Gender neutrality and language

[Siegel, Jason F.]

In an effort to redirect the discussion back to language policy and 
away from a topic that could easily be argued about with no end in 
sight, I would like to take the opportunity to pose a question to the 
list (and this is the genuine inquiry of a relative newcomer to the 
field): How often is religion invoked in discussions of language policy 
across the world? I've heard the old quote in support of Official 
English in the U.S. "If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough 
for me." (attributed to various people). In the research I've done on 
French policy, however, religion seems to be completely absent from the 
public discourse on language policy. So again, how frequently do 
religious concerns form a part of the discussion of language policy? Do 
we see it more often in certain types of language policy (e.g. 
feminization) than in others (e.g. acquisition planning)?

--Jason


--
Jason F. Siegel
Ph.D. Student, Linguistics & French Linguistics
Department of French & Italian
Ballantine Hall 642
1020 East Kirkwood Avenue
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
USA
siegeljf at indiana.edu


Quoting L Pierce <ldpierce at yahoo.com>:

> It's recorded in the BIble.  You can read the history
> for yourself, as you can read the histories of the
> previously quoted men (quoted by an earlier
> contributor) in other recorded histories; I gather
> that is the empirical evidence you have for them.  I
> don't really know why you want to change the issue,
> but I am happy to answer your question.
>
> Lisa
>
> --- Ronald Kephart <rkephart at unf.edu> wrote:
>
>> On 2/29/08 7:13 PM, "L Pierce" <ldpierce at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > What some ignorant men wrote hundreds of years ago
>> did
>> > not create the order, God did...
>>
>>  We have empirical evidence that men wrote those
>> rules. Do you have the same
>> quality evidence for your assertion?
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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