Photo of students sitting on the quad

LIN 201: Part III Week XII

Fall 2001
Ritchie (Gracanin)

Questions on Readings

Assignments -- FR, 425-440.

FR, 425-440.
  1. What is a style? Give an example.
  2. What is the function of German du and French tu? of German Sie and French vous?
  3. What other, more elaborate examples of style usage are mentioned in the reading?
  4. What is slang? What forms does it take? Give examples of former slang words that have become part of the standard language.
  5. What is a jargon? an argot? Give examples.
  6. What is a taboo word? Give examples. What is a euphemism? Examples.
  7. According to FR, is language itself obscene, blasphemous, or taboo? or does language just reflect individual and societal values? Note the examples from FR of phrases from dictionaries that may be interpreted as reflecting anti-female sexist language. These examples have quite obviously been picked to make a point; do you regard them as convincing in and of themselves or would you want further examples from these dictionaries in order to determine whether they are truly reflective of sexist attitudes?
  8. What kinds of language in U.S. history books does FR cite as reflecting sexist attitudes?
  9. To what does FR attribute the labeling of doors on restrooms at Columbia University as "Women" and "Officers of Instruction"? Similarly, to what does FR attribute the fact that most people hearing My cousin is a doctor would assume the cousin is a man? Again, is this really a matter of language or does it just reflect societal realities? [Keep the answer to this question in mind when you read the Miller and Swift article in the Course Reader.]
  10. To what does FR attribute the fact that the sentence My neighbor is a blonde refers specifically to a woman? If someone said My neighbor is a coward would you assume that the neighbor is a man or a woman? Why? Do you see any parallel between the interpretation of this second sentence (about the coward) and the first sentence (about the blonde)?
  11. What changes in meaning in the history of English reflect sexist attitudes, according to FR? How many words with abusive or sexual overtones are there in English that refer to women and how many such terms, relatively speaking, are there that refer to men? Note that many of these terms seem to reduce women to food (dish, tomato) or to animals (chick, bunny, pussycat). On the other hand, how many times do you think you have heard a man say about women "They're nothing but animals."? How many times do you think you have heard women say this about men?
  12. What is an unmarked form in the morphology of a language? In word pairs where one form is masculine and the other feminine, which gender is the unmarked form and which is the marked form, in the usual case? What other cases of "linguistic asymmetry" does FR note?
  13. What is "generic 'he'"? What was its source? How have things changed in the use of generic masculine terms like mankind, manpower, to man since the revival of the feminist movement?
  14. What instances of differences in language use between the genders does FR note? What is their final word about language being "good" or "evil"?