Language, Gender, and Sexuality offers a panoramic and accessible introduction to the ways in which linguistic patterns are sensitive to social categories of gender and sexuality, as well as an overview of how speakers use language to create and display gender and sexuality. Revised to include the latest developments, this book covers discussions of trans/nonbinary/genderqueer identities, embodiment, new media, and the role of language and interaction in sexual harassment, assault, and rape.
Drawing on an international range of examples to illustrate key points, this book addresses the questions of:
• how language categorizes the gender/sexuality world in both grammar and interaction;
• how speakers display, create, and orient to gender, sexuality, and desire in interaction;
• how and why people display different ways of speaking based on their gender/sexual identities.
The second edition has been fully updated and now includes new sections on political discourse and social media, more discussion questions, and new extensive online resources with student activities and instructor materials. Aimed at students with no background in linguistics or gender studies, this book is essential reading for anyone studying language, gender, and sexuality for the first time.
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Notation and transcription
1 More than talking difference
2 Studying Language
3 What are gender and sexuality, Part 1: A short introduction to a very big topic
4 Gender and Sexuality Part 2: Expanding the concepts
5 How we got here Part 1: A brief history of the study of language, gender, and sexuality
6 How we got here Part 2: New Millenium Theorizing
7 Gendered Grammar
8 Gender Categories beyond Grammar
9 Doing Gender in Interaction
10 Creating gendered and sexed relationships in interaction
11 Language Norms as Gender Norms
12 New ways of seeing gendered norms in variation
13 Putting it all together
Index
Biography
Scott F. Kiesling is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
The second edition of Language, Gender and Sexuality, like the first edition, is a highly accessible introduction to the field of language, gender and sexuality. Without compromising theoretical sophistication, Kiesling introduces readers to current issues in the field at the same time that he contextualizes them historically. Revised to include five new chapters, this new edition provides up-to-date treatment of topics such as enregisterment, intersectionality, embodiment, translinguistics, and nonbinarity. A must-read for any student interested in the interaction between language and the social world. Susan Ehrlich, York University, Canada
