Language and Representation
Lexical Asymmetry is an imbalance in the meanings of two ostensibly matching words. For example, man and women should have opposite but equivalent meanings, but if you look at dictionary definitions of being manly or womanly, they carry very different meanings. Manliness is seen as strength, womanliness as weakness. Think of all the expressions used that equate being female with being weak. ‘Big girl’s blouse’, ‘Cry like a little girl’, ‘Take it like a man’, ‘Don’t be such an old woman’.
The negative meanings associated with certain words and how they are used to ‘put down’ or denigrate particular groups of people. Examples would be terms like ‘slut’ ‘slag’ ‘whore’ ‘bitch’. These words that carry negative connotations and can be used to insult or degrade people.
There are a couple of theorists that support this theory about Derogation and Deterioration. These theorists named; Sarah Mills (1995) Deborah Cameron (1990) and Muriel Schultz (1975). For example, an example of Derogation is the word, Bachelor:
There is a lot of useful information on this word. The earliest recorded use is from 1297 when it originally meant 'power, art, strong and courageous'. We can see that it was spelt 'bacheler'. This shows that there may have been a slight change in pronunciation and the definite change in spelling until the present.
If we scroll down to the next meaning we discover that it was developed in 1386 'Young, fresh, strong, and in Armes desirous, As any Bacheler [v.r. bachiler(e, -elere, -illier] of al his house.' This means that the meaning has developed further and the meaning has become broader.
Then from the 19th century, it came to denote a legal term for men who have gained 'Vavassors, who obtained knighthood, were commonly styled, bachelors.' Also, from this, we can see how the word bachelor has changed and developed into the more modern way of how to spell it and in fact, the pronunciation has changed into the way we know it. After this we are given various examples of its use in different publications for example; 'A junior or inferior member, or ‘yeoman,’ of a trade-guild.
Lexical gaps are when we find there are no equivalents for certain terms. For example, is there really a male equivalent for ‘cupcake’ or a female equivalent for ‘stud’, ‘virtilly’ or ‘potent’? These ideas owe a lot to work of linguists Dale Spender, Julia Stanley and Muriel Schulz whose ideas about negative semantic space suggest that the terms used to label women are attached to a negative ‘space’. Even when they are moved into male ‘space’, they bring with them their negative connotations which can only be offset by adding male prefixes such as ‘male slut’ or ‘male bimbo’. Muriel Schulz’s “semantic rule” proposes that all words which become associated with women slide down the scale of semantics or pejorate.
Given the historically patriarchal nature of our society, its no surprise that many of the terms used to describe occupation or job titles betray sexist attitudes. Terms such as Lady Doctor, Male Nurse, Usherette and Actress are all makes in some way- in other words, the gender of the worker is marked in some way- either through a preceding word (lady or male) or a suffix (-ette or -ess). Some have termed the suffixes ‘trivialising’ or ‘diminutive’ in that they tend to indicate less respect being given to the female term. For example, the suffix —ette comes from the French and is usually applied to a smaller version of something, thereby suggesting that the female form of being an usher is less important. Others have pointed to the addition of these marking items as being evidence of default assumptions, for example; that all doctors are men unless otherwise stated, that all nurses are female etc. So this means that the marking of the term draws unnecessary attention to the “strangeness” of being a nurse, a woman, a doctor etc.
