Browsing by Author "Larsson, Christel"

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    ¿La fiscal o la fiscala? Un estudio sociolingüístico sobre el uso de denominaciones con referentes mujeres
    (Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för språk och litteraturer, 2014) Larsson, Christel; Söhrman, Ingmar
    The thesis is a sociolinguistic investigation of how native Spaniards designate female professionals in 40 occupations. Due to the lack of norms in this field, it is characterized by variation and vacillation, even by the Royal Spanish Academy. The main objective of the study is to describe quantitatively how the use of the linguistic variable (1. the feminine: la abogada; 2. the common gender: la abogado; 3. a modifying attribute: la mujer abogado/la abogado mujer), is determined by different social factors (sex, age and education level). The results of these calculations, together with those of the analyses of acceptance, also serve as the basis of our second objective, which is to explain why certain designations with reference to women are preferred in the common gender by the majority of the 600 informants mainly proceeding from the Madrid area. The selection of the 40 professions is partly based on their morphological structure, partly on other factors, which means that the material includes job titles of different types and status, thus representing various socioeconomic levels in the Spanish society. The results of the quantitative analysis show that 22 of the 40 professions are preferred in the common gender by the majority of the informants. The conclusions regarding the impact of the social factors confirm a majority use of feminine designations by the women, the oldest age group and the speakers with the highest level of education, respectively. The qualitative analysis shows that different intra and extra linguistic factors, such as phonological, morphological, semantic, syntactic, cultural and social ones, on the cognitive level form the speakers’ attitudes to the different designations, which together with the prevailing pragmatic factors determine the election of variant in each case. Owing to the fact that the preferences vary not only from one speaker to another but also within the speakers, i.e. from one designation to another, our conclusion is that no common denominator can be found that explains the resistance, but that idiosyncrasy predominates in this field, which complicates the prediction of the future use.
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    La flexión de género femenino en los nombres de oficios, cargos y profesiones en el español peninsular contemporáneo
    (2009-09-08T15:37:13Z) Larsson, Christel; University of Gothenburg/Department of Romance Languages; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för romanska språk
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    Primary weight maintenance: an observational study exploring candidate variables for intervention
    (2013-07-15) Lindvall, Kristina; Jenkins, Paul; Emmelin, Maria; Scribani, Melissa; Norberg, Margareta; Larsson, Christel; Weinehall, Lars
    Abstract Background Previous studies have focused on weight maintenance following weight loss, i.e. secondary weight maintenance (SWM). The long-term results of SWM have been rather modest and it has been suggested that preventing initial weight gain, i.e. primary weight maintenance (PWM), may be more successful. Therefore, developing a prevention strategy focused on PWM, enabling normal weight or overweight individuals to maintain their weight, would be of great interest. The aim of this study was to identify attitudes, strategies, and behaviors that are predictive of PWM in different age, sex and BMI groups in Northern Sweden. Methods A questionnaire was mailed to 3497 individuals in a Swedish population that had two measured weights taken ten years apart, as participants in the Västerbotten Intervention Programme. Subjects were between 41–63 years of age at the time of the survey, had a baseline BMI of 20–30, and a ten year percent change in BMI greater than -3%. The respondents were divided into twelve subgroups based on baseline age (30, 40 and 50), sex and BMI (normal weight and overweight). Analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and linear regression were performed to identify independent predictors of PWM. Results Of the 166 predictors tested, 152 (91.6%) were predictive of PWM in at least one subgroup. However, only 7 of these 152 variables (4.6%) were significant in 6 subgroups or more. The number of significant predictors of PWM was higher for male (35.8) than female (27.5) subgroups (p=0.044). There was a tendency (non significant) for normal weight subgroups to have a higher number of predictors (35.3) than overweight subgroups (28.0). Adjusted R-squared values ranged from 0.1 to 0.420. Conclusions The large number of PWM predictors identified, and accompanying high R-squared values, provide a promising first step towards the development of PWM interventions. The large disparity in the pattern of significant variables between subgroups suggests that these interventions should be tailored to the person’s demographic (age, sex and BMI). The next steps should be directed towards evaluation of these predictors for causal potential.
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    "Soy cocinera y camarero". La variación en el nombramiento de las mujeres profesionales en España
    (2015-10-08) Larsson, Christel
    The overall aim of this dissertation is to generate a theory explaining the variation in the way the Spaniards, particularly the Spanish women, designate female professionals. Three different studies are included, the first one a quantitative survey on how the use of the three main strategies for referring to female professionals (the feminine: la abogada; the common gender: la abogado; lexical modification: mujer abogado) is determined by the sex, the age and the educational level of the speakers. The material consists of 40 professions and includes job titles of various types, representing different socioeconomic levels in the Spanish society. The results show that 18 of the 40 professsions are used in the feminine, 22 in the common gender and, consequently, no profession is used in the third variant by the majority of the informants. The conclusions regarding the impact of the social factors confirm a majority use of feminine designations by the women, the oldest age group and the speakers with the highest level of education, respectively. However, the differences between the groups are marginal counted in absolute numbers. The analysis of the extent to which the informants are ready to accept the feminine of the professions demonstrate the highest values in the following groups: the women, the youngest age group and the informants with the lowest educational level. The results of the qualitative study show that several factors influence the election of variant in the 22 cases not used in the feminine according to the first study, which indicates the predomination of idiosyncrasy in this field. Due to the small differences between the groups concerning the feminine use, the aim of the third study is to find out what factors determine the female use. In 31 in-depth interviews, cards illustrating different professions, practised by both men and women, are presented and discussed. The analysis of this study is couched within the Grounded Theory framework, according to which the aim is to generate a new theory, not to confirm an existing one. Such a theory is entirely grounded in the empiric data that emerge throughout the analysis, when data are compared for similarities and formed into categories. The core category – existence in our study – is the one which accounts for most of the variation around the concern. Thus, the prerequisite of the use of a feminine title is its approval by the Royal Spanish Academy. However, its power is twofold. The academic norm is prescriptive only in non-existing cases, since nobody uses, unless in very specific contexts, a feminine title that is not accepted. In the opposite case, the use of the feminine is optional and determined by the factors awareness, presence, habit, aesthetics, attitude and idiosyncrasy. To ensure the highest degree of reliability and validity of our final conclusions, the last step consists of triangulating the three studies. Keywords: Female professional designations, European Spanish, gender, linguistic sexism, sociolinguistics, survey, in-depth interviews, Grounded Theory, triangulation.