24.1779, Diss: Socioling/Greek, Modern: Alvanoudi: 'The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-1779. Mon Apr 22 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.1779, Diss: Socioling/Greek, Modern: Alvanoudi: 'The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender'

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Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:26:52
From: Angeliki Alvanoudi [alvanoudiag at yahoo.gr]
Subject: The Social and Cognitive Dimensions of Grammatical Gender

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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):
Theodossia Pavlidou
Savas L. Tsohatzidis
Demetra Katis

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.






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