24.1754, Diss: Socioling/Greek, Modern: Alvanoudi: 'The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender'

[linguist at linguistlist.org]

LINGUIST List: Vol-24-1754. Fri Apr 19 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.1754, Diss: Socioling/Greek, Modern: Alvanoudi: 'The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Veronika Drake, U of Wisconsin Madison
Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
       <reviews at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Lili Xia <lxia at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  


Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:56:53
From: Angeliki Alvanoudi [alvanoudiag at yahoo.gr]
Subject: The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=24-1754.html&submissionid=10977416&topicid=14&msgnumber=1
 
Institution: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2013 

Author: Angeliki Alvanoudi

Dissertation Title: The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender 

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): Greek, Modern (ell)


Dissertation Director(s):
Demetra Katis
Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou

Dissertation Abstract:

The present thesis examines the interrelation between the social and 
cognitive dimensions of grammatical gender in person reference in 
interaction. In particular, it explores i) whether interaction provides 
indications for the role of grammatical gender in guiding speakers to 
the interpretation of referent(s) as female or male, and ii) the 
consequences of the use of grammatical gender for the construction of 
the social category of gender on the basis of social hierarchy in 
interaction. 

Grammatical gender is an inherent property of the noun, which controls 
agreement between a noun and its satellite elements and 
grammaticizes the semantic distinction of female/male sex in person 
reference. According to various sociolinguistic and feminist non-
linguistic approaches, grammatical gender attributes sex to referents 
and contributes to the construction of the social category of gender on 
the basis of hierarchy. This social dimension of grammatical gender is 
interrelated with a cognitive one. Drawing on cognitive linguistics and 
research on linguistic/structural relativity, grammatical gender is shown 
to guide speakers to the interpretation of referents as female or male.  

Moreover, the study of the relation between grammatical gender and 
person reference in interaction shows that the interrelation between 
the social and cognitive dimensions of grammatical gender manifests 
itself in interaction through presuppositions about referents’ sex as an 
aspect of social context. 

In order to approach grammatical gender in interaction, I employ 
Conversation Analysis in addition to membership categories. Empirical 
analysis shows that interaction provides direct and indirect indications 
for the cognitive dimension of grammatical gender. Direct indications 
are found in self- and other-initiated repairs in which grammatical 
gender constitutes the repairable item. Indirect indications are found in 
speakers’ next turns, which show their understanding of prior turn, in 
the recipient-design feature, in the membership categorization device, 
and in the use of the masculine grammatical gender for reference to 
female persons only. In addition, the compulsory use of grammatical 
gender in the composition of turns is shown to affect the socio-cultural 
world that is constructed through interaction; referents are categorized 
as female/women or male/men and sexism is reproduced implicitly 
when participants perform various social actions.






----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-24-1754	
----------------------------------------------------------