Abstract
The Spanish language has been described as a sexist language due to the peculiar characteris-tics of its gender morphology. It is indicated by the o ('masculine') and a ('feminine') gender morphemes which generally represent male and female respectively. This has led to an appar-ent confusion between grammatical gender and biological sex. Against this background, this paper attempts to discover the impact of anti-sexist language proposals on the Spanish language by analyzing sample Spanish newspapers. Of the 40 articles analysed from 20 representative newspapers, findings suggest that although some anti-sexist language elements have been adopted, their usage is erratic and the masculine generics are still used extensively. The results suggest that despite the challenges facing language reform at-tempts, the reinforcement of positive language policies is possible.
Highlights
The double-form nouns used in the masculine generic sense (125) appeared 617 times
The analysis revealed that the masculine generic form is probably used with a greater and more significant frequency than the anti-sexist alternatives
The minimal use of non-sexist variants in this study suggests that speakers were reluctant to reform their language on the grounds of it being sexist
Summary
This study seeks to contribute to existing research on the adoption and/or rejection of antisexist alternatives from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The paper will examine the impact of ASL proposals on the Spanish language and the possible drawbacks of language reform activities. This research sought to: 1) Determine which variety of the Spanish language (sexist or non-sexist) speakers used more frequently. 3) Evaluate the regularity of the use of anti-sexist language. Two broad criteria were selected for the analysis: the generic use of the masculine gender and the use of anti-sexist language. The research questions which formed the basis for this study were the following: i. Are there any patterns in the use of anti-sexist language? Do men use sexist language more than women?
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