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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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=== Monogender epicene nouns and collective terms === | === Monogender epicene nouns and collective terms === | ||
The table below shows gendered language ('sexus') on the left and neutral — i.e. grammatical gender that has nothing to do with biological sex or gender identity — language ('genus') on the right. | The table below shows gendered language ('[https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gender_in_German_MWerner.pdf sexus]', i. e. natural sex) on the left and neutral — i.e. grammatical gender that has nothing to do with biological sex or gender identity — language ('genus', i. e. [[wikipedia:Grammatical_gender|grammatical gender]]) on the right. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|+Collective terms<ref name=":11" /> | |+Collective terms<ref name=":11" /> | ||
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====Indefinite and definite article==== | ====Indefinite and definite article==== | ||
In the context of gender-inclusive language in French, the distinction between compounds that blend or concatenate gender-marked agentive suffixes (e.g.: 'direct<u>eur</u>'''ice'''<nowiki/>') ''versus'' lexical (e.g.: 'sœur' and 'frère' → 'adelphe') and morphological substitutions/derivations ('direct<u>aire</u>') are usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre' in queer-positive communities, because the concatenation of gender-marked agentive suffixes adds the missing gender i.e. sexus sememe to the given [[wikipedia:English_nouns|personal noun]], turning it from a single-gender personal noun to a dual-gender masculine/feminine personal noun.<ref name=":0" /> However, since compounds — such as 'maon', from 'ma' and 'mon' — and portmanteau words, like 'utilisateurice', could theoretically be cognitively interpreted as neutral; at least, there have been no psycholinguistic studies disconfirming this yet (probably because the use of these neologisms is too peripheral), to the extent that these forms could technically also be called neutral. Furthermore, since the so called 'neutre' forms are inherently inclusive of all genders, there is no reason why they cannot be called that way either. The subsequent pragmatic interchangeability of these terms makes them unsuitable for differentiating these two methods of creating gender-neutral/gender inclusive words in French. For this reason, the following table distinguishes them based on their morphological properties — blend words being more '''analytical''', and non blend words being more '''synthetic'''. | In the context of gender-inclusive language in French, the distinction between compounds that blend or concatenate gender-marked agentive suffixes (e.g.: 'direct<u>eur</u>'''ice'''<nowiki/>') ''versus'' lexical (e.g.: 'sœur' and 'frère' → 'adelphe') and morphological substitutions (→ cognitive view)/derivations (→ structural view) ('direct<u>aire</u>') are usually referred to as 'inclusif' ''versus'' 'neutre' in queer-positive communities, because the concatenation of gender-marked agentive suffixes adds the missing gender i.e. sexus [[wikipedia:Sememe|sememe]] to the given [[wikipedia:English_nouns|personal noun]], turning it from a single-gender personal noun to a dual-gender masculine/feminine personal noun.<ref name=":0" /> However, since compounds — such as 'maon', from 'ma' and 'mon' — and portmanteau words, like 'utilisateurice', could theoretically be cognitively interpreted as neutral; at least, there have been no psycholinguistic studies disconfirming this yet (probably because the use of these neologisms is too peripheral), to the extent that these forms could technically also be called neutral. Furthermore, since the so called 'neutre' forms are inherently inclusive of all genders, there is no reason why they cannot be called that way either. The subsequent pragmatic interchangeability of these terms makes them unsuitable for differentiating these two methods of creating gender-neutral/gender inclusive words in French. For this reason, the following table distinguishes them based on their morphological properties — blend words being more '''analytical''', and non blend words being more '''synthetic'''. | ||
The currently most widely accepted neutral forms are denoted in italics in the table. Apart from them, most of the forms depicted in the tables are not in use. The tables thus merely represent suggestions that have been made for degendering French, and feature the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world. | The currently most widely accepted neutral forms are denoted in italics in the table. Apart from them, most of the forms depicted in the tables are not in use. The tables thus merely represent suggestions that have been made for degendering French, and feature the items that have been retained by most blogs, researchers and LGBT communities in the French-speaking world. | ||