GENDER-SENSITIVE LANGUAGE IN TURKISH AND ENGLISH: CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

Despite the prejudiced perception from the past, culturally and politically the world today is evolving to form a more neutral perception towards people. Today, in spite of this positive change, the stereotyped perception of prejudices and discriminatory behavior continues to exist directly or implicitly in the communication process. Alternatives are offered to minimize these discourses that come as the legacy of the past in our social life and language use. Although the current perception accepts that these discourses are false, the words an d expressions used in language and communication could not be detached from the ongoing perception. This paper aims to examine the various forms of gender-based inequality that exist within languages, attempting to portray such differences in Turkish and English. Accordingly, examples of gender associative expressions and terms that are frequently used in Turkish and English in daily life were identified. Subsequently, an alternative terminology has been proposed to sexist discourses that existed explicitly or implicitly in these statements.