Gender Key Terms

Question	Answer
Sex	A biological terms which refers to whether you are male or female.
Gender	Sociological differences. What you identify as.
Gender neutral denotation	Words that don't contain morphemes with specific gender connotations. E.g: lawyer, doctor, nurse. NOT policeman.
Marked terms	Includes a diminuitive suffix e.g: -ess, -ette usually used to distinguish the female form.
Semantic derogation	Historically, these were differentiated by sex alone but over time have gained different connotations and in some cases denotations e.g: mistress/master.
Pejoration	A semantic shift which results in a less favourable connotation over time.
Unmarked form	The measured norm against which marked lexical items can be compared.
Marked form	That which stands out as different from a norm.
Covert marking	Marking that's understood. E.g: for the antonyms young and old (how old are you?) young is the marked term, old is unmarked.
Overt marking	Marking that takes place through affixation/modification e.g: actress.
Collocation	The way in which words and phrases occur over and over again in certain predictable contexts.
Gender neutral terms	Many professions use politically correct terms that concern no specific gender. E.g: flight attendant instead of air hostess.

Resource summary

	Created by Hazel Meades over 10 years ago