Sprachliche Gleichbehandlung von Frau und Mann: Eine korpusgestützte Untersuchung über den Sprachwandel in der Schweiz

The use of designations used for men and women has been discussed in German (as well as in other languages) very controversally since the seventies. Language use has been challenged by feminist linguists and some propositions have been supported by various regulatory interventions. In German, the most critical issue – the avoidance of generically used masculine forms – has been documented quite thoroughly as regards the individual phenomena (creation and use of personal nouns, alternative pronouns, strategies to avoid generically used masculine forms, etc.), but the actual extent of language use is still unknown so far and has given rise to very diverse appreciations: Whereas some experts reckon that alternative uses are achieving acceptance, others believe that there is stagnation or even a decrease of "nonsexist language". In this paper we will discuss an explorative study, in which we have looked for evidence for a series of more or less conventional feminine personal nouns in two language corpora: on the one hand the new Schweizer Textkorpus and on the other the public collections that can be queried via COSMAS II. The analysis of the results show specific advantages and disadvantages of each corpus and poses some questions about future explorations in the field of linguistic equal treatment of women and men

Du dictionnaire de fréquence au lexique pour les apprenant·e·s de FLE : l’exemple des adjectifs / noms communs de personnes

In French morphology, there is a certain proximity of categories and inflectional models between adjectives and nouns (e. g. responsable (adj.) – le/la responsable (noun)). This is hardly reflected in FLE textbooks (French as a foreign language), which tend to present the grammatical categories and inflectional paradigms separately. The topic of transcategorisation is investigated using a large electronic corpus (Corpus français Leipzig), which will be briefly described, as well as the frequency dictionary created on the basis of the same data. The empirical approach is exemplified by several words that are subject to a certain categorical variation; this addresses the question theoretically and suggests further didactical considerations

Les genres récrits n° 5

Les noms, notamment les prénoms, constituent un élément central d’une identité — mais ils sont en général choisis par d’autres personnes que celles qui les portent. Que se passe-t-il si quelqu’un souhaite changer de prénom (et parfois : aussi de pronom) ? Si ce choix est possible dans certains contextes (p. ex. à l’Université du Québec à Montréal), il reste souvent un acte certes symboliquement important, mais sans conséquences légales fortes. Pourquoi le choix du prénom/pronom ne serait-il pas laissé au choix de toute personne, pour que ces marques d’identification soient en accord avec son identité ?Names, notably first names, are a central part of an identity – yet they are usually chosen by people other than those who bear them. What happens if someone wants to change their first name (and sometimes also their pronoun)? While this choice is possible in some contexts (e.g., at the Université du Québec à Montréal), it often remains a symbolically important act, but without strong legal consequences. Why should the choice of first name/pronoun not be left to the choice of any person, so that these identification marks are in harmony with their identity

Equal status, but unequal perceptions: language conflict in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne

The city of Biel/Bienne is often cited as a model of a non-conflicting cohabitation between two language groups with a similar status: German (i.e. in a diglossic situation: Standard German and Swiss German dialects) and French both benefit from explicit political promotion and legal protection. In a qualitative study conducted in the city of Biel/Bienne, most of the 40 interviewees talking about their lives in this bilingual city confirm this consensual view of linguistic cohabitation. However, the apparent balance between both communities is challenged on different levels, including the relationship between language communities according to their respective minority and majority status, the status and the visibility of both languages in the public sphere, the conflicting loyalties of bilingual citizens, the use or avoidance of a language in certain contexts or the choice of a common language in (potentially) bilingual interactions. The results of the analysis reveal divergent - and potentially conflicting - perceptions regarding urban bilingualism: although most of the interviewees appreciate the linguistic cohabitation in Biel/Bienne, many of them refer to various zones of language conflict which they suffer from or which they allot to the other speech community

Les genres récrits : chronique n° 7

Aujourd’hui, le féminin dit (à valeur) générique, c’est-à-dire l’utilisation de formes grammaticalement féminines pour référer à des femmes et des hommes (voire à des personnes non binaires) s’utilise parfois comme stratégie d’écriture inclusive. Son fonctionnement est analogue au masculin (à valeur) générique. Tandis que le « masculin générique » est toujours omniprésent, le « féminin générique » se rencontre dans divers contextes, par exemple dans des règlements ou dans des textes où on ne veut pas recourir à d’autres stratégies (comme les doubles formes féminine et masculine). Cependant cette utilisation « à valeur générique » n’est pas le seul type de généricité qui existe, en français : du point de vue de la référence, on peut aussi distinguer entre une référence individualisante et une référence généralisante, qu’on peut également nommer « générique ».Today, so-called generically used feminine forms, i.e. the use of grammatically feminine forms to refer to women and men (or non-binary people) are sometimes used as an inclusive writing strategy. It functions in a similar way to generically used masculine forms. While the “generic masculine” is still omnipresent, the “generic feminine” is found in various contexts, for example in regulations or texts where other strategies (such as the coordination of feminine and masculine forms) are not wanted. However, this “generic” use is not the only type of genericity that exists in French: from the point of view of reference, one can also distinguish between an individualising and a generalising, reference, which can also be called “generic”

Les genres récrits : chronique n° 6

Le terme genre s’utilise aujourd’hui sous différentes acceptions en linguistique, mais aussi plus généralement dans les sciences sociales et humaines. Il s’applique à des noms, à des êtres humains et à des « lunettes » à travers lesquelles les faits sociaux sont étudiés. Il n’est pas toujours évident de savoir à quoi correspond le « genre » dans des travaux portant sur le langage et son utilisation, et on peut aussi constater que son interprétation s’opère très diversement : est-elle inhérente aux faits observés, le résultat d’une autodétermination ou celui d’un décodage par autrui ? Si la polysémie n’est pas problématique en tant que telle, il faudrait veiller, à expliciter les processus d’interprétation sous-jacents.The term gender is used today with different meanings in linguistics, but also more generally in social and human sciences. It applies to nouns, human beings and “glasses” through which social facts are studied. It is not always clear what “gender" means in studies on language and its use, and we can also observe that its interpretation is made in very different ways: is it inherent to the facts observed, the result of self-determination or that of decoding by others? If polysemy is not problematic as such, care should be taken to clarify the underlying interpretative processes