Vol. 2 No. 2 (2025): Language and Culture in Education
Articles

Is a doctor a (wo)man?Some remarks on sexist language use in English and Greek

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  • Marina Tzakosta
Marina Tzakosta
University of Crete

Published 2025-05-21

Copyright (c) 2025 Marina Tzakosta (Author)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Tzakosta, M. (2025). Is a doctor a (wo)man?Some remarks on sexist language use in English and Greek. Journal of Language and Culture in Education, 2(2), 149-158. https://doi.org/10.5281/9nke3669

Abstract

In the present paper I discuss the forms of language sexism appearing in English and Greek placing emphasis on professional nominal forms. More specifically, the focus of the paper is on (a) speakers’ attitudes on sexism as a social reality and its reflection on language as well as (b) the differences between languages with different forms of gender morphological marking, i.e. English and Greek, respectively. I will argue that sexism is a) a relative gradient notion, b) more evident in languages with gender discrimination and c) a topic that needs to be essentially incorporated on language teaching.

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