of the person referred to, for example actor:actress, waiter:waitress,
chairman:chairwomanor the gender stereotypically associated with the
noun, for example mailman. At the end of the twentieth century, many such
terms were replaced by gender-neutral forms (e.g. actorfor both men and
women, serverinstead of waiteror waitress, chairpersonor chairinstead of
chairman, mail carrierinstead of mailman) in a number of English-speaking
speech communities.gendered domainn
a set of linguistic routines or contexts that is or appears to be gender-specific
or more typical of one gender. For example, mathematics can be stereo-
typed as a male domain, while the family can be viewed as a more female
gendered domain.
genderlect n
see gender
General American Englishn
also standard American English
an accent of American English that is perceived by most Americans to be
both standard and neutral (free of regional characteristics). As represented
in textbooks for learners of American English and the pronunciations most
often given in American English dictionaries, “General American” was
originally modeled after Midwestern dialects, but the concept is not rigidly
defined, and speakers from many other parts of the US also claim to speak
general or standard American English.
generalization ngeneralize v
1 (in linguistics) a rule or principle which explains observed linguistic data.
2 (in learning theory) a process common to all types of learning, which
consists of the formation of a general rule or principle from the observa-
tion of particular examples. For example a child who sees the English
words book – books, and dog – dogs may generalize that the concept of
plural in English is formed by adding sto words.
see also overgeneralization
general nativismn
see nativism
generate v
if the application of a set of rules results in a given structure or string as
output, then those rules are said to “generate” the structure or string.
see generative grammar, generative theory
generate