Male vs. female speech

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Thu Jan 20 21:34:12 UTC 2005


On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, David Kaufman wrote:
> -- Sara Trechter has a paper she did comparing the gender-sensitive
> modals in the various Siouan languages. -- Hmmm.  It'd be interesting to
> try and get a copy somehow, if it's published.

I couldn't find a reference to the survey, but there is, of course, Sara's
specific work on Lakota gender markers.  Of course, in view of her
findings one is tempted to say "gender" markers, just to show there's more
to it, but I'll leave that to her.

At John Boyle's bibliography site:
http://puffin.creighton.edu/lakota/siouan_language.html

> Trechter, S. (1995). The pragmatic functions of gender deixis in
> Lakhota.  Lawarence, University of Kansas: 213.

This is Sara's dissertation, cf. the SSILA site dissertation list:
http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/ssila/dissertations/inddiss/d413.htm

> Trechter, Sara Ph.D., U. of Kansas, 1995. The Pragmatic Functions of
> Gender Deixis in Lakhota. 213 pp. [T. investigates the ways in which
> Lakhota clitics indicate the gender of the speaker, through an
> examination of folktales, autobiographical material, song texts, and
> informal conversations. In the first half of her dissertation she
> provides a general description of the function, use, and interpretation
> of the clitics. In the second half, she reexamines the concept of
> categorical gender (men display one usage and women another) in Native
> American languages and finds it invalid.  Individual, contextual use,
> however, reveals that gendered speech is partially a function of affect,
> stances, and genre that are considered socially appropriate to the
> sexes. Pragmatic constructs and ideology reflect and reinforce the
> concept of categorical gender in Lakhota, but at the same time they
> allow for individuation and change in the system. DAI 56(11):4384-A]
> [Order # DA-9609525] 4-96

A reference to a published version:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jmw22/EofCsyll.html

> Trechter, Sarah 1999. Contextualizing the Exotic Few: Gender Dichotomies
> in Lakhota. In Reinventing Identities: The Gendered Self in Discourse.
> M.  Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, and L.A. Sutton, eds. Pp. 101-119. New York,
> Oxford:  Oxford University Press. Web

Also, like Ardis Eschenberg, Sara has been interested in the function and
evolution of plural marking.

Incidentally, Sara Trechter was named 2003-04 Outstanding Teacher at
Chico State.  (Congratulations, Sara!)



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