Skip to main content

How Can Language be Sexist?

  • Chapter
Discovering Reality

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 161))

  • 617 Accesses

Abstract

Prima facie, our title question may seem pointless. Barring bigots, virtually everybody will agree that language is frequently used in a sexist way. Why, then, the question?

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Cf. Alfred Tarski, ‘The concept of truth in formalized languages’, in Alfred Tarski, Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1956, pp. 152–278.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cf. Richmond H. Thomason (ed.), Formal Philosophy: Selected Papers of Richard Montague, Yale U.P., New Haven, 1974; D. R. Dowty, R. E. Wall, and S. Peters, Introduction to Montague Semantics, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cf., e.g., Jerry A. Fodor, The Language of Thought, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Further observations concerning this distinction are made in Jaakko Hintikka and Merrill B. Hintikka, Towards a general theory of individuation and identification’, partly forthcoming in the proceedings of the Sixth International Wittgenstein Symposium, Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  5. This point is well argued in the seminal last chapter The word “good” ’of Paul Ziff, Semantic Analysis, Cornell, U.P., Ithaca, N.Y., 1960.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cf. here A. Adkins, Merit and Responsibility, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960.

    Google Scholar 

  7. P. A. Schilpp (ed.), The Philosophy of G. E. Moore (The Library of Living Philosophers), Tudor, New York, 1952, pp. 3–39, especially p. 9.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Yrjö Hirn, ‘Voltaires hjärta’, in Yrjö Hirn, De lagerkrönta skoplaggen, Söderström & Co., Helsinki, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  9. For an interesting discussion, see chapter 2 of C. S. Lewis, Studies in Words, second ed., Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cf. Inge K. Broverman, Donald M. Broverman, et al., ‘Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgments of mental health’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 34 No. 1 (1970), 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cf. Adkins, op. cit. (Note 6 above), especially chapter 3.

    Google Scholar 

  12. See his books Models for Modalities, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1969, and The Intentions of Intentionality, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Cf. W. V. Quine, ‘Worlds away’, Journal of Philosophy 73 (1976), 859–863.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Cf. Saul Kripke, ‘Identity through time’, paper delivered at the Seventy-Sixth Annual Meeting of APA Eastern Division, New York, December 27-30, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  15. This point has been implicit in Jaakko Hintikka’s work ever since the last chapter of Knowledge and Belief, Cornell U.P., Ithaca, N.Y., 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Op. cit. (note 12 above).

    Google Scholar 

  17. ‘Towards a general theory of individuation and identification’ (note 4 above).

    Google Scholar 

  18. David Lewis, ‘Counterpart theory and quantified modal logic’, Journal of Philosophy 65 (1968), 113–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Cf., e.g., J. Kagan, H. A. Moss, and I. E. Sigel, ‘The psychological significance of styles of conceptualization’, in J. C. Wright and J. Kagan (eds.), Basic Cognitive Processes in Children (Society for Research in Child Development Monograph 28, no. 2), 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Cf. e.g., Eleanor E. Maccoby, ‘Sex differences in intellectual functioning’, in Eleanor E. Maccoby (ed.), The Development of Sex Differences, Stanford U.P., Stanford, 1966, pp. 25–55.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity, Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass., 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Cf. On the logic of perception’ in Models for Modalities (Note 12 above); ‘Knowledge by acquaintance — individuation by acquaintance’ in Jaakko Hintikka, Knowledge and the Known, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1974.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  23. Cf. Aristotle, Categories, ch. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Cf. Jaakko Hintikka, ‘Leibniz on plenitude, relations, and the “Reign of Law”’, in Simo Knuuttila (ed.), Reforging the Great Chain of Being, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1981, pp. 259–286.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hintikka, M.B., Hintikka, J. (2003). How Can Language be Sexist?. In: Harding, S., Hintikka, M.B. (eds) Discovering Reality. Synthese Library, vol 161. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0101-4_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0101-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-1319-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0101-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics