Male-children and female-children in the linguistic awareness of the nineteenth century. A case of activation of the

Abstract

This paper aims to explore gender splitting in Spanish regarding the denomination of male and female children in the nineteenth century. In this study we have analyzed historical facts as sexual segregation in the schools, as well as the pragmatic-discoursive neces-sity that speakers have of referring to sex. Moreover, we examine the way in which the nineteenth-century press could be a very interesting framework concerning the concept of discoursive traditions on that phenomenon. Here we have studied a small corpus of texts where gender splitting occurred. And for that purpose, we have coined a new methodological instrument from cognitive sociolinguistics as “gendered sociolinguistic universe” where this discoursive strategy could be explored.