Alyx Shroy | University of California, Davis (original) (raw)
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In languages like French with only two noun classes, masculine and feminine, human beings must fi... more In languages like French with only two noun classes, masculine and feminine, human beings must fit into one of these two categories in order to be expressed by language. When gender accord is grammatically required but only masculine and feminine forms of inflection are available to speakers, those whose gender identity falls outside of the male/female binary are forced to claim an identity through language that is in conflict with their own, which makes linguistic representation nearly impossible and can contribute to feelings of dysphoria. Given these constraints, do gender nonconforming French speakers tend towards using masculine gender accord, feminine gender accord, or create innovative neutral forms of gender agreement? To begin to answer these questions, this paper explores the online language practices of 20 nonbinary and agender French users on Twitter by extracting all gender-inflected forms from the first 30 pages of each user’s most recent tweets. Significant variation is found for each user, with half of all users employing a combination of both masculine and nonbinary forms and only 4 users found to use a single form of gender accord. The most common forms of nonbinary language emerging from the data are inclusive punctuated affixes (étudiant.e, obligé.e), nonbinary 3rd-person pronoun iel, and nonbinary demonstrative pronouns celleux and elleux. The stylistic variability of gender agreement found across users is interpreted as both a consequence of the nonstandard and subversive nature of nonbinary language, and as a reflection of the diversity of nonbinary identities and their individuality in linguistic expression. The need for nonbinary language is clearly supported, but the future of specific nonbinary forms remains uncertain.
In languages like French with only two noun classes, masculine and feminine, human beings must fi... more In languages like French with only two noun classes, masculine and feminine, human beings must fit into one of these two categories in order to be expressed by language. When gender accord is grammatically required but only masculine and feminine forms of inflection are available to speakers, those whose gender identity falls outside of the male/female binary are forced to claim an identity through language that is in conflict with their own, which makes linguistic representation nearly impossible and can contribute to feelings of dysphoria. Given these constraints, do gender nonconforming French speakers tend towards using masculine gender accord, feminine gender accord, or create innovative neutral forms of gender agreement? To begin to answer these questions, this paper explores the online language practices of 20 nonbinary and agender French users on Twitter by extracting all gender-inflected forms from the first 30 pages of each user’s most recent tweets. Significant variation is found for each user, with half of all users employing a combination of both masculine and nonbinary forms and only 4 users found to use a single form of gender accord. The most common forms of nonbinary language emerging from the data are inclusive punctuated affixes (étudiant.e, obligé.e), nonbinary 3rd-person pronoun iel, and nonbinary demonstrative pronouns celleux and elleux. The stylistic variability of gender agreement found across users is interpreted as both a consequence of the nonstandard and subversive nature of nonbinary language, and as a reflection of the diversity of nonbinary identities and their individuality in linguistic expression. The need for nonbinary language is clearly supported, but the future of specific nonbinary forms remains uncertain.