gender affixing

[Susan Ervin-Tripp]

Van Alphen's comment that female suffixes have negative
connotations in English made me wonder whether that is
too general a conclusion.

I would guess that the ones that are rather standard like
steward/stewardess, waiter/waitress, and actor/actress might
have relatively little in the way of extra value connotations
since there is so much effect of the job properties, and we experience
them in the same way.

The ones that seem like optional and rare add-ons like poet/poetess
or sculptor/sculptress, or are diminutives like majorette or suffragette
(which has no male version!!), are another matter.

Surely someone has separated these types in all the years of research
on this subject.

By the way, in my 1958 research on semantic connotations in
obligatory gender-affixing languages, I found that judges attributed
both goodness and beauty more to feminine-affixed than to
masculine-affixed invented words--but of course strength to the
masculine terms.

Susan Ervin-Tripp



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Susan M. Ervin-Tripp               tel (510) 642-5292*, 642-5047* (msgs)
Professor Emeritus                 FAX (510) 642-5293
Psychology Department         ervintrp at socrates.berkeley.edu
University of California            http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~ervintrp/
Berkeley CA 94720
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