{"title":"‘Are you man enough?’. Gender as an increasingly decisive factor in the choice of Basque personal pronouns","authors":"Garbiñe Bereziartua , Beñat Muguruza","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2023.11.004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study seeks to explore the relationship between the Basque informal form of address <em>hika</em> and gender. <em>Hika</em> consists of a complex system that is in decline among Basque speakers and is currently employed mostly by men. Focus group discussions and dyadic interviews were used to elicit data from 38 participants from different generations (in the age range 14–74) and profiles. In line with previous studies, our findings confirm the relationship between <em>hika</em> and masculinity, which is manifested in various expressions. This association has been enforced significantly in one or two generations, and the use of the informal address form has become marginal among the youngest female participants. While the meaning of the use of <em>hika</em> among men is usually clear, female forms are considered more uncertain or ambiguous by participants.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530923000757/pdfft?md5=feeca51d17f0326c4bb41ac90f56eff0&pid=1-s2.0-S0271530923000757-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language & Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530923000757","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study seeks to explore the relationship between the Basque informal form of address hika and gender. Hika consists of a complex system that is in decline among Basque speakers and is currently employed mostly by men. Focus group discussions and dyadic interviews were used to elicit data from 38 participants from different generations (in the age range 14–74) and profiles. In line with previous studies, our findings confirm the relationship between hika and masculinity, which is manifested in various expressions. This association has been enforced significantly in one or two generations, and the use of the informal address form has become marginal among the youngest female participants. While the meaning of the use of hika among men is usually clear, female forms are considered more uncertain or ambiguous by participants.
期刊介绍:
This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.