- Historical/Contemporary Changes.
Occupations/sematic
non equivalences
In more than one
'Modern day workplace situation' there are nouns that denote workers in a given
occupation. In some cases, they may seem gender-neutral such as a 'teacher' or
a 'social worker'. Others may have gender-neutral denotations such as doctors,
lawyers and nurses, but not a gender-neutral connotation for all speakers
and listeners. Speakers will show this by using terms such as “woman doctor” or
“male nurse” (doctor/nurse), distinguishing each gender from one another even
if they share the same profession. "Listeners may not show it but you can
test their expectations by statements or short narratives that allow for
contradiction of assumptions (such as a story about a doctor or nurse depicted
as the spouse of a man or woman, as appropriate." Another way of
distinguishing between genders that has been a wide speculation for debate, is
the way we use the sematic non equivalences that are traditionally associated
with each gender depending on their social situation. "These are the pairs
of terms that historically differentiated by sex alone, but which, over time,
have gained different connotations (e.g. Of status or value) and in some
cases different denotations. Examples
include:
- Mrs, Ms/Mr;
- Miss/Master, Mr;
- Mistress/master;
- Governess/governor;
- Spinster/bachelor;
- Tomboy/sissy;
- Lady/Lord;
- Lady/gentleman;
- Dame/knight;
- Bride/(bride)groom;
- Madam/sir;
- Queen/king;
- Matron/patron;
- Husband/wife;
- Author/authoress;
- Dog/bitch."
For example, "master" is historically known
to be someone of a higher status, who has people working for him;
"succumbing to his masters wishes." And is still nowadays used as an
adjective when referring to skill or proficiency. Additionally, the term
"mistress" also meant someone of a high status historically, but now
is not widely used as a positive term, although meaning the same thing as
master (Mistress of a skill) its more common connotation is "A woman,
other than a mans wife, having sex with that man." However, the modern day
terms; Headmaster and Headmistress are relatively neutral terms in the fact
that they share the same job.
