Words Against Women: the Discourse of Gender Violence

This is a monographic volume which explores the relationship between language and questions of social justice/injustice. In particular, it addresses the issue of gender in English discourse and argues that negative female-referent gender-marking in language is a form of verbal violence and can even be used as a justification of physical violence towards women. The first chapter presents an in-depth description of the gender-marked characteristics of the English language, both in the system itself and in discourse use. The second chapter explores the social and juridical bases of gender discrimination in the history of English culture. The third chapter discusses common negative representations of women in the media. The final chapter presents a linguistic analysis of representations of physical and sexual violence towards women, including discourse strategies characteristic of institutional genres.