sådana videos. Resultatet visar att kommentarer som nämner spelarens kropp och utseende är betydligt vanligare för kvinnliga än manliga spelare. Resultatet visade också att det fanns en högre förväntan att kvinnliga spelare skulle matcha sexuella stereotyper som liknar bilden av kvinnliga avatarer än att manliga spelare skulle göra det. Kvinnliga spelare fick fler kommentarer av sexuell karaktär. Både manliga och kvinnliga spelare fick erbjudanden om sexuella handlingar, men våldsamma sexuella handlingar var bara riktade mot kvinnor. Svar på kommentarer som försvarar kvinnliga spelare visar på en kraftmätning mellan de som tittar på manliga och kvinnliga spelare inom denna specifika genre och att kvinnliga spelares plats inom denna sfär försvaras av vissa tittare.

The distinguishing traits of characters in novels may appear to change in translation. One of the main means of conveying the individualities, personalities and moral qualities of characters is through dialogue, using the possibilities opened by, for example, the selection of register and use of gendered language. In order to gain insight on how apparent changes to characteristics can arise, this case study investigates whether, why and how the character Midori in Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood appears to change in translation, based on her dialogue. The study demonstrates how linguistic differences between the source and target languages and the adoption of an overall approach to translation, such as a foreignising or domesticating strategy, are major factors in determining the nature and magnitude of any observed change. Two of the most influential speech elements identified and studied are gendered language and casual language. Both terms represent similar but not identical concepts in the source and target languages and are manifested differently in the two languages, giving rise to wide-ranging translation problems. The study further suggests that a domestication approach, as well as modifying the fluency and cultural flavour of the text in general, can affect the characterisation of novels both indirectly and directly. The influence of a domesticating approach to translation focusing on its application specifically to dialogue or influence on characterisation may be a fruitful area for further research.