This article investigates lexical gender in specialized communication. The key method of analysis is that of forms of address, professional titles, and 'generic man' in a one million word corpus of business le...This article investigates lexical gender in specialized communication. The key method of analysis is that of forms of address, professional titles, and 'generic man' in a one million word corpus of business letters. This paper found a mixed results:on the one hand, the 'male-as-norm' principle contributes to reinforcing typical gender stereotypes:for example, for each woman referred to in the corpus, there are more than 3 occurrences for man. On the other hand, advocates of non-sexist English have also influenced written Business English:for example, Ms is more frequent than Mrs. or Miss, which sustains the claim that equates Ms with professional settings. This article ends by discussing the ways in which the research findings of this study could positively impact upon the teaching of Business English.展开更多
文摘This article investigates lexical gender in specialized communication. The key method of analysis is that of forms of address, professional titles, and 'generic man' in a one million word corpus of business letters. This paper found a mixed results:on the one hand, the 'male-as-norm' principle contributes to reinforcing typical gender stereotypes:for example, for each woman referred to in the corpus, there are more than 3 occurrences for man. On the other hand, advocates of non-sexist English have also influenced written Business English:for example, Ms is more frequent than Mrs. or Miss, which sustains the claim that equates Ms with professional settings. This article ends by discussing the ways in which the research findings of this study could positively impact upon the teaching of Business English.
