Abstract
Most Indo-European (IE) languages are gendered with a different degree of grammaticalisation of gender. Modern English grammaticalises gender for the pronoun in the form of he, she, and it. On the other end of the gender spectrum, Armenian, a separate branch of the IE family, is epicene. That is, it does not grammaticalise gender even for the pronoun, embedding an indeterminate antecedent in a single pronoun նա [na]. While most gendered IE languages are pressured to adopt strategies of neutralizing grammatical gender and introducing epicene pronouns, Armenian has historically attempted the opposite by introducing a feminitive pronoun. By examining primary historical Armenian texts with feminizing pronouns as well as current scholarship on gender neutral or inclusive language, the paper argues that both attempts of gender neutralization and gendering of the language are predicated upon the same premise, that is, the male-centered use of language.
Presenters
Rafik SantrosyanAssistant Professor, English and Communications, American University of Armenia, Armenia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Communications and Linguistic Studies
KEYWORDS
EPICENITY, FEMINITIVES, PRONOUNS, ANDROCENTRISM, GENDER
