Cover not available

Article published In: Language, discourse and identities: Snapshot from Greek contexts
Edited by Alexandra Georgakopoulou and Vally Lytra
[Pragmatics 19:3] 2009
► pp. 317–340

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF

Lexical choices of gender identity in Greek genres

The view from corpora

Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 September 2009
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.3.02gou
This paper examines the role of the lexical pairs άνδρας/άντρας ‘man’ vs. γυναίκα ‘woman’ and αγόρι ‘boy’ vs. κορίτσι ‘girl’ in the construction of gender identity. We use corpus methodology to study the frequency, meanings and collocations of the noun pairs in five different genres of Greek, namely news and opinion articles from newspapers, and general interest, male and female magazines (2,4 million words in total). Our findings point to a fundamental asymmetry in the treatment of the two genders. Furthermore, genre and audience design are found to be prominent in gender construction: In general, male identity is viewed in similar ways in all genres, whereas female identity is constructed in a less uniform way, since texts addressed to women significantly diverge from other genres. Thus, lexical choices are affected by the positioning of the text producer as a member of an in-group, especially in genres in which gender is foregrounded.
References (39)
Anastasiadi-Symeonidi, and Chila-Markopoulou/ Αναστασιάδη-Συμεωνίδη, Α. & Δ. Χειλά-Μαρκοπούλου (επιμ.) (2003) Το γένος. Αθήνα: Πατάκης.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Archakis and Kondyli/ Αρχάκης, Α. & M. Κονδύλη (2002) Εισαγωγή στην Κοινωνιογλωσσολογία. Αθήνα: Νήσος.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Babiniotis/ Μπαμπινιώτης Γ. (2002) Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας. Αθήνα: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας. 2η έκδοση.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P. (2006) Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London and New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. (1980) Language, the Loaded Weapon. London: Longman.  MetBibGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2003) Gender issues in language change. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 231: 187-201.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charalambakis/ Χαραλαμπάκης, Χ. (2001) Νεοελληνικός λόγος. 3η έκδοση. Αθήνα.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
del-Teso-Craviotto, M. (2006) Words that matter: Lexical choice and gender ideologies in women’s magazines. Journal of Pragmatics 381: 2003-2021.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijk, T.A. van (1998) Opinions and ideologies in the press. In A. Bell, and P. Garrett (eds.), Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 21-63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fragaki, G., and D. Goutsos (forthcoming) Gender adjectives and identity construction in Greek corpora. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, 8-10 September 2005, University of York.
Fragoudaki/ Φραγκουδάκη, Α. (1988) Γλώσσα λανθάνουσα-2. Δίνη 31: 82-85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1989) Γλώσσα λανθάνουσα-3 ή γιατί δεν υπάρχουν βουλεύτριες παρά μόνο χορεύτριες. Δίνη 41: 42-44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A. (1995) Women, men and conversational narrative performances: Aspects of gender in Greek storytelling. Anthropological Linguistics 371: 460-486.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gesuato, S. (2003) The company women and men keep: What collocations can reveal about culture. In D. Archer, P. Rayson, A. Wilson, and T. McEnery (eds.), Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics 2003 conference. UCREL, Lancaster University, pp. 253-262.  TSBGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goutsos/ Γούτσος, Δ. (2003) Σώμα Ελληνικών Κειμένων: Σχεδιασμός και υλοποίηση. Πρακτικά του 6ου Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Ελληνικής Γλωσσολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης, 18-21 Σεπτεμβρίου 2003. CD-ROM publication.
Goutsos, D., and M. Katsoyannou (2006) Gender construction and the Word Thesaurus for Greek. In E.- M. Thüne, S. Leonardi, and C. Bazzanella (eds.), Gender, Language and New Literacy: A Multilingual Analysis.London and New York: Continuum, pp. 95-106.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (2000) Ladies and gentlemen: Corpus analysis and linguistic sexism. In C. Mair, and M. Hundt (eds.), Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. Papers from the 20th International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 20).Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 141-155.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2001) A corpus-based view of gender in New Zealand English. In M. Hellinger, and H. Bussman (eds.), Gender across Languages. The Linguistic Representation of Women and Men. Vol.11. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 115-136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, J., and R. Sigley (2002) What’s a word like girl doing in a place like this? Occupational labels, sexist usages and corpus research. In P. Peters, P. Collins, and A. Smith (eds.), New Frontiers of Corpus Linguistics. Papers from the 21st International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora. Sydney 2000 . Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 247-263.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kakridi-Ferrari/ Κακριδή-Φερράρι, Μ. (2005) Γλώσσα και κοινωνικό περιβάλλον: Ζητήματα κοινωνιογλωσσολογίας. Α’ Μέρος. Αθήνα: Παρουσία αρ. 64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendall, S., and D. Tannen (2003) Discourse and gender. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, and H.E. Hamilton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 548-568. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (1975) Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper Colophon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, G., and R. Fallon (2004) [1992] Computer corpora - what do they tell us about culture? In G. Sampson, and D. McCarthy (eds.), Corpus Linguistics. Readings in a Widening Discipline . London: Continuum, pp. 160-171.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Makri-Tsilipakou, M. (1989) The gender of anthropos: An exercise in false generics. Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on the Description and/or Comparison of English and Greek, School of English, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki, pp. 61-83.
. (1991) Agreement/disagreement: Affiliative vs. disaffiliative display in cross-sex conversations. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of English Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Makri-Tsilipakou/ Μακρή-Τσιλιπάκου, Μ. (1996) Τι άλλαξε λοιπόν; Μελέτες για την Ελληνική Γλώσσα. Πρακτικά της 16ης Ετήσιας Συνάντησης του Τομέα Γλωσσολογίας του Τμήματος Φιλολογίας της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Α.Π.Θ . Θεσσαλονίκη, pp. 435-446.
Makri-Tsilipakou, M. (2003) Greek diminutive use problematized: Gender, culture and common sense. Discourse & Society 14.6: 699-726.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlidou/ Παυλίδου, Θ. (1985) Παρατηρήσεις στα θηλυκά επαγγελματικά. Μελέτες για την Ελληνική Γλώσσα , Πρακτικά της 5ης ετήσιας συνάντησης του Τομέα Γλωσσολογίας της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Α. Π. Θ. εσσαλονίκη: Αφοί Κυριακίδη, pp. 201-217.
Pavlidou: Παυλίδου, Θ.-Σ. (επιμ.) (2002) Γλώσσα – Γένος – Φύλο. Θεσσαλονίκη: Παρατηρητής.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlidou et al./Παυλίδου, Θ.-Σ., Αλβανούδη, Α. & Καραφώτη, Ε. (2004) Γραμματικό γένος και σημασιακό περιεχόμενο: Προκαταρκτικές παρατηρήσεις για τη λεξιλογική αναπαράσταση των φύλων. Μελέτες για την Ελληνική Γλώσσα. Πρακτικά της 24ης Ετήσιας Συνάντησης του Τομέα Γλωσσολογίας του Τμήματος Φιλολογίας της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής του Α.Π.Θ. Θεσσαλονίκη, pp. 543-553.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ralli, A. (2002) The role of morphology in gender determination: Evidence from Modern Greek. Linguistics 401: 519-551. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmid, H.-J. (2003) Do women and men really live in different cultures? Evidence from the BNC. In A. Wilson, P. Rayson, and T. McEnery (eds.), Corpora by the Lune: A festschrift for Geoffrey Leech. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, pp. 185-221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sigley, R., and J. Holmes (2002) Looking at girls in corpora of English. Journal of English Linguistics 30.2: 138-157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. (1996) Text and Corpus Analysis. Computer-assisted Studies of Language and Culture.Oxford: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2001) Words and Phrases. Corpus Studies of Lexical Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1982) Ethnic style in male-female conversation. In J. Gumperz (ed.), Language and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 217-231.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1983) “I take out the rock – dok!”: How Greek women tell about being molested (and create involvement). Anthropological Linguistics 251: 359-374.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Triandaphyllidis/ Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη (1998)Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής. Θεσσαλονίκη: Α.Π.Θ., Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsokalidou/ Τσοκαλίδου, Ρ. (1996) Το φύλο της γλώσσας. Αθήνα: Σύνδεσμος Ελληνίδων Επιστημόνων.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Xenofontos, Constantinos
2025. Gender representations in school mathematics: a study of primary textbooks in the Republic of Cyprus. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 56:9 ► pp. 1648 ff. DOI logo
Hatzidaki, Ourania & Dionysis Goutsos
2017. The discourses of the Greek crisis. In Greece in Crisis [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 70], ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Fragaki, Georgia & Dionysis Goutsos
2015. Women and Men Talking About Men and Women in Greek. In Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2015 [Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, 3], ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Motschenbacher, Heiko
2015. Some new perspectives on gendered language structures. In Gender Across Languages [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 36], ► pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
Biernacki, Richard
2012. “A Quantifiable Indicator of a Fabricated Meaning Element”. In Reinventing Evidence in Social Inquiry, ► pp. 97 ff. DOI logo
Goutsos, Dionysis
2010. The Corpus of Greek Texts: a reference corpus for Modern Greek. Corpora 5:1 ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Goutsos, Dionysis
2025. Language change and (im)politeness in film discourse. Journal of Language and Pop Culture 1:2 ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue