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Gender neutral language in French: Difference between revisions
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====Indefinite and definite article==== | ====Indefinite and definite article==== | ||
In the discourse surrounding gender-inclusive language in French, the distinction between compounds that blend or concatenate gender-marked agentive suffixes (e.g.: ''direct<u>eur</u>'''ice''''') ''versus'' lexical (e.g.: ''sœur'' and ''frère'' → ''adelphe'') and morphological substitutions (→ cognitive approach) or morphological derivations (→ structural approach), such as the epicene derivation 'direct<u>aire</u>', are usually referred to as i''nclusif'' vs. ''neutre'' in queer-positive communities. | In the discourse surrounding gender-inclusive language in French, the distinction between compounds that blend or concatenate gender-marked [[wikipedia:Agent_nouns|agentive suffixes]] (e.g.: ''direct<u>eur</u>'''ice''''') ''versus'' lexical (e.g.: ''sœur'' and ''frère'' → ''adelphe'') and morphological substitutions (→ cognitive approach) or morphological derivations (→ structural approach), such as the epicene derivation 'direct<u>aire</u>', are usually referred to as i''nclusif'' vs. ''neutre'' in queer-positive communities. | ||
However, 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]], turn agent nouns from single-gender personal noun to dual-gender masculine/feminine personal noun.<ref name=":0" /> Accordingly, they could theoretically be cognitively interpreted as neutral, to the extent that these forms could theoretically be cognitively processed as genderneutral, i. e. ''neutre''. Because the use of these neologisms remains peripheral in spoken French, psycholinguistic research has yet to disconfirm this possibility. | However, 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]], turn [[wikipedia:Agent_noun|agent nouns]] from single-gender personal noun to dual-gender masculine/feminine personal noun.<ref name=":0" /> Accordingly, they could theoretically be cognitively interpreted as neutral, to the extent that these forms could theoretically be cognitively processed as genderneutral, i. e. ''neutre''. Because the use of these neologisms remains peripheral in spoken French, psycholinguistic research has yet to disconfirm this possibility. | ||
Conversely, agent nouns categorized as ''neutre'' — such as epicene derivations (e.g., ''coiffaire'', which attaches the gender-unspecific suffix ''-aire'' to a verbal root) or lexical substitutions (e.g., ''Monestre'', 'Mx'), as discussed higher — are inherently inclusive of all genders, making the label ''inclusif'' equally applicable to them. The pragmatic interchangeability of these labels renders them inadequate for differentiating the morphological mechanisms used to generate gender-inclusive neologisms in French. For this reason, the following table categorizes these strategies based on their structural properties — blend words being more '''analytical''', and non blend words (epicene derivations; lexical substitions) being more '''synthetic'''. | Conversely, agent nouns categorized as ''neutre'' — such as epicene derivations (e.g., ''coiffaire'', which attaches the gender-unspecific suffix ''-aire'' to a verbal root) or lexical substitutions (e.g., ''Monestre'', 'Mx'), as discussed higher — are inherently inclusive of all genders, making the label ''inclusif'' equally applicable to them. The pragmatic interchangeability of these labels renders them inadequate for differentiating the morphological mechanisms used to generate gender-inclusive neologisms in French. For this reason, the following table categorizes these strategies based on their structural properties — blend words being more '''analytical''', and non blend words (epicene derivations; lexical substitions) being more '''synthetic'''. | ||