Incidence of sex factor in the available lexicon of a bilingual community

Abstract

Sex (or gender) is one of the sociolinguistic variables considered, traditionally, in studies dealing with lexical variation. In the present work we intend to know the incidence of this variable on the lexicon available in Spanish and in Catalan in the province of Lleida. Specifically, we analyze through statistical procedures the influence that this factor exerts on the production of the lexicon in the two languages in a sample of 240 bilingual informants aged between 17 and 18 years old with secondary education. We verify that: 1) women obtain better production rates; 2) lexicon available in each center of interest depends on whether reality to which it refers is socially assigned to male or female sphere; 3) women are avoiding the prohibition of using bad words; 4) on the other hand, they use linguistic affectivity’s features. It happens in both languages in contact, although with certain notable differences.