Language, Gender, and Sexuality An Introduction

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. This book includes discussions of trans/non-binary/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. 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 More than talking difference 2. Studying language 3. Whatare gender and sexuality?: A short introduction to a very big topic 4. How we got here: A brief history of the study of language, gender, and sexuality 5. Linguistic categorization and gender categories 6. Interaction, identity, and performativity 7. Linguistic norms as gender norms 8. Putting it all together: Gender, sexuality, and language infuse life and society Index

Scott F. Kiesling is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.