Jane Sunderland What do we mean by construction of gender?

Lancaster University, UK
Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language
Lancaster University
Lancaster LA1 4YT
UK
j.sunderland@lancaster.ac.uk

Abstract

It is now commonplace to read that gender is constructed by language, and accordingly that the language which constitutes a given stretch of data does just this. Frequently, however, whether gender is actually being constructed (in some sense) requires an act of faith on the parts of researcher and reader; further, and relatedly, it is often not clear what is meant by gender being 'constructed'.

One possible understanding is that gender is constructed in the language used, in the sense that gender is made relevant, or that some allegedly gendered characteristic is maintained, created or contested, in talk or written text. An alternative understanding is that gender identity is variously maintained, created or contested psychologically, 'within' an individual participant or participants, on a large or small scale, in a given language event. These different understandings raise further questions: Can an individual construct their own gender identity in their talk? If so, is this construction on-going, being more or less salient at different times? Or, can identity construction occur only in interaction (and hence negotiation)? Can an absent third party's gender identity be constructed; if so, in what sense? What might count as linguistic evidence for each of these? Further conceptual questions include how the notion of construction relates to those of representation and performance.

This poster presentation will include models of understandings of these complexities, as well as data which will illustrate empirically how 'construction of gender' can be differently understood.

Poster Materials

Click here to download Jane Sunderland's handout in .pdf format.



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