Art. 7 para 1 of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act decrees: "All citizens are equal be... more Art. 7 para 1 of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act decrees: "All citizens are equal before the law. Privileges of birth, gender, civil status, class and creed are ruled out" (original: "Alle Staatsbürger sind vor dem Gesetz gleich. Vorrechte der Geburt, des Geschlechtes, des Standes, der Klasse und des Bekenntnisses sind ausgeschlossen", authors' emphasis and translation). Research on the representation of gender in normative texts is scarce for legislative drafting in Austria. This paper focuses on the three interconnected issues of comprehensibility, gender inclusivity and practicality in legislative drafting. 600 Austrian normative texts were collected by random sampling and subsequently XML-annotated. The texts were then subjected to a corpus-aided quantitative and qualitative analysis of all gender references attested. The following research questions form the basis of the inquiry: RQ1: Which tendencies of gender representation are identifiable in ...
Two case studies are to serve as an introduction to this criticism of dictionaries. Both of them ... more Two case studies are to serve as an introduction to this criticism of dictionaries. Both of them show up the contemporary human image of women in the DUDEN PAPERBACKS (DUDEN-TASCHENBÜCHER), which by means of explicitly biased and inconsistent or prescriptive principles in their lexicological concept, confirm the pre-feminist human image of women as human creatures of female sex. It should be demonstrated that the desired principles would only make sense if all feminine forms were feminisations of masculine base forms or, respectively, if the denotations of the female and male base lexemes were identical. Since neither of these conditions applies to the creation of feminine forms, the current situation leads to the development of an androcentric feminine human image, which is reduced to the human creature of female sex, while the masculine human image is diverse and modelled in keeping with the ideal of the male human being.
Sprache und Recht 5 Sprache, Recht und Geschlecht Die Sprache des Rechts schafft Lebensrealitäten... more Sprache und Recht 5 Sprache, Recht und Geschlecht Die Sprache des Rechts schafft Lebensrealitäten in Bezug auf Geschlechtszuschreibung und Geschlechtsidentität. Am 15. Juni 2018 hat der Verfassungsgerichtshof entschieden, dass Menschen in Österreich ein Recht auf individuelle Geschlechtsidentität zugestanden werden muss. Staatliche Geschlechtszuschreibung und individuelle Geschlechtsidentität sollen auch in der Rechtssprache angemessen abgebildet werden (z.B. inter, divers oder offen statt männlich oder weiblich). Menschen sollen also nur solche Geschlechtszuschreibungen akzeptieren müssen, die auch ihrer tatsächlichen Geschlechtsidentität entsprechen. In dieser Podiumsdiskussion befassen wir uns mit den Herausforderungen staatlicher Geschlechtszuschreibung und sprachlicher Gleichbehandlung in Rechtstexten und Urkunden. Begünstigt die Rechtssprache Ungleichheit aufgrund des Geschlechts? Wie kann Geschlechtszugehörigkeit heute in Rechtstexten adäquat realisiert werden? Die Österreichische Gesellschaft für Rechtslinguistik (ÖGRL) beschäftigt sich im Rahmen der Partizipationsforschung mit den zeitgenössischen Herausforderungen der Rechtssprache in Österreich und Europa. In Kooperation mit den Büchereien Wien.
Who is defined totally unconditionally as a human being in the dictionary? When using a German di... more Who is defined totally unconditionally as a human being in the dictionary? When using a German dictionary nowadays, a human being might be a female, male or even an intersexual being, who can possibly show the most diverse sexual-orientation-features, such as asexual, poly-amorous, hetero-, homo-, bi-, or transsexual/-gender. Does this first impression really apply? Are all human beings after nearly 40 years of legal emancipation, especially in regard to the heterosexual woman as well as to the almost complete emancipation of all others, represented accordingly? The question indeed remains, whether on a meta-lexicological level, a corresponding representation of all forms of sexual existence-not merely additive, but also in reference to the macro-structure of the dictionary-has actually taken place. Or do we have to concede that the representatives of this species are still defined in terms of the pre-feminist human being, i.e. the masculine heterosexual man, thus rendering their own conception lacking and incomplete? The implementation of this masculine prototype into the word-formation process is realized through the 3 Masculinist Principles. 1, "The Hetero-Man-the Embodiment of General Human Qualities", and principle no. 2, "Woman and the Other-the subordinated Gender" Principle no. 3, "Gender Imagery", can be attributed to the semantic-masculinist level, which to this day reduces the codification of women and the Other to certain semantic categories like privateness, associating them with selected roles, powerlessness and sexualization. Specifically, synonyms of the hyperonym Mensch like Person, Wesen, Individuum, Subjekt, and Leute should be gender-critically and analytically explored concerning the semantic relations to their hyponyms as for example Frau, Mann or Mädchen and Bub/Junge. It is the aim of this study to examine the lemma Mensch, to conclude whether in its lexicological implementation it can already be considered a hyperonym comprising all-including the heterosexual man, too.
Gender Symmetry / Do you know the difference between a woman with experience and a man with exper... more Gender Symmetry / Do you know the difference between a woman with experience and a man with experience? Why it is not the same whether she or he gains one or more such experiences, is discussed amongst other topics in this book. At the onset of the 21st century the denomination of the woman does not correspond with her personal status. As a female human being of non-specific age she is the great unknown figure. In her attribution and subordination to the human in general – the male human being – she is indeed very well-known – namely as lover, wife, mother, housewife and, not least, as sex worker. In this context the question is asked, as to how and to what extent after three decades of feminist criticism in linguistics and some years of gender studies, gender symmetry has been implemented in the most relevant German dictionaries such as the Duden and the Wahrig. The interplay between individual and lexical language use is obvious and necessitates a reconnection of gender symmetrical language and linguistic norms, since not only female, but also male imagery has changed in favour of the image of the complete human being. This publication therefore focuses on the onomastic basis underlying the motivation to describe general human behavioural patterns such as strength : weakness with the denominations of persons. These can be feminine as well as masculine and by no means need to necessarily result any longer from the pre-feminist attribution and distribution of traditional female and male gender character, which to this day constitutes the denomination of woman as female human creature, the denomination of man, on the other hand, male human being. Furthermore the still existing androcentric and sexist genderscript concepts are identified by examining various semantic categories such as work, power, possession and sexuality in the gender symmetrical analysis of the lexical fields frau / weib (= woman) // dame (= lady) // mädchen (= girl) : mann (= man) // herr (= gentleman) // bub / junge (= boy) / bursche (= lad / youngster) with all their determinative compounds. This asymmetry in the gender portrayal is clearly morpho-semantic in its design and boils down to a masculine idealisation combined with a melioration in the humanisation and magnification, respectively a feminine hyper-realisation and pejoration in the objectification and reduction of the corresponding personal indications. Gendersymmetrie / Kennen Sie den Unterschied zwischen einer frau mit erfahrung und einem mann mit erfahrung ? Warum es nicht dasselbe ist, wenn sie oder er eine solche oder mehrere macht, erfahren Sie unter anderem in diesem Buch. Die Versprachlichung der Frau zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts entspricht nicht ihrem Personenstatus. Als weiblicher Mensch , ohne spezifisches Alter, ist sie die große Unbekannte, in ihrer Zu- und Unterordnung zum Menschen an sich – dem männlichen Menschen – hingegen ist sie äußerst bekannt, nämlich als liebhaberin , ehefrau , mutter , hausfrau und nicht zuletzt als sexarbeiterin . In diesem Kontext wird die Frage gestellt, wie und ob die Umsetzung der Gendersymmetrie in den wichtigsten Wörterbüchern des deutschsprachigen Raums nach drei Jahrzehnten Feministischer Sprachkritik und einigen Jahren Geschlechterforschung erfolgt ist. Das Wechselspiel zwischen individuellem und lexikalischem Sprachgebrauch ist offensichtlich und macht eine Rückbindung geschlechtersymmetrischer Sprache an sprachliche Normen notwendig, weil sich nicht nur die Frauenbilder, sondern auch die Männerbilder zu ganzen Menschenbildern gewandelt haben. Daher werden die onomasiologischen Grundlagen für die unterschiedliche Motivation der Bezeichnung allgemeinmenschlicher Verhaltensweisen wie z. B. stärke : schwäche bei den Personenbezeichnungen herausgearbeitet. Sie können sowohl weiblich als auch männlich sein und müssen sich keineswegs zwingend aus ihrer traditionellen Zu- und Aufteilung des weiblichen und männlichen Geschlechtscharakters, der vor allem androzentrisch und teilweise sexistisch konzipiert ist, ergeben. Weiters wird die asymmetrische Geschlechterdarstellung anhand des Wortfeldes frau : mann als morphosemantisch strukturiert nachgewiesen. Dies zeigt sich einerseits in der Idealisierung und damit zusammenhängenden Melioration in der Vermenschlichung und Vergrößerung des Männlichen bzw. andererseits in der Hyperrealisierung und Pejoration sowie in der Verdinglichung und Verkleinerung des Weiblichen.
Redefining the Hypernym Mensch*in: Gender, Sexuality, and Personhood in German
The Subject of this book is: the human condition as a sexual and not only intellectual being in i... more The Subject of this book is: the human condition as a sexual and not only intellectual being in its representation and conceptualization in the relevant dictionaries of the German-speaking world. For a long time, gender was something simple, either human* was born as female or male, and accordingly, only certain general human behaviors were conceded to a* or a* as feminine or masculine, which were also sanctioned in case of non-compliance. This changed with the women's movement, which questioned this supremacy and superiority of the heterosexual man. Despite legal equality within this heteronormativity, there is still a male hegemony today, which is expressed socially and linguistically in the equation of the hetero-male with the general human - represented by the human being (m.). All others such as hetero-female, bi- and homosexual, transgender - and also inter-gender - are subordinated to this. Although these efforts towards emancipation were made several decades ago, a glance at the dictionary shows that these new genders have not been lexicalized. Through human beings whose gender identity does not correspond to their sex at birth - transgender individuals- a gender language gap became visible. For if transsexual individuals are located "beyond" their gender, then those who completely identify with their assigned gender with which they were born – male/female - should also be named accordingly. After all, until then they were "nameless" and thus linguistically unmarked as man or woman. Since the latter represent the majority and are regarded as the norm, this supposedly self-evident coincidence of birth gender and gender identity was also called into question - cisgender as a counterpart to transgender with its neutrally denoted references such as cis- and transwoman as well as cis- and transman were established. With the legal recognition of intersexuality and its inclusion in civil registry, new terms for intersexual such as "inter", "divers" and "open" became necessary. In addition to these neologisms, traditional terms for all human beings must also be questioned, analyzed and reconceptualized as heteromale because of their subordination to the general human condition. This means on the lexicological level, that the entire word field "sexuality" as a hypernym for sexuality, gender identity and gender expression must be redefined and lexicographically implemented in the relevant dictionaries due to this social change. Furthermore, the current norm of equating Cis women and men only with heterosexual orientation will be revised and the all genders and identities will be represented in the general human being - and also superordinate to the heterosexual/cisman. Thus, the historical equation of the heterosexual with the general human being, which has been valid up to the present, is abolished.
Art. 7 para 1 of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act decrees: "All citizens are equal be... more Art. 7 para 1 of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act decrees: "All citizens are equal before the law. Privileges of birth, gender, civil status, class and creed are ruled out" (original: "Alle Staatsbürger sind vor dem Gesetz gleich. Vorrechte der Geburt, des Geschlechtes, des Standes, der Klasse und des Bekenntnisses sind ausgeschlossen", authors' emphasis and translation). Research on the representation of gender in normative texts is scarce for legislative drafting in Austria. This paper focuses on the three interconnected issues of comprehensibility, gender inclusivity and practicality in legislative drafting. 600 Austrian normative texts were collected by random sampling and subsequently XML-annotated. The texts were then subjected to a corpus-aided quantitative and qualitative analysis of all gender references attested. The following research questions form the basis of the inquiry: RQ1: Which tendencies of gender representation are identifiable in ...
Two case studies are to serve as an introduction to this criticism of dictionaries. Both of them ... more Two case studies are to serve as an introduction to this criticism of dictionaries. Both of them show up the contemporary human image of women in the DUDEN PAPERBACKS (DUDEN-TASCHENBÜCHER), which by means of explicitly biased and inconsistent or prescriptive principles in their lexicological concept, confirm the pre-feminist human image of women as human creatures of female sex. It should be demonstrated that the desired principles would only make sense if all feminine forms were feminisations of masculine base forms or, respectively, if the denotations of the female and male base lexemes were identical. Since neither of these conditions applies to the creation of feminine forms, the current situation leads to the development of an androcentric feminine human image, which is reduced to the human creature of female sex, while the masculine human image is diverse and modelled in keeping with the ideal of the male human being.
Sprache und Recht 5 Sprache, Recht und Geschlecht Die Sprache des Rechts schafft Lebensrealitäten... more Sprache und Recht 5 Sprache, Recht und Geschlecht Die Sprache des Rechts schafft Lebensrealitäten in Bezug auf Geschlechtszuschreibung und Geschlechtsidentität. Am 15. Juni 2018 hat der Verfassungsgerichtshof entschieden, dass Menschen in Österreich ein Recht auf individuelle Geschlechtsidentität zugestanden werden muss. Staatliche Geschlechtszuschreibung und individuelle Geschlechtsidentität sollen auch in der Rechtssprache angemessen abgebildet werden (z.B. inter, divers oder offen statt männlich oder weiblich). Menschen sollen also nur solche Geschlechtszuschreibungen akzeptieren müssen, die auch ihrer tatsächlichen Geschlechtsidentität entsprechen. In dieser Podiumsdiskussion befassen wir uns mit den Herausforderungen staatlicher Geschlechtszuschreibung und sprachlicher Gleichbehandlung in Rechtstexten und Urkunden. Begünstigt die Rechtssprache Ungleichheit aufgrund des Geschlechts? Wie kann Geschlechtszugehörigkeit heute in Rechtstexten adäquat realisiert werden? Die Österreichische Gesellschaft für Rechtslinguistik (ÖGRL) beschäftigt sich im Rahmen der Partizipationsforschung mit den zeitgenössischen Herausforderungen der Rechtssprache in Österreich und Europa. In Kooperation mit den Büchereien Wien.
Who is defined totally unconditionally as a human being in the dictionary? When using a German di... more Who is defined totally unconditionally as a human being in the dictionary? When using a German dictionary nowadays, a human being might be a female, male or even an intersexual being, who can possibly show the most diverse sexual-orientation-features, such as asexual, poly-amorous, hetero-, homo-, bi-, or transsexual/-gender. Does this first impression really apply? Are all human beings after nearly 40 years of legal emancipation, especially in regard to the heterosexual woman as well as to the almost complete emancipation of all others, represented accordingly? The question indeed remains, whether on a meta-lexicological level, a corresponding representation of all forms of sexual existence-not merely additive, but also in reference to the macro-structure of the dictionary-has actually taken place. Or do we have to concede that the representatives of this species are still defined in terms of the pre-feminist human being, i.e. the masculine heterosexual man, thus rendering their own conception lacking and incomplete? The implementation of this masculine prototype into the word-formation process is realized through the 3 Masculinist Principles. 1, "The Hetero-Man-the Embodiment of General Human Qualities", and principle no. 2, "Woman and the Other-the subordinated Gender" Principle no. 3, "Gender Imagery", can be attributed to the semantic-masculinist level, which to this day reduces the codification of women and the Other to certain semantic categories like privateness, associating them with selected roles, powerlessness and sexualization. Specifically, synonyms of the hyperonym Mensch like Person, Wesen, Individuum, Subjekt, and Leute should be gender-critically and analytically explored concerning the semantic relations to their hyponyms as for example Frau, Mann or Mädchen and Bub/Junge. It is the aim of this study to examine the lemma Mensch, to conclude whether in its lexicological implementation it can already be considered a hyperonym comprising all-including the heterosexual man, too.
Gender Symmetry / Do you know the difference between a woman with experience and a man with exper... more Gender Symmetry / Do you know the difference between a woman with experience and a man with experience? Why it is not the same whether she or he gains one or more such experiences, is discussed amongst other topics in this book. At the onset of the 21st century the denomination of the woman does not correspond with her personal status. As a female human being of non-specific age she is the great unknown figure. In her attribution and subordination to the human in general – the male human being – she is indeed very well-known – namely as lover, wife, mother, housewife and, not least, as sex worker. In this context the question is asked, as to how and to what extent after three decades of feminist criticism in linguistics and some years of gender studies, gender symmetry has been implemented in the most relevant German dictionaries such as the Duden and the Wahrig. The interplay between individual and lexical language use is obvious and necessitates a reconnection of gender symmetrical language and linguistic norms, since not only female, but also male imagery has changed in favour of the image of the complete human being. This publication therefore focuses on the onomastic basis underlying the motivation to describe general human behavioural patterns such as strength : weakness with the denominations of persons. These can be feminine as well as masculine and by no means need to necessarily result any longer from the pre-feminist attribution and distribution of traditional female and male gender character, which to this day constitutes the denomination of woman as female human creature, the denomination of man, on the other hand, male human being. Furthermore the still existing androcentric and sexist genderscript concepts are identified by examining various semantic categories such as work, power, possession and sexuality in the gender symmetrical analysis of the lexical fields frau / weib (= woman) // dame (= lady) // mädchen (= girl) : mann (= man) // herr (= gentleman) // bub / junge (= boy) / bursche (= lad / youngster) with all their determinative compounds. This asymmetry in the gender portrayal is clearly morpho-semantic in its design and boils down to a masculine idealisation combined with a melioration in the humanisation and magnification, respectively a feminine hyper-realisation and pejoration in the objectification and reduction of the corresponding personal indications. Gendersymmetrie / Kennen Sie den Unterschied zwischen einer frau mit erfahrung und einem mann mit erfahrung ? Warum es nicht dasselbe ist, wenn sie oder er eine solche oder mehrere macht, erfahren Sie unter anderem in diesem Buch. Die Versprachlichung der Frau zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts entspricht nicht ihrem Personenstatus. Als weiblicher Mensch , ohne spezifisches Alter, ist sie die große Unbekannte, in ihrer Zu- und Unterordnung zum Menschen an sich – dem männlichen Menschen – hingegen ist sie äußerst bekannt, nämlich als liebhaberin , ehefrau , mutter , hausfrau und nicht zuletzt als sexarbeiterin . In diesem Kontext wird die Frage gestellt, wie und ob die Umsetzung der Gendersymmetrie in den wichtigsten Wörterbüchern des deutschsprachigen Raums nach drei Jahrzehnten Feministischer Sprachkritik und einigen Jahren Geschlechterforschung erfolgt ist. Das Wechselspiel zwischen individuellem und lexikalischem Sprachgebrauch ist offensichtlich und macht eine Rückbindung geschlechtersymmetrischer Sprache an sprachliche Normen notwendig, weil sich nicht nur die Frauenbilder, sondern auch die Männerbilder zu ganzen Menschenbildern gewandelt haben. Daher werden die onomasiologischen Grundlagen für die unterschiedliche Motivation der Bezeichnung allgemeinmenschlicher Verhaltensweisen wie z. B. stärke : schwäche bei den Personenbezeichnungen herausgearbeitet. Sie können sowohl weiblich als auch männlich sein und müssen sich keineswegs zwingend aus ihrer traditionellen Zu- und Aufteilung des weiblichen und männlichen Geschlechtscharakters, der vor allem androzentrisch und teilweise sexistisch konzipiert ist, ergeben. Weiters wird die asymmetrische Geschlechterdarstellung anhand des Wortfeldes frau : mann als morphosemantisch strukturiert nachgewiesen. Dies zeigt sich einerseits in der Idealisierung und damit zusammenhängenden Melioration in der Vermenschlichung und Vergrößerung des Männlichen bzw. andererseits in der Hyperrealisierung und Pejoration sowie in der Verdinglichung und Verkleinerung des Weiblichen.
Redefining the Hypernym Mensch*in: Gender, Sexuality, and Personhood in German
The Subject of this book is: the human condition as a sexual and not only intellectual being in i... more The Subject of this book is: the human condition as a sexual and not only intellectual being in its representation and conceptualization in the relevant dictionaries of the German-speaking world. For a long time, gender was something simple, either human* was born as female or male, and accordingly, only certain general human behaviors were conceded to a* or a* as feminine or masculine, which were also sanctioned in case of non-compliance. This changed with the women's movement, which questioned this supremacy and superiority of the heterosexual man. Despite legal equality within this heteronormativity, there is still a male hegemony today, which is expressed socially and linguistically in the equation of the hetero-male with the general human - represented by the human being (m.). All others such as hetero-female, bi- and homosexual, transgender - and also inter-gender - are subordinated to this. Although these efforts towards emancipation were made several decades ago, a glance at the dictionary shows that these new genders have not been lexicalized. Through human beings whose gender identity does not correspond to their sex at birth - transgender individuals- a gender language gap became visible. For if transsexual individuals are located "beyond" their gender, then those who completely identify with their assigned gender with which they were born – male/female - should also be named accordingly. After all, until then they were "nameless" and thus linguistically unmarked as man or woman. Since the latter represent the majority and are regarded as the norm, this supposedly self-evident coincidence of birth gender and gender identity was also called into question - cisgender as a counterpart to transgender with its neutrally denoted references such as cis- and transwoman as well as cis- and transman were established. With the legal recognition of intersexuality and its inclusion in civil registry, new terms for intersexual such as "inter", "divers" and "open" became necessary. In addition to these neologisms, traditional terms for all human beings must also be questioned, analyzed and reconceptualized as heteromale because of their subordination to the general human condition. This means on the lexicological level, that the entire word field "sexuality" as a hypernym for sexuality, gender identity and gender expression must be redefined and lexicographically implemented in the relevant dictionaries due to this social change. Furthermore, the current norm of equating Cis women and men only with heterosexual orientation will be revised and the all genders and identities will be represented in the general human being - and also superordinate to the heterosexual/cisman. Thus, the historical equation of the heterosexual with the general human being, which has been valid up to the present, is abolished.
Uploads
Papers by Maria Pober
Conference Presentations by Maria Pober
Books by Maria Pober
Drafts by Maria Pober
Through human beings whose gender identity does not correspond to their sex at birth - transgender individuals- a gender language gap became visible. For if transsexual individuals are located "beyond" their gender, then those who completely identify with their assigned gender with which they were born – male/female - should also be named accordingly. After all, until then they were "nameless" and thus linguistically unmarked as man or woman. Since the latter represent the majority and are regarded as the norm, this supposedly self-evident coincidence of birth gender and gender identity was also called into question - cisgender as a counterpart to transgender with its neutrally denoted references such as cis- and transwoman as well as cis- and transman were established.
With the legal recognition of intersexuality and its inclusion in civil registry, new terms for intersexual such as "inter", "divers" and "open" became necessary. In addition to these neologisms, traditional terms for all human beings must also be questioned, analyzed and reconceptualized as heteromale because of their subordination to the general human condition. This means on the lexicological level, that the entire word field "sexuality" as a hypernym for sexuality, gender identity and gender expression must be redefined and lexicographically implemented in the relevant dictionaries due to this social change. Furthermore, the current norm of equating Cis women and men only with heterosexual orientation will be revised and the all genders and identities will be represented in the general human being - and also superordinate to the heterosexual/cisman. Thus, the historical equation of the heterosexual with the general human being, which has been valid up to the present, is abolished.
Through human beings whose gender identity does not correspond to their sex at birth - transgender individuals- a gender language gap became visible. For if transsexual individuals are located "beyond" their gender, then those who completely identify with their assigned gender with which they were born – male/female - should also be named accordingly. After all, until then they were "nameless" and thus linguistically unmarked as man or woman. Since the latter represent the majority and are regarded as the norm, this supposedly self-evident coincidence of birth gender and gender identity was also called into question - cisgender as a counterpart to transgender with its neutrally denoted references such as cis- and transwoman as well as cis- and transman were established.
With the legal recognition of intersexuality and its inclusion in civil registry, new terms for intersexual such as "inter", "divers" and "open" became necessary. In addition to these neologisms, traditional terms for all human beings must also be questioned, analyzed and reconceptualized as heteromale because of their subordination to the general human condition. This means on the lexicological level, that the entire word field "sexuality" as a hypernym for sexuality, gender identity and gender expression must be redefined and lexicographically implemented in the relevant dictionaries due to this social change. Furthermore, the current norm of equating Cis women and men only with heterosexual orientation will be revised and the all genders and identities will be represented in the general human being - and also superordinate to the heterosexual/cisman. Thus, the historical equation of the heterosexual with the general human being, which has been valid up to the present, is abolished.