In the German-language discourse on gender fair language (called „gendering/Gendern" in the German speaking world), a decided pro and con prevails to a large extent, and both sides substantiate their stances also scientifically (Kotthoff 2020). One side (contra gendering) argues, among other things, with Jakobson's markedness theory (Bayer 2019) and sets it as absolute (thus the criticism by Haspelmath 2006). The other side (pro) argues with results from psychological experimental research with context-free short texts (Stahlberg/Szessny 2001) and sometimes a strong linguistic relativism (Jakiela/Ouzier 2020 ), which directly relates the linguistic gender factor to women's labor market participation. So are both positions equally ideological? Does the ideologicity diminish if, for example, in the pro position, the reference of gender language to labor market participation is thought of in a more mediated way? Are there intermediate tones? The lecture will address the question of where and how the potentials for ideology are located in this discourse and could possibly be gradually stratified. What is the argumentative power of a theory of linguistic ideologies that lumps ideological potentials together (and scientific underpinnings along with them), as I take it from Blommaert (2006), for example? In the context of gendering in German, its different realizations and justifications, I would like to pursue a question concerning the gradability of ideology that Cavanaugh (2020) also raises.
Bayer, Josef (2019): „Sprachen wandeln sich immer, aber nie in Richtung Unsinn." Neue Zürcher Zeitung [10.04.2019].
Blommaert, Jan (2006): Language Ideology. In: Keith Brown (ed.): Encyclopedia of Language&Linguistics, 2nd edition.Vol. 6, pp. 510-522. Oxford: Elsevier.
Cavanaugh, Jillian R. (2020): Language ideology revisited. Intern. Journal of the Sociology of Language 263.
Haspelmath, Martin (2006): „Against markedness (and what to replace it with)." Journal of Linguistics 42/1: 25–70.
Jakiela Pamela/Owen Ozier (2020): Gendered Language, Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. IZA Discussion Paper 13126.
Kotthoff, Helga (2020): Gender-Sternchen, Binnen-I oder generisches Maskulinum, … (Akademische) Textstile der Personenreferenz als Registrierungen? Linguistik Online, 103(3), 105–127.
Stahlberg, Dagmar/Sczesny, Sabine (2001): Effekte des generischen Maskulinums und alternativer Sprachformen auf den gedanklichen Einbezug von Frauen. In: Psychologische Rundschau 52/3, 131-140.
