Otto Jespersen and “The Woman”, then and now
Danish linguist Otto Jespersen’s (1860–1943) Language, its Nature, Development, and Origin was published more than 90 years ago, in 1922. This article focuses on Jespersen’s often-cited Chapter 13, entitled “The Woman”, a text that has served since the 1970s as a touchstone for feminist narratives of the history of discussion of language and gender. The author of the present article shows that modern treatment of the chapter sometimes misconstrues Jespersen in casting him into the role of mouthpiece for ideas about women and language that contemporary scholars have discredited. She suggests instead that “The Woman” deserves a new reading, which neither apologizes for Jespersen’s views, nor diminishes his importance to the history of feminist linguistics, but rather recognizes the intricacies of this text and seeks to better understand its position in relation to present-day scholarship on language and gender.
References
Awan, Safeer & Muhammad Sheeraz
2011 “
Gender-Oriented Code-Switching: A case-study of English language teachers at Pakistani universities”.
International Journal of Academic Research 31.410–415.
Bally, Charles
1913 Le langage et la vie. Geneva: Éditions Atar.
Baron, Dennis
1986 Grammar and Gender. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Bergvall, Victoria L.
1999 “
Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Language and Gender”.
Language in Society 281.273–293.
Bloomfield, Leonard
1922 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The American Journal of Philology 431.370–373.
Bradley, Patricia Hayes
1981 “
The Folk-Linguistics of Women’s Speech: An empirical investigation”.
Communication Monographs 481.73–90.
Bucholtz, Mary & Kira Hall
1995 “
Introduction”.
Gender Articulated ed. by
Kira Hall &
Mary Bucholtz, 1–22. New York: Routledge.
Cameron, Deborah
1985 Feminism and Linguistic Theory. London: Macmillan.
Cameron, Deborah
1990 The Feminist Critique of Language: A reader. London: Routledge.
Cameron, Deborah
2003a “
Gender and Language Ideologies”.
Holmes &
Meyerhoff, eds. 2003.447–467.
Cameron, Deborah
2003b “
Gender Issues in Language Change”.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 231.187–201.
Cameron, Deborah
2007 The Myth of Mars and Venus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coates, Jennifer
1986 Women, Men and Language. London: Longman. (2nd ed. 1993; 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education 2004).
Collinson, W[illiam] E[dward]
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The Modern Language Review 181.91–96.
Dauzat, Albert
1910 La vie du langage. Paris: Armand Colin.
De Reul, Paul
1922 Review of Jespersen (1922).
Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 11.731–738.
Ellis, Havelock
1894 Man and Woman. New York: William Scott.
Falk, Julia
1992 “
Otto Jespersen, Leonard Bloomfield, and American Structural Linguistics”.
Language 681.465–491.
Fögen, Thorsten
2004 “
Gender-Specific Communication in Graeco-Roman Antiquity”.
Historiographia Linguistica 211.199–276.
Frank, Francine Wattman
1978 “
Women’s Language in America: Myth and reality”.
Women’s Language and Style ed. by
Douglass Butturff &
Edmund L. Epstein, 47–61. Akron, Ohio: Department of English, University of Akron.
Freed, Alice F.
1995 “
Language and Gender”.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 151.3–22.
Freed, Alice F.
2003 “
Epilogue: Reflections on language and gender research”.
Holmes &
Meyerhoff, eds. 2003.699–721.
Furfey, Paul Hanley
1944 “
Men’s and Women’s Language”.
The American Catholic Sociological Review 51.218–223.
Goddard, Angela & Lindsey Meân Patterson
2000 Language and Gender. London: Routledge.
Graddol, David & Joan Swann
1989 Gender Voices. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Hall, Kira
2003 “
Exceptional Speakers: Contested and problematized gender identities”.
Holmes &
Meyerhoff, eds. 2003.353–380.
Henley, Nancy & Cheris Kramarae
1991 “
Gender, Power, and Miscommunication”.
Miscommunication and Problematic Talk ed. by
Nikolas Coupland,
Howard Giles &
John M. Wiemann, 18–43. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.
Hill, Alette Olin
1986 Mother Tongue, Father Time: A decade of linguistic revolt. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.
Holmes, Janet & Miriam Meyerhoff
eds. 2003 The Handbook of Language and Gender. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Howatt, A. P. R.
1984 A History of English Language Teaching. (2nd ed. with
H[enry] G. Widdowson 2004.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jespersen, Otto
1917 Review of Cours de linguistique générale de F. de Saussure ed. by
Charles Bally &
Albert Sechehaye, and assisted by
Albert Riedlinger (Lausanne & Paris: Payot 1916)
Nordisk Tidsskrift for Filologi 61.37–41.
Jespersen, Otto
1907 “
Mands sprog og kvindes tale [Man’s language and women’s speech]”.
Gads Danske Magasin 1906/1907 ed. by
C. Gulman &
L. Moltsen, 581–592. Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad.
Jespersen, Otto
1909–1949 A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part I: Sounds and Spellings 1909;
Part II:
Syntax Vol. 11 1914;
Part III,
Syntax Vol. 21 1927;
Part IV,
Syntax: Time and Tense Vol. 31 1931, Heidelberg: Carl Winter;
Part V,
Syntax Vol. 41 1940;
Part VI,
Morphology (with the assistance of
Paul Christophersen,
Niels Haislund &
Knud Schibsbye) 1942;
Part VII,
Syntax (completed and published by Niels Haislund), Copenhagen: Munksgaard 1949.
Jespersen, Otto
1922 Language, Its Nature, Development and Origin. London: George Allen & Unwin. (Repr., New York: W. W. Norton 1964).
Jespersen, Otto
1929 An International Language. New York: W. W. Norton.
Jespersen, Otto
1941 Sproget: Barnet, Kvinden, Slaegten [
Language: Child, woman, family]. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel.
Jespersen, Otto
1946 Mankind, Nation, and the Individual. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Jespersen, Otto
1995 [1938] A Linguist’s Life: An English translation of Otto Jespersen’s autobiography with notes, photos and a bibliography ed. by
Arne Juul,
Hans F. Nielsen &
Jørgen Erik Nielsen. Odense: Odense University Press.
Johnson, Fern L.
1983 “
Political and Pedagogical Implications of Attitudes Towards Women’s Language”.
Communication Quarterly 311.133–138.
Juul, Arne & Hans F. Nielsen
Kennedy, Arthur G.
1924 Review of Jespersen (1922).
Modern Philology 211.328–331.
Kent, Ronald G.
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The Modern Language Journal 71.314–316.
Key, Mary Ritchie
1996 Male / Female Language. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
Kramer, Cheris
1974 “
Wishy-Washy Mommy Talk”.
Psychology Today 81 (
June 1974) 82–85.
Lakoff, Robin
1973 “
Language and Women’s Place”.
Language in Society 21.45–80.
Lakoff, Robin Tolmach
2004 [1975] Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper & Row. (Rev. and expanded ed. published as
Language and Women’s Place: Text and commentaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004.)
Mahony, Patrick
1983 “
Women’s Discourse and Literature – The question of nature and culture”.
Contemporary Psychoanalysis 191.444–459.
McConnell-Ginet, Sally
1975 “
Our Father Tongue: Essays in linguistic politics”.
Diacritics 51.44–50.
McKenzie, R[ichard]
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The Classical Review 37.90.
Mills, Sara & Louise Mullany
2011 Language, Gender and Feminism: Theory, methodology and practice. London: Routledge.
Müller, F[riedrich] Max
1875 [1863] Lectures on the Science of Language. Second Series. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. [Originally: Longmans, Green & Co.]
Müller, F. Max
1876 Chips from a German Workshop. Vol. IV1. London: Longmans, Green & Co.; New York: Charles Scribner.
Nielsen, Hans F.
1989 “
On Otto Jespersen’s View of Language Evolution”.
Juul &
Nielsen, eds. 1989.61–78.
Nordenstam, Kerstin
2008 Genusperspektiv på sprak [
Gender perspectives on language]. Stockholm: Högskoleverket.
Oertel, Hanns
1902 Lectures on the Study of Language. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Ostermann, Ana Christina
2003 “
Communities of Practice at Work: Gender, facework and power of habitus at an all-female police station and a feminist crisis intervention center in Brazil”.
Discourse and Society 141.473–505.
Pan, Qi
2011 “
On the Features of Female Language in English”.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies 81.1015–1018.
Paul, Hermann
1889 [2
1886]
Principles of the History of Language. Transl. by
Herbert Augustus Strong. London: Sonnenschein & Co.; New York: Macmillan.
Pendleton, Charles S.
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The English Journal 121.432–433.
Prokosch, Eduard
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 221.298–301.
Quirk, Randoph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartik
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London & New York: Longman.
Rischel, Jørgen
1989 “
Otto Jespersen’s Contribution to Danish and General Phonetics”.
Juul &
Nielsen, eds. 19891.43–60.
Romaine, Suzanne
1999 Communicating Gender. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Santaemilia, José
2002 “
Towards a Pragmatics of Gendered Conversation: A few general considerations”.
Quaderns de Filologia: Estudis lingüístics 71.93–103.
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1916 Cours de linguistique générale ed. by
Charles Bally &
Albert Sechehaye, assisted by
Albert Riedlinger. Lausanne & Paris: Payot.
Sayce, Archibald H.
1875 [1
1874]
The Principles of Comparative Philology/ 2nd ed. London: Trübner & Co.
Sayce, Archibald H.
1880 Introduction to the Science of Language. Vol. I1. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Smith, Philip M.
1985 Language, the Sexes, and Society. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Sommerfelt, Alf
1924 Review of Jespersen (1922).
Maale og Minne [no vol. number], 153–157.
Spender, Dale
1985 Man Made Language. 2nd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Sturtevant, E[dgar] H[oward]
1917 Linguistic Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sturtevant, E. H.
1923 Review of Jespersen (1922).
The Classical Weekly 171.12–14.
Sunderland, Jane
2006 Language and Gender: An advanced resource book. London: Routledge.
Sweet, Henry
1900 The History of Language. London: J. M Dent.
Talbot, Mary M.
1998 Language and Gender: An introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Talbot, Mary M.
2003 “
Gender Stereotypes: Reproduction and challenge”.
Holmes &
Meyerhoff, eds. 2003.468–486.
Thorne, Barrie & Nancy Henley
eds. 1975 Language and Sex: Difference and dominance. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.
Valentine, Tamara M.
2008 “
Language and Gender”.
Language in South Asia ed. by
Braj B. Krachu,
Yamuna Krachu &
S. N. Sridhar, 429–450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Whitney, William Dwight
1867 Language and the Study of Language. New York: Charles Scribner.
Whitney, William Dwight
1898 [1
1875]
The Life and Growth of Language. New York: D. Appleton.
Weatherall, Ann
2002 Gender, Language and Discourse. London: Routledge.
West, Candace
1995 “
Women’s Competence in Conversation”.
Discourse and Society 61.107–131.
Wyld, Henry Cecil
1907 The Growth of English. London: John Murray.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Stanlaw, James
2020.
Jespersen, Otto. In
The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology,
► pp. 1 ff.
[no author supplied]
2014.
Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2014.
Isis 105:S1
► pp. i ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 march 2024. 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.