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- Title
Gendering of Language and the Challenges of Globalization: A Sociolinguistic Account of Bengali Women's Linguistic Patterns in 21<sup>st</sup> Century Kolkata.
- Authors
Dutta, Chandrabali
- Abstract
Gendered language, which is defined as a symbolic device that limits the activities of one sex, but not those same activities of the other, actually spreads and reinforces sex role stereotypes and thus complements the existence of sexism in a society. At the dawn of 21st century when everything in our society is undergoing rapid changes due to the immense influence of modernization and globalization, language still acts as a catalyst for gender discrimination. Today globalization is on everyone's lips. It has not only referred to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale but also to the growth of a global consciousness. However, while it has become a central lens through which social scientists have reframed old questions of last couple of decades, researchers working on 'gender-language interface' have been slower to do so. And now when sociolinguists are increasingly recognizing that the phenomenon of globalization has implications for patterns of language use, linguistic variation and change, it is also evident that even in this global era each language has inherent in it expressions that are indicative of society's differential treatment for women, which is on the whole negative. Due to the acute dearth of substantial research in gender-language interface in India or more specifically in Kolkata, the primary aim of this paper is to investigate society's bias against women with evidence from an Indian language, i.e., Bengali. The paper will focus on how in a patriarchal country like India, in spite of numerous socio-cultural transformations, language acts as a tool of coercion as well as it is internalized as part of learning to be a woman, imposed on women by societal norms and in turn keeps them in their place. Given this backdrop, this article attempts to show how over time, with the rapidly changing culture of our society language in general and Bengali language in particular facilitates the construction and reinforcement of gendered identity of educated Bengali women (18-25 years, 30-45 years) in Kolkata. Moreover, special thrust is given on how despite the introduction of several gender-neutral vocabularies in recent times, gendered linguistic practices continue unabated till date.
- Subjects
GENDER; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; GLOBALIZATION; SEXISM; SEX discrimination
- Publication
Language in India, 2016, Vol 16, Issue 7, p53
- ISSN
1930-2940
- Publication type
Article