Defining Desire, Dispelling Defiance: Heteronormative Language in English Language Learner’s Dictionaries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/bsuj55Keywords:
critical discourse analysis, English language learner, gender, heteronormativity, hijra, sex, sexuality, two-sex model, queer theoryAbstract
Monolingual learner’s dictionaries (MLDs) strive to use accessible, comprehensive and ostensibly objective language to communicate ideas to those with intermediate to advanced language proficiency. However, it will be argued that MLDs of the English language are not objective, but rather ideological documents in which discursive authority stems from the production of knowledge. In their representations of sex, gender and sexual desires and identities, MLDs venerate reproductive heterosexuality as the correct, normal and ‘natural’ mode of human expression while erasing queer realities and possibilities. As a result, queer English language learners are marginalised as imperfect citizens and are compelled to embody heterosexual culture in both language and behaviour in order to achieve increased legitimacy within the English-speaking nation-state.References
Alexander, M. Jacqui. 1994. “Not Just (Any) Body Can Be a Citizen: The Politics of Law, Sexuality and Postcoloniality in Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.” Feminist Review 48:5-23.
Ball, Matthew B. “Dictionaries and Ideology: The Treatment of Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals in Lexicographic Works.” Master’s thesis, School of Translation and Interpretation, University of Ottawa, 1998. Accession Order No. AAT MQ36658. Retrieved July 15, 2013 http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/en/handle/10393/4466
Baxter, James. 1980. “The Dictionary and Vocabulary Behavior: A Single Word or a Handful?” TESOL Quarterly 14(3):325-336.
Bury, Liz. 2013. “Macmillan Dictionary revises definition of marriage to include same-sex couples”. theguardian.com. Retrieved September 7, 2013 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/21/macmillan-dictionary-revises-definition-gay-marriage
Butler, Judith. 1988. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” Theatre Journal 40(4):519-531.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Cambridge Learner's Dictionary. N.d. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved December 1, 2012 http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english
Foucault, Michel. 1990. “Incitement to Discourse.” The History of Sexuality, an Introduction. New York: Vintage, 1:17-35.
Gannon, Shane. 2011. “Exclusion as Language and the Language of Exclusion: Tracing Regimes of Gender through Linguistic Representations of the ‘Eunuch.’” The Journal of the History of Sexuality 20(1):1-27.
GLAAD. N.d. “GLAAD's Transgender Resources.” Retrieved from
http://www.glaad.org/transgender
Goulet, Jean-Guy A. 1996. “The ‘Berdache’/‘Two-spirit’: A Comparison of Anthropological and Native Constructions of Gendered Identities among the Northern Athapaskans.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2(4):683-701.
Longman English Dictionary Online. N.d. Pearson ELT. Retrieved December 1, 2012 http://www.ldoceonline.com
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. N.d. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Retrieved December 1, 2012 http://www.macmillandictionary.com
Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary. N.d. Merriam-Webster, Inc. Retrieved December 1, 2012 http://www.learnersdictionary.com
Morgan, Joe. 2013. “Oxford Dictionary Says Marriage Definition Will Change to Include Gay People.” gaystarnews.com, July 24. Retrieved September 7, 2013 http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/oxford-dictionary-says-marriage-definition-will-change-include-gay-people240713
Nanda, Serena. 1985. “The Hijras of India: Cultural and Individual Dimensions of an Institutionalized Third Gender Role.” Journal of Homosexuality, 11(3/4):35-54.
Nelson, Cynthia D. 2010. “A Gay Immigrant Student's Perspective: Unspeakable Acts in the Language Class.” TESOL Quarterly, 44(3):441-464.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. N.d.. Oxford University Press. Retrieved December 1, 2012 http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com
Valentine, David. 2006. “‘I Went to Bed with My Own Kind Once’: The Erasure of Desire in the Name of Identity.” Pp. 245-257 in The Language and Sexuality Reader, edited by Deborah Cameron and Don Kulick. New York: Routledge.
Warner, Michael. 1993. “Introduction.” Pp. vii-xxxi in Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory, edited by Michael Warner. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Janelle Harms
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Note: The author is prepared to hold their copyright under Creative Commons, meaning the author retains copyright and agrees to open sharing of their manuscript for educational purposes. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before, during, or after the publication process with BSUJ, as it can lead to productive exchanges, reviews, and citations of published work.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
