Epicenes: a Chameleonic Notion

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Epicenes: a Chameleonic Notion – Les genres récrits: chronique n°12

Abstract

Today, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, etc. that have a single form and are used indiscriminately in the masculine and feminine gender are most often considered epicene. In the grammatical tradition, however, we also find another usage: initially, nouns that had one gender but were used for animals or humans regardless of their sex or gender identity (e.g., in French le crabe, la perdrix, l’individu ou la personne) were considered epicene. More generally, epicene has also long been taken to mean any form of non-discriminatory language use: epicene was (and still is) therefore in competition with inclusive.

Keywords

  • epicene
  • grammatical gender
  • grammar
  • inclusive language

Autor_innen

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Publikation Information

Autor_innen:

Verlag:

Association GSL, GLAD! Revue sur le langage, le genre, les sexualités 14 | 2023

Sprachen:

Französisch

Stadt:

Paris

Jahr:

2023

Forschungsthemen:

Sprache(n) – Diskurs – Kommunikation

Fächer:

Linguistik

Form:

Artikel