ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY

JOINT POSTGRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME IN CONFERENCE INTERPRETING AND TRANSLATION

Course in Translation

Master’s Thesis for obtaining a Master of Arts in Translation

“The use of gender-neutral language: A case study of texts translated from English into Greek”

Georgia Titomichelaki

THESSALONIKI 2019

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1 The picture that appears on the cover of the present thesis has been retrieved by the cover page of the handbook entitled Gender-Neutral Language in the European Parliament (2008a).

ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY

JOINT POSTGRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME IN CONFERENCE INTERPRETING AND TRANSLATION

Course in Translation

“The use of gender-neutral language: A case study of European Parliament texts translated from English into Greek”

Georgia Titomichelaki

Three-member Examination Committee:

Supervisor: Apostolou, Fotini – Associate Professor, School of English Language and Literature Members: Loupaki, Elpida – Assistant Professor, School of French Language and Literature Gouleti, Katerina – Special Teaching Staff, School of English Language and Literature

Thessaloniki 2019

ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΕΛΕΙΟ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΚΗ ΣΧΟΛΗ

ΔΙΑΤΜΗΜΑΤΙΚΟ ΜΕΤΑΠΤΥΧΙΑΚΟ ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΣΠΟΥΔΩΝ ΔΙΕΡΜΗΝΕΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΗΣ

Κατεύθυνση Μετάφρασης

«Η χρήση της ουδέτερης ως προς το φύλο γλώσσας: Μελέτη περίπτωσης σε μεταφράσεις κειμένων του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου από την αγγλική στην ελληνική γλώσσα»

Γεωργία Τιτομιχελάκη

Τριμελής Εξεταστική Επιτροπή:

Επιβλέπουσα: Αποστόλου, Φωτεινή – Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας Μέλη: Λουπάκη, Ελπίδα – Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γαλλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας Γουλέτη, Κατερίνα – Εργαστηριακό Διδακτικό Προσωπικό, Τμήμα Αγγλικής Γλώσσας και Φιλολογίας

Θεσσαλονίκη 2019

DEDICATION

I mean, what is a woman?

I assure you I do not know.

I do not believe that you know.

I do not believe that anybody can know

until she has expressed herself

in all the arts and professions open to human skill.

Virginia Woolf, 19312

2 On 21st January 1931 Virginia Woolf delivered the speech entitled “Professions for Women” before the National Society for Women’s Service League. In 1942, the abridged version of the speech was published posthumously in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. (Woolf, 1974)

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The use of gender-neutral language: A case study of European

Parliament texts translated from English into Greek

Keywords: gender-neutral language, non-sexist language, gender mainstreaming, language reform, linguistic sexism, ideology, language policy, Feminist Translation

Studies, European Parliament, EU translation, Critical Discourse Analysis, Corpus- based Methodology

ABSTRACT

In the present MA thesis, I try to analyse the ways in which grammatical gender is expressed when translating (EU) texts during the period 2008-2009.

More specifically, a comparative study is performed between press releases published by the European Parliament (EP) written in English and their respective renditions into Greek. Notwithstanding the fact that EU texts are not actually translations, but language versions, which are considered to have equal status and to be equally authentic originals, for the purposes of this thesis the English texts are treated as source-texts and the equivalent Greek ones as target-texts.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the choices that are preferred for the attribution of grammatical gender when translating from a genderless source language

(SL), such as English, to a gendered target language (TL), like Greek for instance.

In 2008, under the auspices of the EP, a handbook was published entitled

Gender-Neutral Language in the European Parliament, in order to promote the use of gender-fair and bias-free language in all of its parliamentary publications and written communications.

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Nevertheless, since the principle of gender neutrality cannot be implemented in the same way in all languages, the aforementioned publication offers specific suggestions for each working language of the EP, including the Greek language. To be more precise, the specific guidelines provided for Greek mention that the use of the plural of words which are the same for both sexes, or words and phrases referring to both sexes, is preferred over double forms. If that alternative is not feasible, the masculine form of the word will be employed followed by the modifier “men and women” the first time the phrase appears in the text. Moreover, it is recommended to deploy the imperative mode, as well as the passive voice instead of referring to a male subject. Finally, one further instance that requires special handling is names of professions and titles, so that they refer to persons of both sexes. In effect, the degree to which the above principles are applied in translation form the subject matter of the present study.

In order to examine whether the EP has actually applied the principle of gender neutrality, EP press releases translated before and after the publication of these guidelines, namely in 2008 and 2009 are comparatively studied. As a matter of fact, this thesis aims to observe the degree to which such gender-fair practices have been adopted, so as to delimit -if not to eradicate- the use of sexist language.

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Η χρήση της ουδέτερης ως προς το φύλο γλώσσας: Μελέτη

περίπτωσης σε μεταφράσεις κειμένων του Ευρωπαϊκού

Κοινοβουλίου από την αγγλική στην ελληνική γλώσσα

Λέξεις κλειδιά: ουδέτερη ως προς το φύλο γλώσσα, μη σεξιστική γλώσσα, ένταξη της

διάστασης του φύλου, γλωσσική μεταρρύθμιση, γλωσσικός σεξισμός, ιδεολογία,

γλωσσική πολιτική, Φεμινιστική Μεταφρασεολογία, Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο,

μετάφραση για την ΕΕ, Κριτική Ανάλυση Λόγου, Μεθοδολογία βασισμένη στα σώματα

κειμένων

ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ

Με την παρούσα μεταπτυχιακή διπλωματική εργασία θα επιχειρήσουμε να

αναλύσουμε τους τρόπους με τους οποίους αποδίδεται το γραμματικό γένος κατά τη

μετάφραση ενωσιακών κειμένων που συντάχθηκαν τη χρονική περίοδο 2008-2009.

Ειδικότερα, θα πραγματοποιηθεί μια συγκριτική μελέτη δελτίων τύπου του

Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου (ΕΚ) γραμμένων στα αγγλικά, καθώς και οι αντίστοιχες

αποδόσεις τους στην ελληνική γλώσσα. Μολονότι τα κείμενα της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης

δεν αποτελούν μεταφράσεις, αλλά γλωσσικές εκδοχές, οι οποίες χαρακτηρίζονται ως

ισότιμα και εξίσου αυθεντικά πρωτότυπα, για τους σκοπούς της παρούσας εργασίας,

θα θεωρηθούν τα κείμενα της αγγλικής γλώσσας ως κείμενα-πηγή και τα αντίστοιχα

ελληνικά ως κείμενα-στόχος.

Σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση των επιλογών που

προτιμώνται για την απόδοση του γραμματικού γένους, κατά τη μετάφραση κειμένων

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από μια γλώσσα-πηγή με περιορισμένη τη δήλωση του γραμματικού γένους, όπως η

Αγγλική, προς μια έμφυλη γλώσσα-στόχο, όπως η Ελληνική.

Το 2008 συντάχθηκε υπό την αιγίδα του ΕΚ μια σειρά οδηγιών με τίτλο

Ουδέτερη από Άποψη Φύλου Γλώσσα στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο, προκειμένου να

προωθηθεί η χρήση της μη σεξιστικής γλώσσας σε όλες τις εκδόσεις και γραπτές

ανακοινώσεις του ΕΚ.

Ωστόσο, δεδομένου ότι η αρχή της ουδετερότητας ως προς τα φύλα δεν μπορεί

να εφαρμοστεί με τον ίδιο τρόπο σε όλες τις γλώσσες, στον παραπάνω οδηγό

παρατίθενται προτάσεις για κάθε επιμέρους γλώσσα εργασίας του ΕΚ,

συμπεριλαμβανομένης και της ελληνικής γλώσσας. Συγκεκριμένα, οι ειδικές οδηγίες

που δόθηκαν για την Ελληνική ορίζουν ότι προτιμάται η χρήση στον πληθυντικό

αριθμό λέξεων που είναι κοινές και για τα δύο γένη ή λέξεων και περιφράσεων που

αναφέρονται και στα δύο γένη, έναντι των διπλών τύπων. Ελλείψει μιας τέτοιας

εναλλακτικής, θα χρησιμοποιείται ο αρσενικός τύπος της λέξης στον πληθυντικό

αριθμό συνοδευόμενος από τον προσδιορισμό «άνδρες και γυναίκες», την πρώτη φορά

που εμφανίζεται η φράση στο κείμενο. Επίσης, συνιστάται η χρήση της προστακτικής

έγκλισης, καθώς και της παθητικής φωνής, έναντι της αναφοράς ενός υποκειμένου

αρσενικού γένους. Τέλος, μια ακόμα περίπτωση που χρειάζεται ειδικό χειρισμό

αποτελούν οι επαγγελματικοί τίτλοι και τα αξιώματα, ώστε να παραπέμπουν σε άτομα

και των δύο φύλων. Συνεπώς, ο βαθμός στον οποίο εφαρμόζονται κατά τη μετάφραση

οι κατευθυντήριες αυτές γραμμές θα αποτελέσει το αντικείμενο μελέτης της εργασίας

αυτής.

Με σκοπό να εξεταστεί αν το ΕΚ έχει πράγματι εφαρμόσει την πολιτική

αποφυγής μιας έμφυλης γλώσσας, θα πραγματοποιηθεί συγκριτική αντιπαραβολή

δελτίων τύπου του ΕΚ τα οποία μεταφράστηκαν πριν και μετά τη δημοσίευση του

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προαναφερθέντος οδηγού και συγκεκριμένα κατά τα έτη 2008-2009. Κατά συνέπεια, η

εν λόγω μεταπτυχιακή εργασία αποσκοπεί να καταδείξει τον βαθμό στον οποίο έχουν

υιοθετηθεί τέτοιου είδους γλωσσικές πρακτικές, ώστε να περιορισθεί –αν όχι να

εξαλειφθεί– η χρήση της σεξιστικής γλώσσας.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research would not have been completed without the support, guidance and help of many people who have blessed me with their presence throughout this arduous, yet intriguing journey. This part is dedicated to them, because I hereby wish to express my sincere gratitude.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Fotini Apostolou, for her invaluable insights, comments and constructive feedback. I feel indebted to her, because but for her patience, assistance and advice the completion of this feat would have been impossible. I am also thankful to Dr Elpida Loupaki and Dr Katerina Gouleti, who along with my supervisor, apart from mentoring me as members of my

Examination Committee, have shared their expertise with me during my under-graduate and post-graduate studies. In general, I feel grateful to all my professors of the JPPS in

Translation, because with their suggestions, remarks and instruction have more than adequately prepared me as a translator for the competitive labour market. I also feel the need to thank my former professor Dr Marianthi Makri-Tsilipakou, who not only imparted her knowledge to me, but most importantly she kindled my own enthusiasm about issues pertaining to Language and Gender through her passionate lectures.

Furthermore, I wish to acknowledge the part that my parents played during this period. To begin with, they have acted as role-models, thus spurring me to further pursue my studies after obtaining my BA. Moreover, their emotional, moral and financial support and most importantly their unconditional love were vital in order for me to complete my post-graduate studies. I also owe special thanks to my beloved brother, Nick, whose IT skills and know-how proved to be priceless every time I encountered technical issues. My genuine thanks go to my friends and loved ones as

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well, who never ceased to encourage me throughout this process. I would also like to show my heartfelt appreciation to my former fellow students and current friends and colleagues with whom I have shared unforgettable experiences, exchanged interesting ideas and opinions and have engaged in thought-provoking discussions in the past three years. Finally, I ought to give credit to my dearest friend and critical reader of my work,

Sotiria, who painstakingly and tirelessly read my research and unsparingly offered her perceptive recommendations. Last but not least, I want to thank my four-legged friend that literally stood by me throughout the drafting of this thesis, taking long naps next to my keyboard on the incommodious surface of my desk, in order to keep me company.

I thank each and every one of you separately, as this would not have been achieved without your contribution.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ...... ii

ABSTRACT ...... ix

ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗ ...... xi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... xiv

AIM OF RESEARCH ...... 1

INTRODUCTION ...... 3

FEMINIST LINGUISTICS ...... 6

LANGUAGE SYSTEMS ...... 13

EUROPEAN UNION TEXTS ...... 20

LANGUAGE PLANNING ...... 28

FEMINIST TRANSLATION ...... 38

CORPUS-BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES...... 43

CORPORA PRESENTATION...... 48

RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 59

I. INTRODUCTION...... 59

II. GENERIC USE OF MASCULINE GENDER ...... 61

III. HONORIFICS ...... 80

IV. USE OF LEXEME “ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ” ...... 84

CONCLUSIONS ...... 90

SUGGESTED AREAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ...... 96

REFERENCES ...... 99

I. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES ...... 99

II. ENGLISH PRESS RELEASES ...... 116

III. GREEK PRESS RELEASES ...... 123

ANNEXES ...... 132

I. PRESS RELEASES OF 2008 ...... 132

II. PRESS RELEASES OF 2009 ...... 152

III. RESEARCH DATA OF 2008 ...... 181

IV. RESEARCH DATA OF 2009 ...... 188

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AIM OF RESEARCH

As it has already been established in the abstract of this thesis, the aim of the present research is to analyse the specific choices related to gender made by the translators of the EP when rendering texts from English into Greek. More specifically, I shall examine whether gender-neutral or non-sexist language is used when translating English press releases of the European Parliament into Greek.

The reason why Ι chose to study the aspect of gender-fair language use was that in 2008 the EP published a set of guidelines entitled Gender-Neutral Language in the

European Parliament. In that set of practical rules, it was mentioned that from that point onwards the EP would have to use gender-inclusive language “in all parliamentary publications and written communications” (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 1) and that gender-neutral language should be “the norm, rather than the exception in parliamentary documents” (ibid., p. 3).

However, the publication recognises the fact that the European Parliament is a multicultural and multilingual environment in which the principle of gender-neutrality cannot be applied in an unequivocal way in all European languages (ibid.). So, to this end the EP produced a different version of these guidelines in each official language of the European Union, Greek included, offering specific examples and suggestions so as to avoid sexist language.

In short, the present study tries to ascertain the extent to which these principles on non-discrimination are actually applied and respected when translating from a genderless language, like English, into a highly gendered language, such as Greek.

In order to answer that question, I compiled and analysed two different corpora.

The first set of corpora includes press releases published in 2008, whereas the second

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set of corpora comprises press releases posted throughout 2009. In effect, I chose to study press releases issued during these two years, in an attempt to determine whether

EP translators indeed modified their linguistic choices following the publication of the aforesaid guide, so as to free their texts of gender-biased language.

Each corpus consists of two smaller corpora. The first subset contains the

English versions of the press releases and the second one their equivalent Greek translations. Thus, I had to examine two distinct parallel corpora in total; one parallel corpus –with translations from English into Greek– for the year 2008 and another parallel corpus including original texts and their translations for 2009.

More details about the contents of the parallel corpora, as well as a comprehensive description of the methodology adopted for their analysis will be offered in the following sections of the thesis.

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INTRODUCTION

It has been amply proven nowadays that sexist attitudes can be mirrored in language use (Janet Holmes, 2001, p. 117), thus several recommendations and guidelines have been proposed in order to eliminate linguistic sexism, so that women have an equal representation in and by language to that of men. O’Farrell (2014) in her article “He?

She? Zhe?—An Introduction to Gender-Neutral Language” states that “in a society based on gender equality, a person’s gender should be irrelevant” (2014, para. 2), men and women should be referred to on a symmetric basis in both official documents and in everyday speech events.

The European Parliament asserts that as an institution it fully embraces gender equality and for this reason it took the initiative to draft a series of guidelines in each of its official languages, which is characterised as a “monumental task”, given that the principle of gender neutrality is not applied in the same way in all languages (O’Farrell,

2014, para. 9).

The issue of gender equality on a linguistic level is an issue that has concerned the European Union for many years so far. As a matter of fact, on 1st June 1994 the

Council of Europe (1994) published Instruction No. 33 on the use of non-sexist language. Still, one could infer that the usage of gender-neutral language has not been achieved within the framework of the European Union, since other institutional bodies of the EU, such as the European Parliament in 2008 and the in

2011 have proceeded with the drafting and publication of handbooks regarding non- sexist language use.

Currently, linguistic gender neutrality is mandated by the Gender Equality

Commission, according to which the aspect of gender should be included in the official

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documents of the European Union. In effect, the Recommendation No. R (90) 4 on the elimination of sexism from language, which was adopted by the Committee of

Ministers on 21st February 1990 at the 434th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies, requests that the governments of member states promote the use of language reflecting the principle of gender equality and to take measures with a view to:

1. encouraging the use, as far as possible, of non-sexist language to

take account of the presence, status and role of women in society, as

current linguistic practice does for men;

2. bringing the terminology used in legal drafting, public

administration and education into line with the principle of sex

equality;

3. encouraging the use of non-sexist language in the media. (Council

of Europe, 1990, p. 2)

More specifically, in the Recommendation it is stipulated that:

the sexism characterising current linguistic usage in most Council of

Europe member states –whereby the masculine prevails over the

feminine– is hindering the establishment of equality between women

and men, since it obscures the existence of women as half of

humanity, while denying the equality of women and men. (ibid., p. 1)

Hence, the Council of Europe welcomes “the initiatives already taken at national and international level to adapt language to the social and psychological trends towards equality between women and men” (ibid.).

The examination of EP’s press releases, in terms of the use of gender-neutral language, could shed some light on the choices that translators make when rendering texts from English into Greek, in order to avoid the use of sex-exclusive language

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patterns. From the above, it becomes apparent that my study will be based upon

Feminist Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Feminist Translation Studies approaches.

“The topic of gender and language constitutes the common denominator of both

Feminist Sociolinguistics and Feminist Translation Studies” (Ergün, 2010, p. 307).

However, up to date, “Feminist Sociolinguistics have remained quite disconnected from

Feminist Translation Studies” (ibid.). The intersection of the two disciplines could generate “prolific interdisciplinary exchanges” which could in turn result in the further development of the two fields (Ergün, 2013, p. 14). The present research attempts to bridge the gap between the two disciplines and explores the ways in which the two approaches could be combined in order to subvert “linguistic misogyny”.

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FEMINIST LINGUISTICS

The present section focuses on the study of language, that is Linguistics and the sub- fields of this discipline that have emerged over the past few years. In her book

Male/Female Language: With a Comprehensive Bibliography, Mary Richie Key (1975) states that “societies cannot exist without language” (p. 13). Be that as it may, “in spite of this universality, and even if Plato and Aristotle and other great minds throughout the centuries have commented on language, the science of language, or Linguistics, is a fairly recent discipline” and “only in the last century or two has Linguistics

(previously Philology) been accepted as a discipline in its own right” (Key, 1975, p.

13). And even though Linguistics has been widely accepted as a field, the differentiated use of language by male and female was not a subject of study until the 20th century.

As Key (1975) comments, the shift towards the study of linguistic variation in cultural and sociological terms led to the establishment of a sub-discipline of Linguistics, called

Sociolinguistics (1975, p. 16). As the writer explains:

This branch of Linguistics studies the infinite varieties of language

within language: age differences, cultural differences, occupational

vocabulary, slang, styles of speech and writing, and many others, but

including, of course, sex differences in language. (ibid.)

Indeed, in the last decades of the twentieth century the discourse on

Sociolinguistics has put great emphasis on the connections between language, communicative practice and gender. Sociolinguists for the past fifty years have tried to ascertain whether there is a link between the way people use language and their gender.

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Major discussions have been generated and a considerable amount of thought has been put on sexist linguistic performance and on how language can reflect and reproduce sexist behaviour within society. This shift of interest on the bipolar language–gender gave birth to a new field of Sociolinguistics, namely that of Feminist

Linguistics. In effect, Feminist Linguistic Studies revolve around the study of language from a feminist point of view in an attempt to pinpoint, and possibly eradicate, sexist language patterns. The main concerns of Feminist Linguistics are twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to reveal “the unequal ways in which language use and language systems represented men and women” and on the other hand, to expose “myths around how men and women communicate” (Liddicoat, 2011, p. 1). Yet, it should be noted that many of the issues introduced in the previous century remain unresolved up until now, since language and gender seem to be inextricably intertwined.

At this point it is important to make a distinction between sex and gender, since these two terms have been mentioned in the previous paragraph. According to Talbot

(2010), “sex is a matter of bodily attributes and essentially dimorphic”, thus “one is either male or female” (p. 7). By contrast, “gender … is socially constructed; it is learned. People acquire characteristics which are perceived as masculine and feminine”

(Talbot, 2010, p. 7). Therefore, “unlike sex, gender is not binary”. We could imagine gender as a spectrum, a continuum, on the one end of which we have masculinity and on the other the femininity is placed. Eakins and Eakins (1978) seem to agree with

Talbot, since they mention that “sex, femaleness or maleness, can be determined on the basis of biological evidence” (p. 4). On the other hand, “gender, masculinity or femininity, may vary with the culture, the time and the place” (Eakins & Eakins, 1978, p. 4). Therefore, sex is predominated by nature, whereas gender is learned, patterned

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and performed by men and women based on different coefficients that determine proper social behaviour.

Nevertheless, as Talbot (2010) remarks gender is sometimes mapped onto sex, insinuating that socially determined differences between men and women are inborn and inevitable (p. 9). This long-established practice of “the confusion of sex and gender has political underpinnings” (Talbot, 2010, p. 9). In societies favouring one gender over the other, there is an attempt to justify socially constructed behaviours through biology, in order to normalise and canonise unequal and sexist behaviour.

Although the definitions of sex and gender seem to be uniform in literature, there is a great discussion when it comes to language and gender, or language and sex, in terms of terminology. To be more exact, Talbot (2010) believes that linguistic interaction constitutes a clear illustration of gendered behaviour, since it is a learned, rather than an innate quality (p. 11). She goes on to support that “in societies with sex- exclusive differences in language use, choice from among a range of lexicogrammatical options is part of gender performance” (Talbot, 2010, p. 11). Even so, as she clarifies, that choice is not the product of free will, but rather a result “enforced by prescriptive rule” (ibid.). From the above, it becomes clear that, when it comes to language use, distinctions should be made according to gender, since linguistic behaviour is an acquired trait.

In contrast, Ronald Wardhaugh (2010) specifies that he prefers to use the term sex, instead of gender, when dealing with issues of sexism in language, so he proposes the use of the phrase “language and sex” instead of “language and gender” (p. 333).

However, he clarifies that since the current vogue is to use gender rather than sex as the cover word for the various topics pertaining to sexism, in the last edition of his book he

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adopted the aforementioned term, in order to avoid incongruity with the literature dealing with linguistic imbalances.

In order to determine the subject matter of Feminist Linguistics, we need to perceive that language is “both overtly and covertly sexist” and to recognise that

“sexism is inherent in language” (Liddicoat, 2011, p. 1). In 1975, Robin Lakoff was the first to advocate that “women experience linguistic discrimination in two ways: in the way they are taught to use language, and in the way general language use treats them”

(p. 4). According to Lakoff, “women’s language”, “meaning both the language restricted in use to women and language descriptive of women alone” is evident in all levels of grammar (ibid., p. 7). It is indeed found “in the choice and frequency of lexical items, in syntax, as well as in intonational and other suprasegmental patterns” (ibid., p.

8). The author also draws our attention to a double bind existing within societies as regards the manipulation of language by women.

A girl seems to be damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t. If she

refuses to talk like a lady, she is ridiculed and subjected to criticism

as unfeminine; if she does learn, she is ridiculed as unable to think

clearly, unable to take part in serious discussion: in some sense, as

less than fully human (Lakoff, 1975, p. 6).

This vicious circle imposed upon women gives them two highly painful choices. They can either be less than a woman or less than a person (ibid., p. 6).

Another important theory that was developed in the same year was that of the

“muted group”. According to the muted group theory, a specific language does not serve all its speakers equally, because all speakers do not contribute on an equal basis to its creation and formulation (Ardener, 1975). Therefore, women are not able to articulate themselves as freely as men do, since the language system is constructed by

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the dominant group, namely men. Conversely, women’s experiences of life, their perceptions and their wishes as a subordinate group are different than those of men, but, since words and linguistic norms are formed by men, they find themselves at a loss for words and women are thus “muted” and “inarticulate” (Ardener, 1975). As Kramarae

(1981) rightly specifies, “the resulting relative ‘inarticulateness’ of women presently aids in consigning them to positions of little freedom or power” and women and their concerns are marginalised in men’s perception (p. 4). In one way or another, women can merely “mediate the discourse of the other but can never produce [their] own discourse” (Apostolou, 2010, p. 187). Instead, they remain “perpetually contained within a public realm that refuses [them] any autonomy and deviation from established stereotypes” (ibid.). Thus, both Lakoff and Ardener shared the view that the linguistic system renders women unable to express themselves, put their message across and be taken as seriously as men. This status imbalance between man-made and women-made language is inherent within every language system.

Another important work on language and gender is Dale Spender’s Man Made

Language. What Spender suggests in her book is that English represents a specific worldview which is imposed upon its speakers determining their thought:

Language helps form the limits of our reality. It is our means of

ordering, classifying and manipulating the world. It is through

language that we become members of a human community, that the

world becomes comprehensible and meaningful, that we bring into

existence the world in which we live. (Spender, 1985, p. 3)

For Spender (1985) “the English language has been literally man made and … is still primarily under male control” (p. 12). This means that women are obliged to employ a language that does not depict their perceptions of reality and only encodes male

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meanings and versions of events and as a result women’s experiences are suppressed.

It becomes apparent that Spender’s claim echoes Ardener’s “muted group theory”.

More importantly, though, Spender’s argument resonates the principle of linguistic relativity or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, as it is widely known, named after the linguist who first expressed it, Edward Sapir, and his student Benjamin Whorf.

According to that conception, languages embody different worldviews and our perception of the world is limited, even created, or influenced by the language we speak.

To quote Edward Sapir’s words:

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in

the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very

much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the

medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to

imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of

language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving

specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the

matter is that the “real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built

upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever

sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social

reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct

worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached

…We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do

because the language habits of our community predispose certain

choices of interpretation. (Sapir, 1929, p. 207)

In the Whorfian view, which is referred to as the stronger version of the argument, language does not simply influence speakers’ perception of the world, it determines it.

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Despite the fact that modern linguists have rejected the view that language defines people’s experiences, that is Linguistic Determinism, the inextricable relationship between language and culture cannot be denied. As Talbot (2010) puts it, from a weak point of view, we could merely purport that “language simply reflects society, so that social divisions on gender grounds are reflected in patterns of language use” (p. 15). In opposition, if we adopt a stronger stance, we could support that language

“does not just reflect gender divisions; it actually creates them” (Talbot, 2010, p. 15).

As a consequence, the asymmetrical ways to refer to men and women “are not just reflecting society –they actively create and sustain inequality. So the two extremes are language-as-mirror and language-as-reproductive” (ibid.). Simon (1996) seems to identify with Talbot when, in her discussion on gender and translation, she maintains that language is “a force through which experience is shaped” (p. 129), thus ideology is inherent within our language system.

In her book entitled Gender in Translation, Simon (1996) draws our attention to a familiar rallying call of the 1970s feminists who campaigned that “women’s liberation must first be a liberation of/from language” (p. 7). Accordingly, the European

Parliament (2009) appears to share that opinion when it states that “using gender- neutral language is more than a matter of political correctness. Language powerfully influences attitudes, behaviour and perceptions” (p. 3). Furthermore, given that the

European Parliament “fully endorses the principle of gender equality, … the language it uses should reflect this” (ibid.).

It remains to be seen in the subsequent sections of the present research whether the European Parliament has actually succeeded in implementing gender-neutral language in its official communication and documents.

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LANGUAGE SYSTEMS

One particular area of sexism that has given rise to much debate in recent years concerns the gender systems of languages. The issue of gender “both as a semantic and as a formal entity in natural language processing” has led to heatedly-debated discourse in

Modern Linguistics (Mela-Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 113).

The word “gender” etymologically derives from the noun genus -eris, which translates as “sort” or “kind” (Mela-Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 113). Hockett

(1958) defines gender as a class of “nouns reflected in the behaviour of associated words” (p. 231). As Hellinger and Bußmann (2001) state:

from a semantic perspective, a major issue was the question as to

whether the classification of nouns in a language follows semantic

principles rather than being arbitrary. While gender assignment in the

field of personal nouns is at least partially non-arbitrary, the

classification of inanimate nouns, e.g., words denoting celestial

bodies, varies across languages. (p. 3)

Hellinger and Bußmann go on to specify that all languages do not possess a system of nominal classification (ibid., p. 4). Whereas, other languages may divide their nominal lexicon into groups or classes and these can be grouped into two major categories: classifier languages and noun class languages (including languages with grammatical gender) (ibid., p. 4). To be more exact, we could assert that some languages, such as

English possess a “natural gender system”, whereas others, such as French, German and Greek are based on a “grammatical gender system” (Wardhaugh, 2010, p. 338).

According to Key (1975) “all of the Indo-European languages except Armenian have masculine and feminine grammatical categories of gender in their linguistic

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systems” (p. 20). In some, as is the case with the Greek language, “the gender system is very predominant” and every noun has either a masculine, feminine or neuter gender assigned to it. While “in others, such as English, the gender system is evident only in a few pronouns: she and he, his and her” (Key, 1975, p. 20).

For the purposes of the present study, I shall draw our attention to two languages, namely English and Greek, and I shall try to investigate their respective gender systems with a view to deciphering the factors that influence gender ascription.

As it has already been specified, English is ordained by a natural gender system.

This means that “gender in English is assigned by the semantic principle, i.e. the meaning of a noun or its pronominalization determines its gender” (Mela-

Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 115). Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) comment that gender in

English is appointed in accordance with natural or biological gender (p. 90). To put it differently, in English the nouns referring to male humans are masculine in terms of gender, while nouns with a female human referent belong to the feminine gender (ibid.).

As Hellinger (2001) points out:

English has a restricted class of personal nouns with lexical gender,

i.e. their semantic specification includes a property [+female] or

[+male]: aunt, queen, soul sister vs. uncle, king, sugar daddy. This

property determines the choice of anaphoric pronouns: she for

members of the first nominal class, he for members of the second.

The majority of English personal nouns, however, are unspecified for

gender, and can be used to refer to both female and male referents:

person, neighbour, engineer, babysitter, movie star, drug addict; they

can be pronominalised by either she or he or –in neutral, non-specific

contexts– by singular they. (p. 107)

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As far as agreement is concerned, because of the fact that grammatical gender is almost completely absent from Modern English and that natural gender consequently has become very widespread, English has very few instances of gender agreement

(Mela-Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 117). This signifies that articles and adjectives that encircle nouns expose no gender distinction (ibid.). The elements inside and outside the noun phrase, which in grammatical gender languages vary according to the noun’s grammatical gender, in English show no morphological agreement (Hellinger, 2001, p.

107).

Even though lexical gender is absent from the English language, the semantics of various English nouns proves that probably there is a clear gender-bias (Hellinger,

2001, p. 107). Hellinger offers a series of high-status occupational terms, such as

“lawyer, physician or scientist”, which traditionally are “pro-nominalised by he (the so- called “generic he”) in contexts where gender of referent is either not known or irrelevant” (ibid.). On the contrary, low-status occupational titles, such as “secretary, nurse or schoolteacher”, are often followed by the feminine pronoun “she” (ibid.). In the case of “general human nouns, such as pedestrian, patient or driver”, for instance,

“as well as for indefinite pronouns (somebody, anyone, no one, etc.)”, that could be followed by either a masculine or a feminine pronoun, “he is prescribed in neutral contexts” (ibid.). This is solid proof that in English social gender is present.

Social gender has to do with stereotypical assumptions about what are

appropriate social roles for women and men, including expectations

about who will be a typical member of the class of, say, surgeon or

nurse. (Hellinger, 2001, p. 107)

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In order to show that in a specific occurrence there is a deviation from such a preconception, gender is explicitly marked by using an adjectival modification preceding the noun, such as “female surgeon or male nurse” (ibid.).

Behind the use of the masculine pronoun as generic has been “a central issue in debates about linguistic sexism in English” (ibid.). The prescriptive use of he in English resonates the androcentric, phallocratic ideology which “considers the male/masculine as the higher, more prestigious category and the female/feminine as secondary and subordinate” (ibid.) and tries to render the latter linguistically invisible.

The alternatives that have been suggested in order to reclaim the English language and to replace the asymmetric and sexist usage is the promotion of gender- neutral language. This can be achieved in two ways, either through neutralisation, that is “the avoidance of false generics” or through female visibility, i.e. the inclusion of female referents, by employing the technique of pronominal splitting (Hellinger, 2001, pp. 109–110).

Let us now explore the gender system of Modern Greek. Greek belongs in the group of Indo-European languages “which, similarly to Albanian and Armenian, builds a branch of its own” (Pavlidou, 2003, p. 175). Modern Greek is characterised as a grammatical gender language. This denotes that grammatical gender is an “integral part of the language system, pertaining to all nouns, articles (definite and indefinite), pronouns, participles, adjectives, and certain numerals” (ibid., p. 177). Grammatical gender in Modern Greek categorises nouns into three distinct declension groups, the masculine, feminine and neuter which is evident by the suffix of the word (Mela-

Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 117).

In Greek “gender assignment is to a large extent quite arbitrary due to the absence of correlation between natural or biological gender and grammatical gender”

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(Mela-Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 117). This can be exemplified by the fact that all three declension classes, the masculine, the feminine and the neutral one, include nouns denoting abstract entities, proving that “there is no clear semantic motivation for gender assignment” (Pavlidou, 2003, p. 179).

On the other hand, as Pavlidou (2000) highlights, even though generally “the correspondence between grammatical gender and sex is arbitrary, if we restrict our attention to animate beings only, we find that nouns referring to males are usually masculine, while those referring to females are feminine” (p. 29). Thus, natural gender nouns referring to human beings can either be masculine or feminine (Mela-

Athanasopoulou, 2001, p. 117). In order to paraphrase that, we could say that “when nouns refer to animate beings, and especially to persons, there seems to be a semantic motivation for the declension classes” (Pavlidou, 2000, p. 29). Therefore, in grammar contexts, (grammatical) gender is juxtaposed to natural gender, i.e. sex (ibid.). Thus, in

Greek it is almost impossible to refer to a third person without automatically, routinely, or subconsciously accommodating assumptions about sex-attribution (Pavlidou, 2015, p. 6). Through interaction, one can perceive the correlations of the social and cognitive dimensions of grammatical gender, since speakers make presuppositions about referents’ sex based on social bias (Alvanoudi, 2012, p. 212).

Additionally, it is worth underlining that as is the case with English, the nouns that are “marked for masculinity may be used generically, i.e. refer to both males and females, on the grounds that the masculine is ‘semantically unmarked’” (Makri-

Tsilipakou, 1989, p. 62). This constitutes an illustration of the pseudogeneric nature of the employment of male nouns and pronouns to refer to both masculine and feminine subjects.

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This precept is echoed in traditional grammar books that support the generic use of the masculine gender and its dominance over the feminine. One prime example of this is Triandaphyllidis’ (1941) Νεοελληνική Γραμματική (της Δημοτικής) [Modern

Greek Grammar (of Demotic)] in which it is stated that “the masculine gender is generally the strongest personal gender. Thus, it is used to refer not only to persons of male sex, but also, generally, to a person whose sex is not of special interest to us” [my translation] (p. 216). Equally interesting is the fact that even modern grammar textbooks which are used in education seem to reproduce the notion of male prevalence.

For instance, the Γραμματική της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας Α', Β', Γ' Γυμνασίου

[Grammar of the Modern Greek Language A, B, C Class of Junior High School] states that:

when there are two or more animate subjects in one sentence, the predicate is

used in the plural, in the gender of the subjects, e.g. Η Νίνα και η Σοφία είναι

παντρεμένες [Nina and Sophia are married (fem. – pl.)]. However, when the

subjects differ in gender, then the predicate is used in the plural, usually in the

most prevalent gender (the masculine gender is more prevalent than the

feminine and the feminine is more prevalent than the neuter), e.g. Ο πατέρας

του και η μητέρα του είναι αυστηροί [His father and his mother are strict

(masc. – pl.)] [my translation]. (Chatzisavvidis & Chatzisavvidou, 2012, p.

111)

As Romaine (1999) perceptively highlights, cultural beliefs and ideologies about women can sometimes “enter into gender assignment in [grammatical] systems that are supposedly purely formal and arbitrary” (p. 66). This constitutes solid proof that we cannot proclaim that some languages are inherently more sexist than others. It is the speakers who employ a certain language in a sexist manner that produce sexist

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utterances. As Wardhaugh (2010) pinpoints, languages with gender distinctions are not sexist by definition (p. 339). This is illustrated by the fact that we cannot suppose that the Chinese, the Japanese and the Turkish are less sexist than the English, simply because their languages are not based on a pronoun system (ibid.). Wardhaugh also maintains that languages themselves are not sexist; men and women who use them wish to achieve certain purposes (ibid., p. 350). And since “differences in gender are equated with differences in access to power and influence in society”, linguistic differences are expected to emerge (ibid.). Hence, gender differences in language derive from social asymmetries and not from linguistic ones.

From the above, it becomes clear that linguistic sexism is the result of social sexism and that no language system is sexist in its own right, even if it is highly inflected and based upon grammatical gender distinctions, like Greek. It might be convenient for speakers to presuppose that linguistic sexism cannot be overcome in certain languages, but this assumption could not be further from the truth.

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EUROPEAN UNION TEXTS

During its brief history, the European Union has expanded immensely. In 1958, the founding members of the European Economic Community were only six: ,

Germany, , , Luxemburg and the Netherlands and the official languages of EEC were only four, namely French, German, Italian and Dutch. Currently, following the most recent accession of 2013, the European Union counts 28 member countries: Belgium, France, , Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, ,

Ireland, , –which joined the EU in 1981–, , ,

Austria, , , Cyprus, , , , Latvia,

Lithuania, Malta, , Slovakia, , , and .

Moreover, five countries, , , , and are in the process of transposing or integrating EU legislation into national law and they are commonly called candidate countries, whereas and

Kosovo are potential candidate countries, since they do not yet fulfil the requirements for EU membership.

The founding Treaties of 1951 and 1957 have been amended many times so far.

In 1992, the Treaty on European Union was signed in Maastricht, paving the way for the establishment of the European Union as we know it today. The aim of the creation of the European Union, as expressed in Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union is

“an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity” (European Union, 2012b).

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Taking into consideration the fact that every time a new country joins the EU, its official language is added in the official languages of the EU, the number of EU official languages is ever increasing. At present the EU has 24 official languages. These are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French,

German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese,

Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. Thus, at the moment there are 552

SL–TL combinations (Loupaki, 2018, p. 100).

Evidently, a distinction needs to be drawn between official and working languages.

Although no difference is made between official and working

languages in Regulation no.1/58 (art. 1), in the literature there is an

operational distinction between them. Thus “official languages” of

the EU are generally defined as those used in communication between

institutions and the outside world, and “working languages” of the

EU are those used between institutions, within institutions and during

internal meetings convened by the institutions. (Gazzola, 2006, p.

396)

Since the establishment of the European Union, French and German were considered as the main working languages of the Union. However, once the United Kingdom joined the Union, English dethroned the German language and took its place (Loupaki,

2002, p. 56). Even though the aforementioned division between official and working languages truly exists, within the context of the EU there is “an equal status” among all

European languages and they are “part of its immense and diverse cultural heritage, and they should be cherished” (Wagner, Bech, & Martínez, 2012, p. 2).

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Effectively, in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union it is stated that “[the

Union] shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that

Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced” (European Union, 2012b).

Therefore, the notion of is of fundamental importance for the European

Union. In the context of the European Union, the term “multilingualism” is used to refer to two distinct signifiers. First and foremost, it refers to “personal multilingualism”, that is the ability possessed by a certain individual to speak more than one language and secondly, to “institutional multilingualism”, i.e. the policy of “equal rights for all official languages” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 1). Indeed, as provided by Article 41 (4) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, “every person may write to the institutions of the Union in one of the languages of the Treaties and must have an answer in the same language” (European Union, 2012a). This provision has “obvious implications for translation” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 4), given the fact that this implies that the correspondence between EU citizens and EU institutions will have to be translated. As a consequence, it comes as no surprise that “translation constitutes a major tool for communication [within the EU], or as Umberto Eco has stressed

‘translation is the language of Europe’” (Loupaki, 2018, p. 100).

Nonetheless, the concept of equality among all European languages has some further legal implications. In effect, “none of the legislation [of the EU] refers to translation” and instead all texts are considered to be “equally authentic” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 7). To put it differently, “there are not one original text and 2[3] translations, but 2[4] language versions or 2[4] originals” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 8).

As Apostolou (2011) correctly underscores, this blurs “even further the already hazy boundaries between original and translation in the EU”, since, as she cites from a guide entitled The Principles, the Methodology and the Practice of Drafting, Translating and

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Revising European Union Documents, “we should not forget that –at least theoretically– the various language versions of a community legislative act are not

‘translations’, but equal and equally authentic ‘originals’” (p. 103). Tsoumari (2010) supports that the translation of EU texts is a form of covert translation [my emphasis], as defined by Gutt (2000), but it is also governed by the particularities of EU translation

(p. 177). Similarly, Calfoglou (2011) insightfully states, EU texts “pose a particular challenge for the translator, who finds him/herself hovering between a source text that is no source text proper and a target text that may somehow deviate from the typical target language properties” (p. 129).

The problem of the absence of an original is further amplified by the differences found between different language versions (Apostolou, 2011, p. 104), since “as translators we know only too well that perfect equivalence of different language versions is impossible” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 8). Additionally, Sidiropoulou (2004) underlines that even though “EU is not the most promising text type for the study of identities, because of the uniformity pursued across official versions of documents”, the analysis of EU texts can “uncover patterns of diversity across language versions” (p.

105). This is also supported by Loupaki (2005) who found out that there are differentiations between EU-drafted STs and TTs which are not prescribed or governed by the morphosyntactic rules of the system of the TL.

From the above it becomes obvious that two main elements, but also challenges posed by the European Union nowadays is its cultural and linguistic diversity

(Apostolou, 2011, p. 95). Undoubtedly, the linguistic diversity of the European Union has been characterised as “its strength and its weakness” [my translation] (Loupaki,

2017, p. 52). In spite of the fact that the notion of multilingualism attests that it constitutes a democratic organisation which respects the existing differences between

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its member countries, it has been severely criticised, since this entails the allocation of vast sums of money being drawn from the European budget and being disbursed on translation (ibid.). And even though the EU tries to underrate that amount by purporting that “translation and interpreting in all EU institutions account for less than 1% of the

EU's annual budget –equivalent to around €2 per person per year” (European

Commission, n.d., "How Much is Spent on Translation", para. 2), this translates as 1.37 billion (2017 figure), which is not an insignificant sum, by any means.

One more problem posed by the multilingual nature of the European Union is that the author of the “original” text is not a native speaker of the language he/she writes in (Loupaki, 2007, p. 187). Indeed, the majority of texts composed for the European institutions are written in either English or French by non-native speakers of those languages (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 69). More specifically, in recent years English has by far overtaken French as regards the drafting of European Union texts (ibid.). It is irrefutable that inevitably problems of interpretation will arise when translating texts produced by non-native speakers (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 70), and therefore the peril of mistranslation is always lurking when translating EU-drafted documents.

Another important characteristic of EU texts is the aspect of hybridity. The notion of hybridity was first introduced by Schäffner and Adab (1997) who define hybrid texts as:

a text that results from the translation process. It shows features that

somehow seem “out of place” / “strange” / “unusual” for the receiving

culture, i.e. the target culture. These features, however, are not the

result of a lack of translational competence or examples of

“translationese”, but they are evidence of conscious and deliberate

decisions by the translator. (p. 325)

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As Vilelmini Sosoni’s (2003) study revealed, EU-produced texts appear to be hybrid

“due to their collective and multilingual creation” (p. 30). Their incomprehensibility and obscurity resulting from their unconventional drafting, prompts the readers to resort to the original text written in French or English, in order to decipher what the Greek translation, for example, tries to say (Loupaki, 2002, p. 57).

The European Union is also criticised for its extensive use of “Eurospeak” or

“Eurojargon”. Trosborg (1997) defines Eurospeak as the highly-specialised language deployed by Eurocrats, people working for the EU institutions, such as lawyer-linguists, negotiators, politicians or translators, which the laypeople, the outsiders, the general public which is not familiarised with EU terminology consider it to be “often blurred, complicated and hard to understand” (p. 152). Eurospeak, according to Sosoni (2003) can prove to be useful, when a text bears negative connotations (p. 34). By rendering the text vague, incomprehensible and obscure, “not only evokes nothing but also alludes to something that is far too complex for the ordinary citizen to understand” (ibid.). And

Wagner, Bench and Martínez (2012) seem to agree that the much hated Eurospeak is necessary, in order to avoid the use of nationally specific terms that could be confusing in EU legislation, whereas a supranational term, void of meaning, is preferable in order to express legal concepts that are imposed at a European level (pp. 62–63). Moreover,

Eurospeak can be justified when we refer to neologisms, “genuinely ‘European’ concepts that have no equivalent at national level”, such as the much-debated “acquis

Communautaire” (Wagner et al., 2012, p. 63).

Finally, recent ethnographic approaches have delineated the translation of EU texts as an institutional translation and the language employed in EU texts as institutional. Mason believes that the institutional nature of translation is a “neglected factor” of Translation Studies (2004, p. 470). However, today ever more attention is

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given towards that direction. This is illustrated by the fact that in the second edition of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies the term “institutional translation” was added. As defined by Kang (2011), “‘institutional translation’ is generally used by translation scholars to refer either to translating in or for specific organizations” (p.

141). Similarly, Koskinen (2008) explains that:

we are dealing with institutional translation in those cases when an

official body (government agency, multinational organization or a

private company, etc.; also an individual person acting in an official

status) uses translation as a means of “speaking” to a particular

audience. Thus, in institutional translation, the voice that is to be

heard is that of the translating institution. As a result, in a

constructivist sense, the institution itself gets translated. (p. 22)

Therefore, we could deduce from the aforementioned definition that institutional translation is a kind of auto-translation, a self-translation, since “the source text and the target text are produced within the same enunciative framework; they are drafted and translated by the same individual” [my translation] (Loupaki, 2017, p. 53). By extension, institutional languages are considered to be “self-referential” (Loupaki,

2018, p. 99) and tautological. One more point to be considered is that “institutional translation is typically collective, anonymous and standardised” (Schäffner, Tcaciuc, &

Tesseur, 2014, p. 494).

According to Loupaki (2018), the fact that such a great number of prominent translation scholars and researchers have examined the phenomenon of EU texts is by no means accidental (p. 99). The reason for this seems to be that translation is “vital for the functioning of the EU institutions” (ibid.). Hence, the EU provides fertile ground

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for the discussion of translation practices, considering the fact that the bulk of translations produced daily within its context is extremely significant.

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LANGUAGE PLANNING

Nowadays, an important shift has been recorded on the part of governments, international institutions and multicultural organisations. In fact, such bodies employ language planning techniques, in order to fight against linguistic asymmetry.

“Language planning is a government authorised, long-term, sustained and conscious effort to alter a language’s function in a society for the purpose of solving communication problems” (Weinstein, 1980, p. 56). However, the present study emphasises on feminist language planning, whose purpose is:

to expose the inequalities in the linguistic portrayal of the sexes which

reflect and contribute to the unequal positions of women and men in

society and to take action to rectify this linguistic imbalance.

(Pauwels, 1998, p. 228)

Liddicoat (2011) defines feminist language planning as the “active engagement with the ways in which language represents and reproduces gender” and is not simply preoccupied with the representation of women within a language system (p. 1). On the contrary, it examines how language positions both men and women and how social activities, ideas and practices are interpreted based on gender. Its main aim is to establish equality between the sexes and for “language to both support and reflect such equality” (Liddicoat, 2011, p. 1).

Another term used for feminist language planning could be “gender mainstreaming”, which according to the European Institute for Gender Equality

(EIGE):

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is a strategy towards realising gender equality. It involves the

integration of a gender perspective into the preparation, design,

implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, regulatory

measures and spending programmes, with a view to promoting

equality between women and men, and combating discrimination.

(n.d.-d)

Remarkably, gender mainstreaming in Greece was first introduced in 2009 with the guide of Gkermotsi and Sakellariou (2009) bearing the title Οδηγός Καλών Πρακτικών

Εφαρμογής της Ένταξης της Διάστασης του Φύλου στη Δημόσια Διοίκηση [Guide for

Good Practices on Gender Mainstreaming in the Greek Public Administration], but it is still unknown to what extent these practices are truly implemented in the Greek

Public Administration.

We could extrapolate from the above definitions that gender mainstreaming involves the adoption of gender-neutral, non-sexist, or gender-sensitive language. EIGE

(n.d.-a) describes gender-neutral language as the “language that is not gender-specific and which considers people in general, with no reference to women and men”. In the same sense, “non-sexist use of language” denotes the:

avoidance of both an ambiguous generic masculine gender in the

grammatical forms of nouns and discriminatory expressions which

describe women and men in terms of their physical appearance or the

qualities and gender roles attributed to their sex. (European Institute

for Gender Equality, n.d.-c)

Finally, the gender-sensitive language is defined as the:

realisation of gender equality in written and spoken language attained

when women and men and those who do not conform to the binary

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gender system are made visible and addressed in language as persons

of equal value, dignity, integrity and respect. (n.d.-b)

On EIGE’s website it is mentioned that “at European level, the EU Institutions are in charge of implementing gender mainstreaming, whereas at national level, it is up to the governments of Member States” (n.d.-d). It is also stated that:

gender mainstreaming is not a policy goal in itself, but a means to

achieve gender equality. Equality between women and men is

recognised by the EU as a fundamental right, a common value of the

EU, and a necessary condition for the achievement of the EU

objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion. Since 1996,

the Commission committed itself to a ‘dual approach’ towards

realising gender equality. This approach involves mainstreaming a

gender perspective in all policies, while also implementing specific

measures to eliminate, prevent or remedy gender inequalities. Both

approaches go hand in hand, and one cannot replace the other. (ibid.)

Nevertheless, even though since 1996 the European Commission has encouraged the elimination of gender inequalities, reality has proven otherwise. On 3rd

August 2000 the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) published a press release entitled

“Women Excluded from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Gender Gap and Sexist

Language”. The EWL (2000) criticises the EU for not introducing “the concept of gender equality as a basic unconditional and fundamental principle of the Union” and for failing to “integrate women’s perspective in the Charter” (para. 1). What is more, the English version of the Charter regrettably “uses sexist language several times”

(European Women’s Lobby, 2000, para. 3). This can be illustrated by the phrase

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“Everyone has the right to respect for his physical and mental integrity” (ibid.). As the

EWL stresses:

one form of gender discrimination is the use of sexist language. The

use of sexist language, though sometimes unintentional, is

nonetheless damaging in excluding women and in rendering our

reality and our experience invisible. In the case of the Charter, the

political mistake is very serious. (ibid.)

The EWL sums up the press release by averting or rather promising that it will

“mobilise women’s organisations all over Europe to fight against this intentionally regressive text” (ibid.).

We certainly cannot be sure if the EWL’s campaign sparked the discourse on gender mainstreaming EU texts, but one thing is certain; that became the foreground for linguistic change within the European Union. And in that direction, in 2008, as it has been previously mentioned, the European Parliament published the first set of language-specific guidelines for gender-neutral language. And it is quite encouraging that the European Parliament drafted this guidebook in various EU official languages, including Greek.

Likewise, in August 2011, the Directorate-General for Translation of the

European Commission published the seventh edition of the English Style Guide: A

Handbook for Authors and Translators in the European Commission, which was last updated in September 2014. In that handbook, a special chapter is devoted to the use of gender-neutral language (European Commission, 2011, pp. 56–58). It is worth mentioning, though, that the European Commission’s equivalent Greek Style Guide does not include any instructions for the use of gender-inclusive language.

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Unfortunately, it can be deduced that the aforementioned motions were not completely effective, if we take into account the fact that on the occasion of the 10-year anniversary since the first publication of the guidelines on Gender-Neutral Language in the European Parliament, the High-Level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity requested Parliament’s services to update them (European Parliament, 2018). Yet, the updated guidelines seemingly have not been disseminated among the relevant administrative and linguistic stakeholders. This becomes evident by the fact that on 18th

January 2019 Mara Bizzotto (2019) addressed a parliamentary question to the

Commission requesting its written answer regarding the implementation of gender- neutral language. This proves that even after the update of the non-sexist guidelines, they are not fully implemented by the European institutions.

Following the publication of guidelines like the ones referred to above, many researches were conducted studying the degree to which these recommendations are in fact implemented by the bodies that elaborated them. In March 2011, the Language,

Cognition and Gender (LCG) Network of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network issued a Comparative Analysis of Existing Guidelines for Gender-Fair Language within the ITN LCG Network (Moser, Sato, Chiarini, Dmitrow-Devold, & Kuhn, 2011). The study examined natural gender languages, namely English and Norwegian, as well as grammatical gender languages, specifically German, French, Spanish, Italian and

French. The study shows that guidelines for English “emphasize neutralization as a means of referring to both sexes” (Moser et al., 2011, p. 3). Whereas in grammatical gender languages feminine-masculine word-pairs are recommended, in order to avoid the masculine bias (ibid.). Finally, the survey concludes that the common element among all guidelines is that all of them seek to promote “the formulation of comprehensive and readable texts that are free of discrimination” (ibid.).

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Respectively, Teso and Crolley (2012) conducted a survey comparing the main guidelines and recommendations regarding gender-neutral language proposed by the

United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. In their paper it is pointed out that recent language policies within the European Union put emphasis on the promotion of “linguistic diversity, multilingualism, foreign language skills, language and employability” (Teso & Crolley, 2012, p. 140). But the supranational language policies that relate to gender are not labelled as “policies” but rather as

“recommendations” or “guidelines”, showing that they are less prescriptive, or mandatory in nature (ibid.). The writers further comment that although certain guidelines have been drafted in order to refrain from linguistic sexism, the organisations fail to implement their own recommendations in their key documents (ibid., p. 141) and the use of gender-neutral language is characterised as “sporadic at best” (ibid., p. 139).

Another paper is preoccupied with the examination of the translation of gender equality policy paradigms of various institutions. Kennett and Lendvai (2014) observe that “gender equality and gender mainstreaming have become dominant policy and political narratives for addressing gender injustice” (p. 6). Moreover, they state that the translation of global gender policies is a “deeply political process, where who gets to translate, what and how are critical questions to be answered” (ibid., p. 11). After examining a series of policy paradigms from all over the world, ranging from Asia to eastern Europe, the authors conclude that the “top-down” implementation of gender- equality policies is unsuccessful, simply because it fails to “embed and co-evolve with the everyday lives of men and women” (ibid., p. 14). As a consequence, the gender- equality policies will only be truly transformative if they do not eschew the localised social, political and cultural context.

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As it has already been clarified, feminist language planning is not a technique that has only been adopted by institutional bodies. In contrast, many governments around the world have tried to eliminate linguistic sexism. For instance, Daniel Elmiger

(2013) conducted a research on the official texts edited by the Swiss Federal

Chancellery. As it is well known, is a quadrilingual country, which means that all administrative documents need to be translated in the four official languages,

Italian, French, German and Romansh. In 2007 the new Federal Language Law was adopted which “demands that official language use must be adequate, clear and intelligible as well as non-sexist” (Elmiger, 2013, p. 59). It is striking that although non- sexist language has been required in the German section of the Federal Chancellery for approximately 15 years, the French and Italian section had not altered their language use, promoting instead the generic use of masculine terms (ibid.). According to

Elmiger, this differentiation can be explained by the fact that in Romance languages, such as French and Italian, gendered forms are more frequent than in German and, as a consequence, generic masculine forms are more difficult to avoid (ibid., p. 60). The study revealed that three practices were mainly used for the avoidance of sexism: the use of double forms, the use of gender-neutral words and the use of gender-neutralising plural forms (ibid., p. 65). Despite this, the use of double forms was considerably limited in Italian and French, compared to German and Romansh. The conclusion that is drawn is that in all four languages some steps have been taken to eliminate linguistic sexism. Yet, the use of generic masculine is still very frequent in French and Italian, but not in Romansh, which is also a Romance language. This solidly proves that non- sexist language can be employed in a Romance language, “albeit at the price of a considerable amount of repetitions” (ibid., p. 69). As the paper concludes, it remains to

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be seen if Italian and French will adopt a non-sexist approach, following the example of German and Romansh.

As far as Greece is concerned, it should be noted that since the late 1970s any language policies and planning were focused on the debate over diglossia

(Lampropoulou & Georgalidou, 2017, p. 50). Therefore, unlike other Western

European countries, Greece did not implement any policies against sexist language use.

The first attempt to document sexist language use in public discourse and offer some suggestions for its elimination was in the mid-90s when Το Φύλο της Γλώσσας: Οδηγός

μη Σεξιστικής Γλώσσας για τον Δημόσιο Ελληνικό Λόγο [The Gender of Language: A

Guide for Non-Sexist Language for Public Greek Speech] (Tsokalidou, 1996) was published in Athens by the Union of Greek Women Scientists. Even though that guide was not officially adopted by the state, it laid the foundation for the elaboration and publication of the Οδηγός Χρήσης μη Σεξιστικής Γλώσσας στα Διοικητικά Έγγραφα

[Guide for the Use of Non-sexist Language in Public Documents] (Gasouka,

Georgalidou, Lampropoulou, Foulidi, & Tolis, 2014). The drafting of the guide, which was co-funded by the European Social Fund, the Ministry of Interior and

Administrative Reconstruction and the General Secretariat for Gender Equality, started in 2012 and was successfully completed in 2014. At present, it enjoys the official status of an administrative document and the Ministry has been assigned with the duty of disseminating the results of the project and the recommendations included in the handbook by organising lectures and workshops for public sector employees

(Lampropoulou & Georgalidou, 2017, p. 50).

Despite these efforts, as Lampropoulou and Georgalidou (2017) prove in their paper, after examining 100 public documents and excerpts of parliamentary sittings,

“Greece is far from implementing non-sexist policies that would include the usage of

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unmarked non-sexist terms [and] collective or abstract nouns” (p. 56). The results of the survey suggest that the instances of overt and covert sexism included in the data studied constitute “evidence of an entrenched sexism in language” which is “compatible with dominant ideological beliefs concerning gender roles”, such as male superiority and the exclusion of women from the public sphere (ibid., p. 55).

On the whole, it seems that more initiatives should be adopted in order to promote the use of non-sexist language in Greek public discourse, because this could work as a catalyst so that the general public avoids sexist language in their everyday lives. Notably, in March 2018 the Οδηγός Χρήσης μη Σεξιστικής Γλώσσας στα

Διοικητικά Έγγραφα [Guide for the Use of Non-sexist Language in Public Documents]

(Gasouka, Georgalidou, Lampropoulou, Foulidi, & Tolis, 2018) was updated and it remains to be seen whether it will be successfully embraced by Greek language users.

Some of the linguists, academics and sociologists who participated in the preparation of the aforementioned guide, have also contributed to the publication of a similar guide for the Republic of Cyprus; in 2016 the Gender Equality Observatory of

Cyprus funded the drafting of the Οδηγός Υπέρβασης του Γλωσσικού Σεξισμού στη

Γλώσσα των Εγγράφων της Δημόσιας Διοίκησης της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας [Guide for

Eliminating Linguistic Sexism in the Language in the Public Documents of the

Republic of Cyprus] (Gasouka, Georgalidou, & Foulidi, 2016). Nonetheless, as with the case of Greece, it remains to be seen whether the suggestions proposed by the present guide are in fact implemented in public documents.

Furthermore, the academic community has embraced this shift towards gender- fair language use. This can be supported by the fact that numerous educational institutions have published their own guidelines on gender-neutral language use.

Therefore, in that way they urge their staff and students to adopt a gender-neutral

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language in their announcements, papers and theses (Queen’s University, n.d.;

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, n.d.; University of Victoria, n.d.;

University of Warwick, n.d.). Similarly, various style manuals have dedicated special sections to gender-inclusive language, with a view to reducing bias in academic writing

(American Psychological Association, 2010, pp. 70–76; University of Chicago Press

Editorial Staff, 2017).

Over the past decade, the proliferation of institutional guides on the avoidance of linguistic sexism adequately proves that gender mainstreaming is an important parameter that concerns governments and international bodies nowadays. Nonetheless, further research needs to be conducted in order to examine whether these guidelines are actually adopted by the stakeholders and to what extent. The present research will try to elucidate that matter, by investigating the implementation of gender-neutral guidelines within the European Parliament.

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FEMINIST TRANSLATION

As we have seen in the previous sections, Feminist Linguistics first appeared in the late

1970s and early 1980s. The intersection of feminist literature and Translation Studies lead to the emergence of the Quebec translation movement, formed by Luise von

Flotow, Barbara Godard, Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood, Howard Scott, among others (Godayol, 2013, p. 174). However, a defining moment in the history of

Translation Studies was in the 1990s, when the “cultural approach” or the “cultural turn”, as it is also referred to, gained ground. The “cultural turn” in translation was initially advocated by André Lefevere and Susan Bassnett in 1990, when they supported that “translations are made to respond to the demands of a culture and of various groups within that culture” (p. 7). This shift “took Translation Studies away from purely linguistic analysis and brought it into contact with other disciplines” (Munday, 2008, p. 128). For Sherry Simon (1996) the importance of the cultural turn and gender in

Translation Studies is crucial, since:

Cultural studies brings to translation an understanding of the

complexities of gender and culture. It allows us to situate linguistic

transfer within the multiple “post” realities of today:

poststructuralism, postcolonialism and postmodernism. (p. 136)

Cultural studies have explored the cultural role played by language in forming speakers’ identities. Within this context, the understanding of translation has been altered and it is considered “as an activity which may create or destabilize cultural identities and thus become a new mode of cultural creation” (Andone, 2002, p. 135).

Nowadays, translation is not seen as a purely imitating process, but rather as an act of “manipulation” of the source text. The pursuit of truth, fidelity or accuracy is

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considered a “romantic fallac[y]”, since translation is “a distorting lens which tailors realities and/or identities to suit conscious ideological needs” (Santaemilia, 2005, p. 5).

The traditional belief about translation and fidelity is now rejected. Lori Chamberlain

(1988) has commented on the sexist undertones lurking behind the metaphor of the

“belles infidèles”. According to that metonymy, translation is compared to a woman; if she is beautiful, she is unfaithful, and if she is faithful, she is not beautiful, meaning that fidelity and beauty are incompatible.

For les belles infidèles, fidelity is defined by an implicit contract

between translation (as woman) and original (as husband, father, or

author). However, the infamous “double standard” operates here as it

might have in traditional marriages: the “unfaithful” wife/translation

is publicly tried for crimes the husband/original is by law incapable

of committing. This contract, in short, makes it impossible for the

original to be guilty of infidelity. Such an attitude betrays real anxiety

about the problem of paternity and translation; it mimics the

patrilineal kinship system where paternity —not maternity

legitimizes an offspring. (Chamberlain, 1988, pp. 455–456)

For Susan Bassnett (1992), Chamberlain’s paper is “one of the most useful essays that has appeared to date on the question of translation and gender”, since it exposes the

“powerfully patriarchal line of western literary thought” (pp. 66–67).

Translation Studies along with Gender Studies offer a new perspective in the manipulation of “gender(ed) or sexual identities and stereotypes” (ibid.). Translation is

“a discursive practice that forms and transforms gender identities and helps reconsider the notion of sexual difference” (Eleonora & Vanessa, 2013, p. 2). Accordingly, Simon

(1996) argues that translations are “related in organic ways to other modes of

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communication” and they need to be seen “as writing practices fully informed by the tensions that traverse all cultural representation” (p. 7). That is, translation is defined

“as a process of mediation which does not stand above ideology but works through it”

(ibid.). The notions of “power and ideology are inextricably linked to the critical study of language and translation” and through them the existing power relations are perpetuated or challenged (Castro Vázquez, 2013a, p. 5).

Similarly, Luise Von Flotow (1997), in his book Translation and Gender:

Translating in the “Era of Feminism”, supports that we live “in an era powerfully influenced by feminist thought” which in turn immensely affects translation practice

(p. 14). For Von Flotow as well, translation is considered a process highly influenced by culture and ideology, as the excerpt below implies.

Gender awareness in translation practice poses questions about the

links between social stereotypes and linguistic forms, about the

politics of language and cultural difference, about the ethics of

translation, and about reviving inaccessible works for contemporary

readers. It highlights the importance of the cultural context in which

translation is done. (Von Flotow, 1997, p. 14)

In that sense, translation is seen as a tool, or a mirror that reflects cultural and ideological messages.

The notion that translation is a powerful instrument that could be deployed in order either to overthrow or sustain ideological beliefs is of paramount importance for

Feminist Translation Studies. Castro Vázquez (2013) believes that “language and translation inevitably are tools for legitimizing the status quo or for subverting it; tools for gender oppression or liberation” (p. 6). Thus, translation could potentially contribute along with language in establishing a more equal world (ibid.). In translation,

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male/female registers and gender-specific codes, among other features are mirrored in source and target texts and the translator has the possibility to create a translation in favour of or against a specific ideological perspective (Sidiropoulou, 2004, p. 21). Ian

Mason (1994) also supports this view stating that

the translator, as both receiver and producer of text, has the double

duty of perceiving the meaning potential of particular choices within

the cultural and linguistic community of the source text and relaying

the same potential, by suitable linguistic means, to a target readership.

(p.23)

In feminist discourse, translation “in its figurative meanings of transcoding and transformation” constitutes a metaphor to “evoke the difficulty of breaking out of silence in order to communicate new insights into women’s experiences and their relation to language” (Godard, 1989, p. 45), that has been to a great extent

“phallogocentric[c]”, rendering women’s speech “muted” and “unheard of” (ibid., p.

46). Similarly, Tarif (2015) defines language as “androcentric”, since it is “marked by inequality and discrimination against women” (p. 35).

Feminist translation in the 21st century “is embraced as a tool and model of cross-border dialogue, resistance, solidarity and activism in pursuit of justice and equality for all” (Castro Vázquez & Ergün, 2017, p. 1). Nowadays, “a re-engendered study of translation begins to be recognized as a transcultural practice” (Larkosh, 2014, p. 5) insofar as it is asserted that Feminist Translation Studies has reached a third wave

(Castro Vázquez, 2009). This offers “new dimensions to the reading and ideological transmission of the discursive representation of women and men” (ibid., 2009, p.

13trans) and explores “how ideology affects (or not) the reading and rewriting of the discursive elements that have women and men as referents” (ibid., 2009, p. 14trans). In

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effect, in the subsequent sections of this thesis, I shall explore the way human referents are treated within the framework of feminist translation and I shall attempt to scrutinise the modes in which non-sexist language permeates a non-gendered language, specifically English, and how this is communicated in a gender-ridden language, that is Greek.

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CORPUS-BASED TRANSLATION STUDIES

Nowadays, the emergence and the proliferation of modern technologies have had an enormous impact on translation practice and by extent on research regarding

Translation Studies and on translation theory, as well. Therefore, recent trends in

Translation Studies have suggested the use of corpora in order to analyse, compare and contrast source texts (STs) with their respective target texts (TTs) or translations with non-translations.

EAGLES (Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards) is an initiative of the European Commission, within DG XIII Linguistic Research and

Engineering programme, aiming to provide standards for areas of language engineering, such as Computational Linguistics and Lexicography. According to the

EAGLES definition of corpora, “a corpus is a collection of pieces of language that are selected and ordered according to explicit linguistic criteria in order to be used as a sample of the language” (Sinclair, 1996).

Initially, the corpora that were developed in the 1980s were monolingual, mainly in English (Munday, 2008, p. 180). They were used as a compilation of original, or, as Munday puts it, “naturally-occurring” texts, written in a given language (ibid.).

In other words, the documents or fragments contained in the corpus had been composed in order to perform a specific purpose, pragmatically speaking, and they were “not artificially invented by the language researcher” (ibid.). They were created in order to act as a pool of authentic communicative context which could be processed and analysed, with the aid of modern technology and computers. This permitted the study of the linguistic patterns and the word forms included in the corpus. Effectively, linguists did not have to make predictions about language and answer questions about

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the use of lexical items based on their intuition (Sinclair, 1991, p.42). Instead, they could base their assumptions on the vast consortium of genuine instances of language.

However, it should be mentioned that Lindquist (1984) in his article “The Use of Corpus-Based Studies in the Preparation of Handbooks for Translators” was the first to suggest that corpora could be included in handbooks that are used for training translators. A few years later, in his dissertation he was a pioneer of Translation Study

Theory since he compiled a corpus to study the translation of English adverbials into

Swedish (Lindquist, 1989). Later, Mona Baker (1993) stated that Corpus-based

Linguistics could reveal interesting insights about language typicalities. She suggested analysing a corpus of translated texts and compare them with non-translated language in order to shed some light on translation as a process and the norms of translation practice.

Following Baker’s train of thought, Olohan (2004) comments on the overlap between Corpus Linguistics and Descriptive Translation Studies and she offers a more recent overview of corpus-based translation theory. In her survey she studies English

TTs with little if any access to the STs. Yet, by using readily available software to compile “researcher-constructed parallel corpora” (Munday, 2008, p. 181), she combines qualitative and quantitative corpus analysis.

Generally, the use of corpora, that is the use of collections of electronic texts, constitute an effort to add more scientific rigour and objectivity into the study of translation. As Tziafa (2012) mentions in her article, in the relevant contemporary literature there is a great confusion as regards corpus types and definitions (p. 84).

Zanettin et al. (2003) point out that there are three types of corpora which may be employed in the study of translation. The first category includes “monolingual corpora” which can be analysed in terms of naturalness and can serve as reference (Zanettin et

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al., 2003). The analysis of monolingual corpora could help a translator form an idea on the specific stylistic features borne by a specific text type. Therefore, the translator could reproduce those attributes in his/her translation, so that the TT mirrors authentic texts written on that subject. The second type involves “comparable bilingual corpora” which include original texts written in two different languages and they can be used for mining terminology or extracting information or in order to create termbases (ibid.).

This technique can prove to be a most useful tool when translating specialised texts. By extracting the keywords of the texts included in the bilingual corpus, translators can pinpoint the main terms used by the experts of the field, in order to deploy them in their translations. Finally, there are “parallel corpora” which comprise pairs of STs and TTs whish are aligned and comparatively explored, in order to investigate translators’ choices (ibid.). Indeed, the study of parallel corpora can be successfully employed to analyse a specific translator’s style, as well as a translation’s style. By comparing a variety of translations, translators could pinpoint any salient linguistic features.

It seems that the aforesaid classifications for comparable and parallel corpora are in accordance with John Sinclair’s (1996) definitions. Sinclair defines comparable corpora as a corpus “which selects similar texts in more than one language or variety”.

Nevertheless, he goes on to underline that “there is as yet no agreement on the nature of the similarity, because there are very few examples of comparable corpora”. On the other hand, according to the EAGLES typology of corpora:

A parallel corpus is a collection of texts, each of which is translated

into one or more other languages than the original. The simplest case

is where two languages only are involved: one of the corpora is an

exact translation of the other. Some parallel corpora, however, exist

in several languages. Also, the direction of the translation need not be

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constant, so that some texts in a parallel corpus may have been

translated from language A to language B and others the other way

around. The direction of the translation may not even be known.

(Sinclair, 1996)

Sinclair (1996) also comments that within the multilingual environment of organisations, such as the United Nations, NATO, the EU who rely on translation:

parallel corpora are objects of interest at present because of the

opportunity offered to align original and translation and gain insights

into the nature of translation. From this work it is hoped that tools to

aid translation will be devised.

Therefore, the use of parallel corpora could prove to be an invaluable tool for the improvement and facilitation of the translation process.

From the above it becomes clear that Corpus-based Translation Studies form an intrinsic part of the sub-discipline of Translation Studies that Holmes (1988) defined as

Descriptive Translation Studies. Descriptive Translation Studies intend to examine, predict and analyse translational phenomena using authentic data, rather than prescribe any guidelines regarding the creation of an ideal translation. Through the systematic description of the product, process and function of translation, we could try to elucidate

“the complex of problems clustered round the phenomenon of translating and translations” (Holmes, 1988, p. 181). In the same sense, Toury (1995) argued that translational phenomena could be explained in three ways. This could be achieved by describing their status and role in the target culture, by identifying norms governing the decisions made by translators, which could be achieved by comparing and contrasting the STs with the TTs, or by discovering probabilistic laws about translation (Toury,

1995).

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Therefore, we could argue that the use of parallel corpora combines two different disciplines: that of Corpus-based Translation Studies and that of Descriptive

Translation Studies. More importantly though, apart from being an amalgamation of approaches, it constitutes an invaluable tool that could be employed in order to interpret the decisions made by translators when rendering a text from one language to another.

The specific type of corpora used in the present research, as well as the way they were compiled and exploited, will be analysed in the following section.

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CORPORA PRESENTATION

In a previous section, it was stated that for the purposes of this research two different sets of corpora were created. The corpora compiled for the purposes of this research, according to the categorisation of Zanettin et al. (2003) and to the EAGLES (Sinclair,

1996) typology are parallel, bilingual corpora consisting of a number of source texts written in English aligned with their equivalent Greek translations. On the whole, I studied two distinct corpora, one for each period I wished to examine, that is one for the year 2008 and a second one for 2009. To be more specific, I studied 25 English press releases for the year 2008 containing 16,553 words, along with their Greek translations comprising 11,645 words. Consequently, 50 texts were studied overall for the year 2008, consisting of 28,198 words in sum. For the year 2019 25 English press releases were examined made up of 15,633 words in total, as well as, their equivalent

25 translations into Greek encompassing 11,130 words. In total, 50 press releases were studied for the year 2009 being composed of a sum of 26,763 words. To sum up, for the needs of the present study I closely examined 100 texts (54,961 words). Even though this number is by no means considered sufficient in order to deduct faultless results or make generalisations about the use of gender-fair language within the

European Parliament, it is yet considered to be indicative of the prevalent tendencies around non-sexist language use during the two years examined.

At this point it seems vital to make some clarifications about the type of texts used in the present research. The reason why I chose to work with press releases was that they are readily available on the Internet, since they are posted by the European

Parliament on a daily basis. Another important argument in favour of the use of press releases was that the vast majority of EP press releases are drafted in various official

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EU languages at the same time, in different language “versions”, as we have clarified that they are formally called. As Lindholm (2008) comments, “with its linguistic regime of considering all the official languages of the member states as official languages of the union, the EU provides a unique linguistic setting” (p. 34), having at present 24 official languages. Lindholm also points out that “the multilingual character of the EU, like that of other international organisations, implies that numerous writers work in a foreign language”, rather than composing texts in their native language (ibid.).

Regardless of that fact, once the press-release is drafted by the non-native speaker, “at least one native speaker should have read the press release before it is issued” (ibid., p.

46), thus making any vital corrections and editing that is needed before it is communicated to the public. In this respect, Loos (2004) has drawn some interesting conclusions on how people with different mother tongues, having different nationalities and belonging to different political groups are able to produce texts within the framework of the European Parliament.

Even so, as it has already been stated, for the purposes of the present research, we will ignore the nationality of the authors of the English press releases and we will take for granted that the Greek versions of the press releases are produced by Greek translators. Tsoumari (2010) seems to agree with this decision since in her own study she considers the English press releases to “have been used as an original in the translation process” and the Greek press releases are treated as the target translations

(p. 178).

Another important aspect that needs to be explored prior to examining the selected press releases is the genre, the text type in which they can be classed. As

Lindholm (2008) explains, the European Commission’s press releases “are part of a communicative sequence and are not to be seen as an isolated communicative event”

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(p. 35). It is needless to say that this statement holds true for the European Parliament’s press releases, as well, since they are also produced by press officers, following an EP session, in order to brief the public on parliamentary activities and the EP’s agenda.

Furthermore, it is imperative to identify the text type of press releases according to Reiss’s categorisation. As a matter of fact, according to Reiss’s (2002) typology, texts can be classified as informative, expressive, operative and audio medial (p. 42).

Her distinction was based on Karl Bühler’s classification of language functions as informative, expressive and vocative, as well as the three language dimensions, namely the logical, the aesthetic and the dialogical one. Therefore, on the basis of Reiss’s categorisation, press releases are considered as informative texts, since their main aim is to inform the general public about the European Parliament’s activities and decisions.

Moreover, the language used in them is primarily logical or referential, lacking any expressive means. The emphasis is laid on the content of the text. In other words, the message conveyed is foregrounded. Howbeit, the press releases seem to perform another function at the same time. As Grammenidis, Dimitroulia, Kourdis, Loupaki and

Floros (2015) underline, texts types might not always have a single function (p. 52). On the contrary, there seem to be texts that actualise multiple functions. But it should be remarked that only one of those functions prevails over the others. Indeed, apparently press releases fulfil a subordinate function, as well. They aim to appeal to the reader in order to induce a certain behaviour from him/her and elicit desired responses from the target audience. Thus, we could say that language is also dialogical and appellative.

The press release tries to demonstrate “how the EU delivers benefits to citizens which only EU action could achieve” (Lindholm, 2008, p. 38). Consequently, “the text serves the aim of creating or maintaining the political profile of an EU-citizen-friendly”

European environment (Tsoumari, 2010, p. 195). This proves that the press releases are

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also operative, as they struggle to prove and convince EU citizens that the European

Union is an institution that aids, protects and supports them. In brief, EP press releases could be characterised principally as informative texts and on a second basis as operative ones.

As far as the choice of texts is concerned, it should be specified that the 100 press releases included in the database were primarily selected randomly. Nonetheless, by studying the title of each press release, the documents that were chosen either explicitly addressed the general public, by using the second person –which is identical in the singular and the plural in the English language– or made references to groups of people of either sex. In that way, it was ensured that the texts I had selected contained terms denoting humans, rather than pertaining to abstract ideas or inanimate objects that would tamper with the data extrapolated from the present study.

In order to compile the corpus of the EP press releases I deployed a corpus- management tool. Sketch Engine is a web-based corpus manager and text analysis software used by linguists, lexicographers and translators worldwide. It was created by

Lexical Computing Limited, a company founded by the corpus linguist and lexicographer Adam Kilgarriff in 2003. It was named after a function it provides, called word sketch, providing “a one-page summary of a word’s grammatical and collocational behaviour”, thus exploring its use in context (Kilgarriff et al., 2014, p. 9).

Currently, Sketch Engine contains corpora in more than 90 languages, which can be accessed online. However, users are also able to “upload, build, process, share and explore their own corpora”, using texts they have collected themselves, which is what

I chose to do in this research (Kilgarriff et al., 2014, p. 26). Moreover, Sketch Engine is very useful to translators since it can “handle parallel corpora and multilingual

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corpora to compare different languages or to look up translation examples” (Sketch

Engine, n.d.-a).

Specifically, in this study, I deployed the feature of parallel corpora building, which was introduced in 2017. Users can compile their own parallel corpus using texts they have aligned themselves. In order to align the source texts with their respective target texts, users could use any Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool of their choice, thus uploading the TMX, XLIFF or XML file on the Sketch Engine website, or simply in a tabular format, such as a spreadsheet. That is why once I had decided upon the press releases, I would analyse, I created two separate spreadsheets, that is two

Microsoft Excel files, each one containing the equivalent press releases for the two years examined.

Fig. 1 Spreadsheet comprising two columns, English and Greek, with texts aligned side-by-side.

Sketch Engine ordains that the spreadsheet must contain as many columns as the number of languages examined in the corpus and the name of the language should be mentioned in the first row of the spreadsheet, so that the programme recognises them

(Sketch Engine, n.d.-b). From the second line onwards, the cells must contain the

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aligned segments. Sketch Engine indicates that cell A should contain the ST sentence and cell B the TT sentence. Alternatively, the data can be aligned at paragraph level, this means that cell A will contain a whole paragraph of the ST and cell B the respective translated paragraph. Nonetheless, taking into account the fact that the sentences of the press releases had no one-to-one equivalence in English and Greek, so as to arrange them at sentence or even paragraph level, I chose to place the whole English press release in cell A and the Greek one in its entirety in cell B. In that way, two distinct

Excel files were created, one containing all of the press releases of 2008 and a second one encompassing all 2009 press releases in English and in Greek, aligned the one next to the other.

Following this step, I visited the Sketch Engine’s website, in order to compile the bilingual parallel corpus. In the Sketch Engine’s dashboard, the original interface of the tool, we can see all of the features provided by the tool. In order to create a new corpus, I simply had to click on the “new corpus” button.

Fig. 2 Sketch Engine’s main dashboard.

Then, I had to choose the name of the corpus and type it it the name section.

Besides this, I defined the type of the corpus by clicking on the “Multilingual corpus”

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option, since the corpus would contain English and Greek texts. Finally, I browsed through my files to select the spreadsheet (Excel) file I had created earlier. Afterwards,

I clicked “Next” to move on to the second step of the procedure.

Fig. 3 Step 1: Uploading the corpora.

So, I was automatically transferred to the second phase of the corpus compilation, which is called “Settings”. As Sketch Engine specifies “each language in the source file will be processed into a separate monolingual corpus and aligned with the corresponding corpus in the other language(s)”. The users are given the possibility to modify the corpus names and/or the automatically detected languages. The languages are identified by the titles I have provided in the first row of the spreadsheet files. In this case, the sub-corpuses were two; one English and one Greek containing the respective press releases of the year 2008.

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Fig. 4 Step 2: Specification of the name of each sub-corpus and their respective languages.

To conclude, the last step to be followed is that of corpus compilation. The corpus managing system checks that there is nothing wrong with the sub-corpora and then it automatically creates the multilingual corpus the user wishes to compile.

Fig. 5 Step 3: Corpus compilation.

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The aforementioned procedure had to be followed twice, in view of the fact that after compiling the 2008 bilingual parallel corpus, I had to create the 2009 bilingual parallel corpus.

After the bilingual corpora were created, I was ready to start their exploration.

The function that I mainly used for this study was that of the “Parallel Concordance” or “Translation Search” as it is also referred to on the main dashboard of the tool.

Thanks to the parallel concordancer, the user “inputs a search term in one language and sees pairs of sentences: those with the matching term in the first language, and the corresponding sentence in the target language” (Kilgarriff et al., 2014, p. 23). The parallel concordancer is basically a feature that searches for the equivalent translations of words, phrases or even whole sentences in the selected language. Users can even limit the results produced by specifying how the search word would be translated. For example, when searching for the word “students”, if I typed in the “translated as” section the word “μαθητές” /maθités/, the parallel concordancer would only find instances of “students” being translated only as “μαθητές” /maθités/, excluding any other possibilities, such as “μαθήτριες” /maθítries/, “φοιτήτριες” /phitítries/,

“φοιτητών” /phititón/. However, since the aim of the present research was to find out how words referring to humans are actually translated, I did not wish to narrow the generated results and for this reason this option was not exploited.

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Fig. 6 The parallel concordance feature.

After the search was initiated, the results found were presented on a different page. The total number of instances of the search word is displayed on the upper left corner of the screen. The investigated term is displayed in red font on the left side of the table and the equivalent translation is shown on the right part of the concordancer.

Sketch Engine will try to identify the translations of the word the user is searching for and highlight them with bright yellow colour. However, in Greek the highlighting of candidate translated terms does not seem to be very precise.

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Fig. 7 The parallel concordance-generated results.

On the whole, the basic layout of the parallel concordancer and the way results are displayed resembles the arrangement of the CAT tools widely used by translators today. This characteristic renders the tool very user-friendly and practical, since the vast majority of modern-day translators would be quickly accustomed to its interface, provided that they are already acquainted with CAT tools. Even if that is not the case,

Sketch Engine is an easy-to-use software and the user can effortlessly get familiarised with it.

The fact that the parallel concordancer aligns the source text with the target translation was the principal reason why I chose to work with Sketch Engine during my research. Actually, even though text alignment can be performed with many CAT tools, such as the translation alignment tool (formerly WinAlign) in SDL Trados Studio, to name one, the corpus compilation feature along with the concordancer tool are only available in Sketch Engine. The results produced by means of the parallel concordancer will be discussed in the subsequent section.

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

I. INTRODUCTION

In order to analyse the data collected we shall resort to Critical Discourse Analysis

(CDA), by means of which we can “link textual features to the social and ideological context of text production and reception” (Schäffner, 2016, p. 145). Hatim (2011) in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies clarifies that since the term was first

“used by Zellig Harris in 1952 to refer to the manifestation of formal regularities across sentences in combination”, nowadays, the term “has come to mean different things to different people” (p. 88). However, the common ground among all different approaches towards discourse analysis is that it involves “the study of language beyond the level of the sentence” (ibid.). In the same work, Saldanha (2011) states that CDA is founded upon the precept that “discourse is both socially conditioned and shapes social relationships, and that it is necessary to adopt a critical stance towards the relationship between analysis and the practices analysed” (p. 152). For Hatim (2011) the domain that has attracted the interest of both discourse analysists and translation studies scholars is sexist discourse (p. 91). Theorists have tried to identify the principles that govern sexist expression, “which regulate the pragmatics of communication”, through

CDA (ibid.). For this reason, it is apparent that the employment of the CDA model for the analysis of the results of the present survey is most relevant.

The aspects of sexist language use that I attempted to identify in the press releases of the years 2008 and 2009 that were studied can be classified into four distinct

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categories, as they have been specified in the European Parliament’s Gender-Neutral

Language in the European Union guide. Even though the problems that arise when trying to avoid sexist language use vary from one language to another, there is a number of problems that is common to the majority of languages (2008b, p. 4). These issues are all explored in this research, as well as the specific guidelines provided for the Greek language exclusively. To be more exact, the matters that this study will focus on are the following:

a) the generic use of the masculine gender;

b) people’s names, marital status and titles;

c) the use of the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ (masc. – sing., meaning

human, man, person).

Apparently, the first two points to be considered are shared in English and Greek, whereas the last one pertains to the Greek language only.

The total number of instances, that is of human referents or phrases denoting people identified in the 25 press releases of 2008 were 238. Correspondingly, the number of examples referring to humans in the equivalent 25 press releases of 2009 amounted to 337.

The aforementioned occurrences were then divided into three main categories, based on their denotation. The first and the most general category was that of human referents that included any reference made to individuals, groups of people, professions, job titles and functions. The second grouping included names, titles and marital status, in general the address terms used to refer to people. Last but not least, the use of the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ was studied.

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II. GENERIC USE OF MASCULINE GENDER

The first group of data that was thoroughly examined included phrases explicitly referring to single persons or to groups of people of either sex bearing social or professional attributes or other characteristics. Hence, their function, job title, profession or any other feature serving to separate them from the rest of the crowd was mentioned. For those cases, it was observed that eleven different linguistic and stylistic choices were used.

The first was that of the plural masculine form as a generic to refer to both men and women subjects. As the Gender-Neutral Language in the European Union handbook mentions:

The grammatical convention in most European languages is that for

groups combining both sexes, the masculine gender is used as the

“inclusive” or generic form, whereas the feminine is “exclusive”, i.e.

referring to women only. This generic or neutralising use of the

masculine gender is increasingly perceived as discriminating against

women. (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 4)

In effect, this notion of the masculine being used as a generic, has been severely criticised by modern linguists. It is based upon the principle of “markedness/marking”, which, according to Lyons (1977), “is an extremely important concept in structural linguistics” (p. 305). The use of the masculine as a generic implies that the masculine form is semantically unmarked. This means that the feminine form is considered as a semantically marked lexeme, that is “more specific in sense than the corresponding semantically unmarked lexeme” (Lyons, 1977, p. 307). This view supports the male- as-norm idea (Talbot, 2010, p. 23), since male forms are unmarked and the female

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forms are considered to be “derived, and so formally marked” (Makri-Tsilipakou, 1989, p. 67).

Furthermore, a number of studies have shown that the generic masculine use is not, in fact, generic at all. Hellinger and Bußmann (2001) refer to that principle as “false generics” (p. 9) or “pseudo-generics” (p. 124). MacKay (1983) points out that the so- called “generic he” does not in fact mean “he or she”, but instead it should be labelled as “prescriptive he”, since speakers “find prescriptive he inadequate for making generic reference to predominantly female antecedents”, thus proving that “generic he” is not actually used generically (p. 39). MacKay’s research findings reveal that the

“prescriptive he” is not neutral, as it leads neutral antecedents, such as person, pedestrian, or writer to be interpreted as masculine (ibid. p. 43).

Even though the pseudo-generic use of masculine forms has been a heated issue among linguists, since “the generic masculine, far from being a feature of grammar alone, is an aspect of society’s sexism and contributes to reproducing it” (Talbot, 2010, p. 236), the European Parliament is in favour of its use. It argues that “avoiding the generic use of masculine form is not always easy, particularly in formal texts”, given that the repeated use of the double pronoun (he or she) is “awkward” and in highly inflected languages this would influence associated satellite words (e.g. articles, adjectives, nouns, etc.), thus making sentences long and strenuous to read (European

Parliament, 2008b, p. 5). Moreover, the combined forms, such as “s/he” or “him/her” are considered to be “clumsy” and “difficult to pronounce” (ibid.). Finally, the alternation between masculine and feminine forms which is another strategy proposed by feminist linguists is “distracting and ambiguous”, so the EP dissuades the authors from using it, as the register of the European Parliament’s texts is formal (ibid.).

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However, as Martyna (1983) astutely underlines, those who are deterred by the difficulty of language change or project the argument that he or she forms are “ugly and awkward”, mask a resistance towards non-sexist ideology, because non-sexist language would function as “one form of social equality” (pp. 28–30). The writer also adds that “while awkwardness may result from the he or she construction, this awkwardness is seen by many as far less troublesome than the ambiguity and sex- exclusiveness of the he/man approach” (ibid., p. 34).

As true as this might be, the results of the present study show that the masculine form is used generically in the majority of instances. To be more exact, two different kinds of generic masculine forms were observed. The one was that of masculine terms used generically in Greek, but whose declension is common for both the masculine and the feminine gender. For example:

EN MEPs call on the Commission to bring forward a proposal for a new

directive regarding specific rights and safeguards in relation to the

reconciliation of working and family life where there are dependent family

members (children, elderly and disabled people). (European Parliament,

2009f)

EL Οι ευρωβουλευτές κάλεσαν ακόμη την Επιτροπή να υποβάλει πρόταση για

νέα οδηγία σχετικά με τα ειδικά δικαιώματα και τα μέτρα διασφάλισης σε

ό,τι αφορά τον συνδυασμό της επαγγελματικής και οικογενειακής ζωής,

στις περιπτώσεις όπου υπάρχουν εξαρτώμενα οικογενειακά μέλη (παιδιά,

ηλικιωμένοι και άτομα με αναπηρίες). (European Parliament, 2009ak)

In this example the word “MEPs” which denotes a group of people who are both male and female is translated as “οι ευρωβουλευτές” /i evrovouleftés/, meaning MEPs, which

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is in plural and is commonly used for both genders, without any change in its form.

However, it should be noted that even though the form is common for both genders, the gender of “οι ευρωβουλευτές” /i evrovouleftés/ is in fact masculine, therefore constituting a form of masculine generic use. This can be illustrated if a satellite word is added in the example above:

EN All MEPs call on the Commission to bring forward a proposal for a new

directive regarding specific rights and safeguards in relation to the

reconciliation of working and family life where there are dependent family

members (children, elderly and disabled people). (European Parliament,

2009f)

EL Όλοι οι ευρωβουλευτές κάλεσαν ακόμη την Επιτροπή να υποβάλει πρόταση

για νέα οδηγία σχετικά με τα ειδικά δικαιώματα και τα μέτρα διασφάλισης

σε ό,τι αφορά τον συνδυασμό της επαγγελματικής και οικογενειακής ζωής,

στις περιπτώσεις όπου υπάρχουν εξαρτώμενα οικογενειακά μέλη (παιδιά,

ηλικιωμένοι και άτομα με αναπηρίες). [my translation]

Given that the adjective “όλοι” /óli/, meaning all, is masculine, it proves that the gender of “οι ευρωβουλευτές” /i evrovouleftés/ is also masculine.

The number of such instances found in the 2008 corpus are 68 out of the 187 human referents studied, which translates as 35.2%. Similarly, in the 2009 corpus, 91 examples of plural words commonly referring to men and women were found out of the total 272 references, or 33.4%. On the whole, this strategy was found to be the most common in translation for both 2008 and 2009.

The second most ordinary technique was that of the masculine plural form being used generically to denote both men and women. For instance:

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EN MEPs call on Member States to abolish any barriers that hinder researchers

from entering the EU. (European Parliament, 2008f)

EL Οι ευρωβουλευτές ζητούν από τα κράτη μέλη να μην παρακωλύεται η

πρόσβαση των ερευνητών στην ΕΕ από υπάρχοντα εθνικά εμπόδια.

(European Parliament, 2008ap)

In English, the word “researchers” refers to both male and female scientists. On the contrary, in the Greek translation the word “των ερευνητών” /ton erevnitón/ denotes male scientists only and, hence, the masculine form is used generically.

In 2008, the total number of occurrences of generic masculine use was 47 out of 187 or 25.1%. It is worth mentioning that out of the 47 instances there were two cases where the masculine noun was used, since there is no feminine equivalent of those nouns in Greek. The noun was “fishermen”, which is also a sexist term in English.

Similarly, in Greek the words “ψαράδες” /psarádes/ and “αλιείς” /aliís/, meaning fishermen in Greek, were used to translate the word, both of which are of masculine gender and there is no equivalent feminine term. This asymmetry could, in fact, result from the fact that traditionally fishing has been a male-dominated profession. In the guidebook it is mentioned that “in Parliament, job titles refer equally to persons of both sexes, irrespective of the grammatical gender of the relevant form”, which explains that by using the traditional generic form, both men and women are implied (European

Parliament, 2008b, p. 6). Similarly, in 2009, 67 terms out of 272, or 24.6% that is, involved generic masculine use.

The third technique that was deployed was that of the masculine singular term being used generically to refer to both men and women, which is a strategy that is not

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included in the handbook, since according to the guidebook generic masculine terms should preferably be used in the plural.

EN Αn applicant must have found a job in the EU, and have at least five years'

experience in the sector concerned or a university qualification recognised

by the Member State. (European Parliament, 2008o)

EL Ο αιτών θα πρέπει να έχει βρει μια θέση εργασίας στην ΕΕ, να διαθέτει

επαγγελματική προϋπηρεσία τουλάχιστον 5 ετών σε σχετικό τομέα ή ένα

δίπλωμα ανώτατης εκπαίδευσης από πανεπιστήμιο που έχει αναγνωριστεί

από το κράτος μέλος όπου θέλει να εγκατασταθεί. (European Parliament,

2008ag)

In this example the English word “applicant” referring to both male and female applicants is translated into Greek as “ο αιτών” /o etón/, which is a masculine singular noun. This could create the misunderstanding that only men are expected or supposed to submit their application, since it completely excludes women, which is not the case in the English text. However, taking into account the fact that the European

Parliament’s guide does not support the use of double types, in the above case the use of the plural would have been preferable or the use of the second person plural, as in

“Για να υποβάλλετε την αίτησή σας θα πρέπει…” /Yia na ipovállete tin aítisí sas tha prépi/ [In order to submit your application, you should…] [my translation].

Alternatively, nominalisation and subject omission could be another option, such as

“Απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για την υποβολή της αίτησης είναι η εύρεση εργασίας…”

/Aparaítiti proïpóthesi yia tin ipovolí tis aítisis ínai i évresi ergasías…/ [A necessary condition for the submission of the application is finding a job…] [my translation].

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In 2008, the number of masculine singular words used generically was 16 out of 187, which translates as 8.5%, whereas in 2009 that percentage increased to 12.5%, with 34 out of the 272 cases studied.

Apparently, almost no change was recorded regarding the avoidance of masculine forms in the plural as generic after the publication of the Gender-Neutral

Language in the European Union guidebook. It is even more disturbing that the use of masculine singular forms to denote both sexes actually increased in 2009. It seems that we have a long way to go until we adopt:

a language which neither obscures nor emphasizes the differences

between the sexes, one which is clearly committed to expressing both

maleness and femaleness, rather than a maleness that is supposed to

encompass us all. (Martyna, 1983, p. 29)

One further strategy deployed was the use of neuter nouns used generically to designate both men and women. To elucidate this, we can examine the subsequent example:

EN To maintain the principle of intergenerational solidarity, MEPs urge the

Member States to achieve their commitments to introduce by 2010 childcare

for 90% of children under the mandatory school age and call for a review

of the work-life balance policies in the EU. (European Parliament, 2009f)

EL Για την διασφάλιση της αλληλεγγύης μεταξύ των γενεών το ΕΚ κάλεσε τα

κράτη μέλη να τηρήσουν τις δεσμεύσεις τους περί εισαγωγής, ως το 2010,

δομών υποδοχής για το 90% των παιδιών προσχολικής ηλικίας. Ζήτησε

ακόμη την αναθεώρηση των ευρωπαϊκών πολιτικών για την επίτευξη

ισορροπίας μεταξύ της επαγγελματικής και της προσωπικής ζωής.

(European Parliament, 2009ak)

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In this sentence provided, the word “children” refers to both boys and girls.

Equally, in the Greek translation the word “παιδιά” /pediá/ refers to children of both sexes. Thus, the neuter gender is used generically.

In the 2008 corpus, 4 such cases were located, constituting 2.1% of the total number of human references. In 2009, that percentage was equally low reaching 5.1% or 14 instances out of the 272 referents studied. It is worth mentioning that in those cases the use of the neuter was the only option available, considering the fact that words, such as “children” translated as “παιδιά” /pediá/ in Greek, or “victims”, in Greek

“θύματα” /θímata/ or “members” “μέλη” /méli/ are neuter nouns in Greek. So, it cannot be said that translators made a conscious choice when they used the neuter gender to refer to male and female referents, as a technique to avoid sexist language.

Additionally, cases of terms designating female referents only were detected.

These instances can be divided into three categories. In the first place, feminine terms are used because the text refers to women exclusively, as in the ensuing example:

EN Parliament calls for gender balance on decision-making bodies,

mainstreaming of the male-female dimension in research programmes and

support for scientific careers for women to increase the number of women

scientists in the EU. (European Parliament, 2008l)

EL H Επιτροπή και τα κράτη μέλη θα πρέπει να αναλάβουν “θετικές δράσεις

για την ενθάρρυνση των ερευνητριών και για την περαιτέρω ανάπτυξη

συστημάτων υποστήριξης και καθοδήγησής τους” τονίζει το Κοινοβούλιο

σε μια έκθεσή του για τις γυναίκες και την επιστήμη. (European Parliament,

2008an)

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The English phrase “women scientists”, which obviously refers to women exclusively, is translated into Greek as “ερευνήτριες” /erevnítries/, back translated as

“female researchers”, probably because the exact equivalent of the English term is

“επιστημόνισσες” /epistimónisses/, which even though included in the Greek dictionaries of Kriaras, Triandaphyllidis and Babiniotis, it is considered a form of the vernacular speech (Iordanidou & Mantzari, 2005, p. 8) and it could possibly be used pejoratively. In another sentence the term “γυναίκες επιστήμονες” /yinékes epistímones/ [women scientists] was found:

EL Το Kοινοβούλιο ζητεί επίσης την ανάπτυξη υποστηρικτικών δομών

προσανατολισμού για επαγγελματική σταδιοδρομία και παροχής

συμβουλών που, μεταξύ άλλων, θα απευθύνονται και σε γυναίκες

επιστήμονες. (European Parliament, 2008an)

EΝ – The EP also demands the development of support structures offering back vocational guidance and advice which would address women scientists, transl. among others. [my translation]

The fact that in order to talk about scientists who are female we need to use the determiner “women” is another instance of linguistic discrimination. This tendency has nothing to do with the fact that English does not have grammatical gender. This is also apparent in Greek, as we saw in the example above. Another such example is the following:

EL Μέσα σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, η ενίσχυση των σχέσεων των κρατουμένων

γυναικών με το οικογενειακό τους περιβάλλον είναι αμοιβαία ευεργετική.

(European Parliament, 2008ai)

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EΝ – In this framework, the reinforcement of the relationships of women back prisoners with their family environment is mutually beneficial. [my transl. translation]

It lies in the assumption that “all people are male until proven female” (Eakins &

Eakins, 1978, p. 111). Even though women can become lawyers, mayors, doctors, bosses, sculptors, chemists, their sex needs to be labelled as in “woman doctor”, proving that in our minds all doctors are males, until proven otherwise. For Malena (2015), only when women’s work “will no longer need to be considered separately from that of men, will they have achieved equality” (p. 1), but this is yet to be seen. Turning back to our examples, we might say that the readership expects all scientists or prisoners to be male, and for this reason when talking about female people, their sex is specified.

The second case that women or girls were explicitly referred to was when the texts broached issues that solely have to do solely with women, such as pregnancy, motherhood, breastfeeding, etc. Therefore, the use of feminine terms was in a way presupposed and predetermined.

EN The maternity leave should be of the duration of their choice provided that

the total length does not exceed that specified in Directive 92/85/EEC on

pregnant workers. (European Parliament, 2009g)

EL [Ο]ι μητέρες θα μπορούν να επιλέξουν τη διάρκεια της άδειας μητρότητας,

υπό την προϋπόθεση ότι η συνολική διάρκεια δεν υπερβαίνει την περίοδο

που ορίζεται στην οδηγία για τις έγκυες εργαζόμενες (92/85/ΕΟΚ).

(European Parliament, 2009aw)

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In English there is no determiner such as “female” or “women” before the noun

“workers”, since only women can be pregnant. Similarly, in Greek the use of the feminine gender “εργαζόμενες” /ergazómenes/, meaning workers, is the only possible option.

The third case was when the text referred to an individual person and the term used to refer to them would have to be gender-specific, in order to be in accordance with that person’s sex. For instance:

EN Along with MEPs, the following prominent guests will take part in the day's

events: Fatih Akin, director of Auf den Anderen Seite, Hanna Schygulla, the

's leading actress, Kamen Kalev, director of Eastern Plays (contending

for the 2009 LUX Prize), Hans Christian Schmid, director of Sturm

(contending for the 2009 LUX Prize), Christophe Rossignon, producer of

Welcome (contending for the 2009 LUX Prize),and Christian Lüffe (Goethe

Institute). (European Parliament, 2009q)

EL Μαζί με μέλη του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου, οι ακόλουθες εξέχοντες

προσωπικότητες θα λάβουν μέρος στις εκδηλώσεις της ημέρας: Fatih Akin,

σκηνοθέτης της ταινίας Auf den Anderen Seite, Hanna Schygulla,

πρωταγωνίστρια της ταινίας, Kamen Kalev, σκηνοθέτης της ταινίας

Eastern Plays (υποψήφια για το Βραβείο LUX 2009), Hans Christian

Schmid, σκηνοθέτης της ταινίας Sturm (υποψήφια για το Βραβείο LUX

2009), Christophe Rossignon, παραγωγός της ταινίας Welcome (υποψήφια

για το Βραβείο LUX 2009), και Christian Lüffe (Ινστιτούτο Γκαίτε).

(European Parliament, 2009ao)

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In the sentence mentioned above the phrase “leading actress” in English is feminine.

The feminine term is used, because as it is stated in the appendix of the Gender-Neutral

Language in the European Parliament handbook, “actor is now commonly used for both sexes” and “actress” should be used “if a person’s sex is relevant” (European

Parliament, 2008b, p. 11). This is translated into Greek as “πρωταγωνίστρια”

/protagonístria/, starring actress. Once again, this does not constitute an example of gender-fair linguistic use, since the use of the feminine is prescribed by the feminine noun preceding the word “actress”.

On the whole, in 2008 the instances of exclusive feminine use were 26 out of

187, or 13.9%. In contrast, in 2009 the number of feminine references dropped to 4.4%, since only 12 cases out of the total of 272 human referents were discovered.

In the same sense, there were instances when the use of the masculine was predetermined, since the person’s sex was relevant, as in the example:

EN Finally, Jürgen Linden, Mayor of Aachen, handed the third prize to

"Gumboot Diplomacy" from Germany. (European Parliament, 2009z)

EL Ο Δήμαρχος του Άαχεν, Jürgen Linden, απένειμε το τρίτο βραβείο στο

γερμανικό σχέδιο "Διπλωματία Γαλότσας". (European Parliament, 2009ad)

In this sentence the title “Mayor” is translated in Greek as “ο Δήμαρχος” /Dímarkhos/, meaning mayor (masc.), since Mr. Jürgen Linden is a man and that is the only logical option in Greek which is a gendered language.

The number of cases such as the above in 2008 were only 3, thus just 1.6%, while in 2009 they were 24, meaning 8.8%. However, these cases are not pertinent to the present study, given that the use of the masculine is predetermined by the referent.

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Furthermore, we should discuss the technique of the paraphrase, or the use of a synonym that is sometimes deployed in order to avoid sexist language use.

EN They propose establishing a transplant “hotline” with a single telephone

number managed by a national transplantation organisation and manned 24

hours/day, which can rapidly provide relevant and accurate information.

(European Parliament, 2008k)

EL Για τον λόγο αυτό τάσσονται υπέρ της καθιέρωσης μιας ζωντανής γραμμής

επικοινωνίας με ένα ενιαίο αριθμό κλήσης, που θα διαχειρίζεται ο εθνικός

οργανισμός μεταμοσχεύσεων και θα λειτουργεί όλο το 24ωρο με

καταλλήλως καταρτισμένους και πεπειραμένους επαγγελματίες που θα

μπορούν να παρέχουν γρήγορα σωστή και ακριβή (ιατρική, νομική)

ενημέρωση σε όλους τους ενδιαφερόμενους δωρητές. (European

Parliament, 2008af)

Apparently, the sexist term “manned” is replaced in the Greek text by the phrase “θα

λειτουργεί με καταλλήλως καταρτισμένους και πεπειραμένους επαγγελματίες” /θa litouryí me katallílos katartisménous kai pepiraménous epangelmatíes /, which can be back-translated into English as “will operate with appropriately trained and experienced professionals” [my translation]. Nevertheless, even though in Greek the term “manned” is absent from the translation the use of “επαγγελματίες” /epangelmatíes/

[professionals], which is a masculine noun also connotes that the workers will be males.

Therefore, it cannot be purported that the sentence is gender-fair.

To give an example of synonym use, we can study this sentence:

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EN Passengers who have booked flights with airlines that go bankrupt should

be guaranteed compensation and assistance, MEPs told the European

Commission today. (European Parliament, 2009b)

EL Θα πρέπει να αποζημιώνονται οι επιβάτες που έχουν αγοράσει εισιτήρια

από εταιρίες που κηρύσσουν πτώχευση, είπε με σημερινό του ψήφισμα το

ΕΚ απευθυνόμενο στην Επιτροπή. (European Parliament, 2009ae)

The word “MEPs” which in English designates male and female members of the EP, instead of being translated as “ευρωβουλευτές” /evrovouleftés/, meaning MEPs, as we have seen in previous cases, is rendered as “ΕΚ”, meaning “the EP”. Thus, the meaning is conveyed in Greek, but the gendered term is avoided, through the use of a synonymous phrasing, in our example a hypernym, we might say, since the EP consists of members. In any case, the conveyed message is the same.

In total, as far as 2008 is concerned, 9 similar cases were observed, comprising

4.8% of the number of human references. In 2009 that number rose slightly, to 15 instances out of 272, depicting 5.5.% of the references.

A comparable technique that was also deployed was that of omission. That means that the gendered term was completely erased in the Greek translation, as in the example:

EN Existing EU legislation deals with ticket price transparency (Regulation

1008/2008), and compensation for passengers denied permission to board

(Regulation 261/2004), but MEPs believe there is still a loophole that needs

to be closed in cases where an airline is declared bankrupt after customers

have bought their tickets online. (European Parliament, 2009b)

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EL Η ευρωπαϊκή νομοθεσία προβλέπει την καταβολή αποζημιώσεων στην

περίπτωση άρνησης επιβίβασης στο αεροσκάφος, ενώ διασφαλίζει και τη

διαφάνεια στις τιμές των εισιτηρίων. Οι ευρωβουλευτές θεωρούν όμως ότι

υφίσταται ένα νομοθετικό κενό σε ό,τι αφορά τις επιπτώσεις των

πτωχεύσεων αεροπορικών εταιριών. (European Parliament, 2009ae)

In the example we quoted, the phrase “for passengers”, in Greek “στους επιβάτες”

/stous epivátes/ is missing in the translation. It can be inferred that the omission is possible, because, from the context and the sentence itself, it is evident the compensation is going to be given to passengers.

For obvious reasons, the use of omission was very limited in my sample. In

2008 only 3 such cases were recorded, representing 1.6% and in 2009 ten occurrences were found, 3.6%.

One further technique perceived was that of the use of passive voice, which is proposed in the Greek version of the handbook as an alternative to the masculine-as- generic usage (European Parliament, 2008c, p. 10). An illustration of this could be what follows:

EN MEPs adopted the report by Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, LU) with 550 votes

in favour, 14 against and 57 abstentions. (European Parliament, 2009g).

EL Εισηγήτρια της σχετικής έκθεσης, που υιοθετήθηκε με 550 ψήφους υπέρ,

14 κατά και 57 αποχές, είναι η κ. Astrid LULLING (ΕΛΚ-ΕΔ, LU).

(European Parliament, 2009aw).

In this sentence the human agent “MEPs”, subject of the verb “adopted”, is erased in the Greek translation and instead the passive voice of the verb is used. As was the case

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with omission, the use of the passive voice is allowed since it is clear that the EP adopted the report, based on the context.

It is worth commenting that although this technique is proposed by the authors of the Greek version of the handbook, it is the one that is used the least by translators.

Only one such case was recorded in each year, representing 0.5% and 0.3% for 2008 and 2009 respectively.

One more technique which is recommended in the Greek version is the use of the plural followed by the determiner “men and women” when it first appears in the text, so that the text is not burdened with unnecessary repetitions (European Parliament,

2008c, p. 10). An example of this is:

EN The European Parliament adopted a legislative initiative report

recommending a revision of existing legislation on equal pay. (European

Parliament, 2008t)

EL Την αναθεώρηση της ισχύουσας νομοθεσίας, που αφορά την εφαρμογή της

αρχής της ισότητας των αμοιβών μεταξύ εργαζομένων ανδρών και

γυναικών, ζητεί το ΕΚ από την Επιτροπή. (European Parliament, 2008aa)

The English term “equal pay” is translated as “ισότητα των αμοιβών μεταξύ

εργαζομένων ανδρών και γυναικών” /isótita ton amivón metaxí ergazoménon andrón kai yinaikón/, back-translated into English as “equal pay between men and women employees” [my translation]. The reason why the addition “ανδρών και γυναικών”

/andrón kai yinaikón/ [men and women] is necessary in the Greek text is because the word “εργαζόμενοι” /ergazóménoi/ [employees] is masculine. Therefore, if the target audience read the sentence “equal pay between employees (masc.)”, they would not be able to infer that the text broaches the issue of pay gap.

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Interestingly enough, although the aforementioned technique works against linguistic sexism, clarifies and elucidates possible ambiguities in the Greek texts and despite the fact that it is included in the handbook in 2009, was used only once, constituting just 0.3% of the cases studied. In 2008, that percentage was 5.3%, numbering 10 recorded cases of reference to both sexes.

Last but not least, some few cases of double types were found, even though the

European Parliament deterred translators from using them, under the pretext of awkwardness, clumsiness (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 5) and practicality

(European Parliament, 2008b, p. 9). A relevant example could be what comes next:

EN The Commission is proposing that social security cover should be voluntary

but the Parliament argues that membership of social insurance schemes

covering sickness, invalidity and old age should be made mandatory for

assisting spouses. (European Parliament, 2009g)

EL Το ΕΚ ζήτησε σήμερα οι συμβοηθούσες/ντες σύζυγοι να επωφελούνται

υποχρεωτικά από “το ίδιο τουλάχιστον επίπεδο προστασίας όπως οι

αυτοαπασχολούμενοι”, ιδιαίτερα δε σε ότι αφορά “την υγειονομική

περίθαλψη, τη σύνταξη αναπηρίας και γήρατος”. (European Parliament,

2009aw)

The English term “assisting spouses” referring to people of both genders is translated into Greek as “οι συμβοηθούσες/ντες σύζυγοι” /i simviθoúses/simviθoúntes síziyi/, meaning assisting (masc./fem.) spouses (masc./fem.). The double type in Greek was absolutely essential, because the word “σύζυγοι” /síziyi/ [spouses] is common for masculine and feminine referents; therefore in order to denote that the assisting spouses can be either male or female, the satellite word of the noun, in this case the participle

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“assisting” had to be placed in both the masculine and the feminine form,

“συμβοηθούσες” /simviθoúses/ and “συμβοηθούντες” /simviθoúntes/.

Regardless of the fact that double types in gendered languages is the only technique that assures gender-fair language use, the European Parliament deters writers and translators from using it. Therefore, it is not surprising that its use in the Greek translations is disappointingly limited. To be more precise, in 2008 only 2 cases of double formation were observed, constituting merely 1% of the total references and equally in 2009 the 3 recorded instances amounted to 1.1%.

On the whole, we could summarise that after examining 187 cases of human referents for 2008 and 272 referents for 2009, or alternatively 459 distinct instances of terms or phrases designating individuals or humans in a total of 50 EP press releases, the results that follow were deducted. First and foremost, it is apparent that the use of words in the plural that are common for either sex was the most common technique for both years, representing approximately 35% of the sample. In almost one fourth of the instances, the plural masculine form as generic was deployed. The third most widely used strategy was the use of masculine as a generic again, only this time the singular form was employed, which represented 10% of the cases on average. The neuter was also used generically, but apparently in a much more limited number of cases than the masculine gender, representing 2.1% in 2008 and 5.1% in 2009. The references made to women exclusively dropped dramatically in 2009, from 13.9% to 4.4%. On the contrary, the use of exclusively male referents increased from 1.6% in 2008 to 8.8% in

2009. However, these two cases cannot be considered as techniques for the avoidance of gender-exclusive language, as it was pointed out above, since the reference to a specific sex was predetermined by the human referent designated. Paraphrasing and synonymy are used nearly in 5% of the instances studied in both years. Omission of the

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gendered reference was relatively low throughout both time periods studied

representing roughly 2% of the cases. Reference to both men and women was fairly

used in 2008, reaching 5.3%, but it diminished radically in 2009, dropping below 0.5%.

Correspondingly low was the use of double types, just about 1% and passive voice,

being barely above zero.

In brief, it is clear that the main technique that the EP used in 2008 and 2009 in

order to promote gender-neutral language use was the masculine-as-generic, which, as

it has been commented in this thesis, has been severely criticised by feminist linguists.

Equally thought-provoking is the fact that even after the publication and the adoption

of the 2008 guide Gender-Neutral Language in the European Parliament, no major

changes as regards the restriction of gender-exclusive language were documented in the

data. On the contrary, the occurrences of references addressing both men and women

significantly decreased in 2009 and the use of double forms remained stable. The results

of the study regarding human referents are portrayed in the column chart below.

Human referents

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

2008 2009

Chart 1 Column chart depicting the techniques deployed to avoid sexist language in the EP press releases of 2008 and 2009.

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III. HONORIFICS

One further aspect that was studied is the use of honorifics in order to refer to men and women in the European Parliament’s press releases. As far as titles are concerned, the European Union underlines that titles denoting marital status “are simply dropped in favour of the person’s full name” and that “reference to a woman’s marital status is normally avoided” (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 7). Nonetheless, it rests to be seen if that is actually the case.

The modes of address constitute another instance of linguistic sexism, according to feminist linguists. The titles used to address or refer to women are twofold and the title preferred is based upon the woman’s civil status. In English, married women would be called “Mrs.”, whereas unmarried ones as “Miss”. In addition to these, “in some languages … an older unmarried would be normally be addressed as if she were married” (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 7).

“The obligation for females to declare their marital status by title is of long standing” (Key, 1975, p. 49). Lakoff underscores that “women are always defined in terms of the men they are related to” (1975, p. 35); they are either their father’s daughter or their husband’s wife. However, “this practice of women being listed in relationship to their men” is now challenged and the use of the contrastive titles “Miss” and ”Mrs.” tends to be replaced by “Ms.”, which does not reveal the civil status of the woman using it (Key, 1975, pp. 49–52). The idea is based on the fact that “Mr.”, the single honorific used to address men “does not reflect marital status” (Key, 1975, p. 52).

In the European Parliament, hundreds of women have to be addressed or referred to daily in written publications, as well as in speech and for this reason, the study of honorifics could be elucidating. Even though the European Parliament

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discouraged authors and translators from using titles denoting one’s marital status, in practice this guideline was not followed.

More specifically, in 2008, 39 cases were detected when individuals were referred to personally. In 22 out of the 39 cases (56.4%), there was no title of address in the Greek translations of the English EPs. Fourteen of those instances referred to males, thus constituting 35.8% of the sample, and the other 8 addressed women, representing 20.5% of the total number of occurrences studied. On the other hand, in the remaining 17 cases (43.6%) an honorific was employed. In the majority of them, the title was used to refer to women in 14 out of the total number of examples studied

(35.9%). Whereas, titles to address men were employed in only 3 instances, representing merely 7.6% of the sample.

Nonetheless, in 2009 there was a major change regarding the use of titles. The total number of instances when individuals were referred to on a personal level, thus permitting the use of an honorific, were 52. In 38 examples out of the 52, thus 73.1% of the cases, no title of address was used. However, this practice mainly involved male referents. In 31 out of the 52 examples explored, or 59.6% of the times, the honorific was dropped when the referent was a male. On the contrary, this percentage plunged to

13.4% when the person addressed was a woman. Titles were used only in 6 cases for men, or 11.6%. Women, on the other hand, were addressed to by title in 8 cases or

15.4% of the whole number of instances recorded.

Some examples that illustrate the use or the absence of titles are listed underneath.

EN “Health is wealth and I am determined to work hard towards ensuring high

standards for our citizens, be they in Romania, Sweden, the UK or Cyprus”

said Androula Vassiliou, the Cypriot Commissioner designate for Public

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Health, Food Safety, Animal Health and Welfare, at the start of her three-

hour hearing before MEPs. (European Parliament, 2008s)

EL “H υγεία είναι το πολυτιμότερο αγαθό και είμαι αποφασισμένη να δουλέψω

σκληρά για την διασφάλιση υψηλών επιπέδων υγείας για όλους τους

πολίτες μας, είτε αυτοί βρίσκονται στην Ρουμανία, την Σουηδία, το

Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο ή την Kύπρο”, τόνισε η κ. Ανδρούλα Βασιλείου, η

ορισθείσα Επίτροπος για την Δημόσια Υγεία, κατά την έναρξη της τρίωρης

ακρόασής της σήμερα το απόγευμα στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο.

(European Parliament, 2008z)

When translating the English sentence above into Greek, the translator added the title

“κυρία” /kiría/ [Mrs.], before referring to the Cypriot Commissioner.

EN “The crisis is improving”, said Mrs Fischer Boel, when replying to MEPs'

questions in plenary. (European Parliament, 2009m)

EL “Η κατάσταση βελτιώνεται” είπε η κ. Fischer Boel, απαντώντας σε

ερωτήσεις ευρωβουλευτών στην ολομέλεια. (European Parliament, 2009at)

In this case the title “Mrs.” appearing in the ST is also transferred in the Greek TT.

EN Planned legislation on pesticides was brought up by Hiltrud Breyer

(Greens/EFA, DE) and Dan Jorgensen (PES, DK). (European Parliament,

2008s)

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EL H σχεδιαζόμενη νομοθεσία για τα φυτοφάρμακα ήταν το αντικείμενο

ερωτήσεων των Hiltrud BREYER (ΠΡΣ/ΕΕΣ, DE) και Dan

JØRGENSEN (ΣΕΚ, DK). (European Parliament, 2008z)

In this example Hiltrud Breyer and Dan Jorgensen are referred to without any title preceding their names both in English and in Greek.

It cannot be determined why translators sometimes choose to transfer the title of address into their Greek translation and sometimes they simply omit it. It is also unknown why they might add an honorific in cases when no title is used in the original text.

Nevertheless, one thing is apparent from the present research, that although the

European Parliament’s guide objected to the use of titles referring to marital status, these are widely used in its press releases, even after the publication of the guidebook on gender-neutral language use. Moreover, an asymmetric use of honorifics was observed, given that both in 2008 and 2009 women were far more often addressed by title, compared to men.

The results of the study concerning the asymmetric use of address titles within the press releases of the European Parliament are summarised in the diagram below.

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Honorifics

35.90% Title - fem. ref. 15.40%

7.60% Title - male ref. 11.60%

21% No title - fem. ref. 13.40%

35.90% No title - male ref. 59.60%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

2008 2009

Chart 2 Bar graph depicting the use or absence of titles of address when referring to males and females in the EP press releases of 2008 and 2009.

IV. USE OF LEXEME “ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ”

Finally, the use of the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ (masc., meaning human,

man, person) will be explored. The European Parliament’s publication Ουδέτερη από

Άποψη Φύλου Γλώσσα στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο [Gender-Neutral Language in the

European Parliament] (2008c, p. 9) notes that “in Greek the word ‘άνθρωπος’ is

masculine, but it obviously refers to both sexes” [my translation] and that we also use

it in historic expressions, such as “δικαιώματα του ανθρώπου” /dikeómata tou

anθrópou/ [human rights].

Nonetheless, as Makri-Tsilipakou (1989) proves in her research, in 80% of the

cases studied, the word “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ “bears the mark of maleness and so

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excludes women from their fair share in humanity” (p. 62). Therefore, even though the lexeme is supposed to designate men and women, “even in potentially generic contexts,

άνθρωπος is primarily and overwhelmingly male” (Makri-Tsilipakou, 1989, p. 75). It could, therefore, be asserted that theoretically “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ “permits either a feminine or a masculine interpretation depending on the context” (Makri-Tsilipakou,

1989, p. 79), but in practice its use is pseudogeneric.

For the purposes of the study, I identified examples where reference was made to people in general. In the English source texts, the words that were deployed were:

“people”, “persons”, “individuals” and “humans” and I tried to see if these are translated into Greek by using the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/.

In 2008, 12 cases referring to humans in general were documented. In 4 of them

(33.4%) the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ was used, whereas in the remaining 8

(66.6%) the lexeme “άτομο” /átomo/ was deployed.

The different collocations of the two lexemes above are depicted in the figure further down that was produced by virtue of the Word Sketch difference feature of the

Sketch Engine. “The feature is especially useful for close synonyms, antonyms and words from the same semantic field” (Sketch Engine, n.d.-c). Thus, we can perceive the differences in use of the two lexemes. The words in red colour are associated with the lemma “άτομο” /átomo/, whereas the green words collocate with the lemma

“άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/.

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Fig. 8 Word sketch difference of “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ and “άτομο” /átomo/ in the 2008 Greek press releases corpus.

In 2009, 13 cases of generic reference to all humans were recorded. In four of these the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ appeared in the translations (30.8% of the examples). In the remaining 9 instances, or 69.2%, of the total number of cases, the lexeme “άτομο” /átomo/ was used in the Greek translations. The figure underneath is indicative of the differences in use between the two lexemes for the year 2009.

Fig. 9 Word sketch difference of “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ and “άτομο” /átomo/ in the 2009t Greek press releases corpus.

The examples illustrating the translation of generic human referents by the use of the lexemes “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ and “άτομο” /átomo/ are listed right below.

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EN Furthermore, they call on the Commission to draw up a charter for the

protection of cancer patients and chronically sick people in the workplace.

(European Parliament, 2008f)

EL Τέλος, κάλεσαν την Επιτροπή να εκπονήσει χάρτη για την προστασία

καρκινοπαθών και χρονίως πασχόντων ατόμων στον τόπο εργασίας.

(European Parliament, 2008aj)

In this example, the phrase “chronically sick people” is translated into Greek as

“χρονίως πάσχοντα άτομα” /khroníos páskhonta átoma/. The translator resorts to the neuter lexeme “άτομο” /átomo/ which he/she uses generically for both men and women referents.

EN The report calls on governments to ensure that people who have

experienced a physical or mental illness during their working lives retain

their jobs e.g. through training or reallocation of tasks. (European

Parliament, 2008n)

EL Συγκεκριμένα, στο πλαίσιο των στρατηγικών τους για την υγεία και την

ασφάλεια στην εργασία, τα κράτη μέλη θα πρέπει να διασφαλίσουν ένα

επαγγελματικό μέλλον (μέσω κατάρτισης, ανακατανομής καθηκόντων κτλ.)

στους ανθρώπους που προσβλήθηκαν από σωματική ή ψυχική ασθένεια

κατά τη διάρκεια της επαγγελματικής τους ζωής. (European Parliament,

2008ad)

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However, in this case “people who have experienced a physical or mental

illness” is translated into Greek with the aid of the masculine lexeme “άνθρωπος”

/ánθropos/, which is used generically for men and women patients.

In general, both in 2008 and in 2009, the neuter lexeme “άτομο” /átomo/ is

preferred when translating references to groups of individuals of both sexes over the

masculine lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/. However, given that the lexeme

“άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ primarily designates men (Makri-Tsilipakou, 1989), it should

be substituted by the lexeme “άτομο” /átomo/ in the press releases of the European

Parliament in favour of gender-fair language use. The results of this study regarding the

employment of the two lexemes is summarised in the graph below.

People

66.60% Lexeme άτομο /átomo/ 69.20%

33.40% Lexeme άνθρωπος /ánθropos/ 30.80%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

2008 2009

Chart 3 Bar graph depicting the use or absence of titles of address when referring to males and females in the EP press releases of 2008 and 2009.

In summary, based on the findings of the present study, it has been shown that

the publication of the guidebook on gender-neutral language in the European

Parliament has not generated the expected results regarding the limitation of sexist

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language in the European Parliament’s press releases. The masculine gender is used primarily rather than “occasional[ly]” (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 6), as it was initially proposed in the guidebook. Furthermore, even though the reference of the marital status of women should not be mentioned and instead women should be addressed by their full name, honorifics are mainly used when referring to women.

Finally, the use of the lexeme “άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/, which semantically in a Greek speaker’s mind connotes male referents, does not support the employment of non-sexist language within the European Parliament.

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CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, the purpose of the present study was to examine the use of gender-neutral language in the press releases published by the European Union before and after the adoption of the handbook entitled Gender-Neutral Language in the European

Parliament. For this reason, my study was limited in terms of time to 2008 and 2009, the years preceding and following the publishing of the guidebook. The examples that

I studied were extracted from a genderless language, English, and they were compared and contrasted with their translation into Greek, which is a gendered language.

The linguistic aspects that were analysed in this paper were trifold. First of all, my survey involved the generic use of the masculine gender in order to designate male and female referents. Secondly, the absence or employment of honorifics and titles in order to address or refer to men and women was explored. Thirdly, the use of the lexeme

“άνθρωπος” /ánθropos/ to denote male and female referents was investigated.

The research disclosed that even though the European Parliament has put some serious thought and effort in the composition of the Gender-Neutral Language in the

European Parliament guide, the guidelines proposed in it are not implemented in the press releases it published after its adoption in 2008. In fact, the changes regarding the abolition of sexist language use between 2008 and 2009 were minor, if not completely inexistent.

It is unclear why the guidelines of the European Parliament were not adopted after its publication, which should otherwise be applied “in all parliamentary publications and written communications” of the European Parliament (European

Parliament, 2008b, p. 1). Also, it cannot be ascertained why gender-neutral language is

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“the exception”, rather than “the norm”, when the European Parliament pointed towards the opposite direction (European Parliament, 2008c, p. 3).

However, one thing is irrefutable; that language is a powerful tool that can be used either as a means of oppression or of liberation. As a result, it can be deployed by women in order to create new meanings and subvert the patriarchal status quo.

I believe that feminists must have faith in the capacity of language to

empower as well as oppress; linguistic resources may very often have

been denied us and used against us, but there is nothing immutable

about this or any other form of sexism. To place women “outside

language” in our theories is to deny ourselves something of crucial

importance: the power to shape new meanings for a different and

better world. (Cameron, 1992, p. 227)

Nonetheless, the change that Cameron is talking about cannot be externally enforced upon the speakers of a community. This constitutes a solid proof of the fact that when guidelines about gender-inclusive language are superimposed by institutional bodies upon the general public, they are highly unlikely to be widely accepted. This is due to the fact that sexism, overt or covert, is deeply rooted within our sociocultural communities. In the European Parliament’s (2008b) words:

Bias-free language has more chance of being accepted by users if it

is natural and unobtrusive. Genuinely neutral and inclusive

alternatives should be sought rather than expressions which are in

themselves contentious. (p. 8)

To put it differently, if we wish the adoption of non-sexist language to be successful and effective, the recommendations provided should naturally emerge from everyday language use, rather than from a top-to-bottom basis.

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Therefore, if we want to permanently abolish linguistic sexism, the first step that needs to be taken is the eradication of the sexism that is inherent within our society, which will only be effective through proper education and culture, rather than a set of prescriptive guidelines.

However, research that further investigates gender bias could function as a positive catalyst towards the identification of biased behaviour and practices, as well as their elimination. Coates and Cameron (1988) interestingly point out that studies dealing with differences, such as the present study, “are not just disinterested quests for the truth, but in an unequal society inevitably have a political dimension” (pp. 5–6). In other words, by identifying instances of social and political inequality, we set the basis for social change and the subversion of a discriminatory and biased status quo.

If we pinpoint through research the existing sexism within language, we shall lay the foundations for linguistic change. And while it is true that our use of gender- neutral language “is not going to make society a more equal place”, “language could influence attitudes, behaviours and perceptions” (O’Farrell, 2014, para. 10) towards a more equal society.

Gender equality and sexism in society are complex issues which are

influenced by far more than just our use of language. But, by focusing

on how we use language we force ourselves to think about our own

attitudes and behaviours. (ibid., para. 11)

Therefore, we could assert that this practice works bilaterally. As society becomes more equal and less biased and discriminatory, this is reflected upon language which is also rendered more gender-neutral and less sexist. In the reverse, as our language is modified towards a more equalist view, our perceptions, beliefs, ideas and worldview become more open-minded and less chauvinist.

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A few decades ago Sapir (1933/1963) said: “all in all, it is not too much to say that one of the really important functions of language is to be constantly declaring to society the psychological place held by all of its members” (p. 18). Then again, this statement nowadays does not seem to satisfy us. As Martyna (1983) puts it, the aim today is for language to “suggest the equal humanity of all its users” (p. 35).

In short, language should be modified in a way that it does not reflect women’s inferiority within the sociocultural and linguistic environment, but rather it encompasses women on an equal basis with men, thus abolishing male prerogatives.

To quote the words of the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dimitrios

Papadimoulis, on the occasion of Women’s Day 2016, “it is time to put an end to sex- based discrimination once and for all and make full gender equality part of individual consciousness and routine practice. The path is a long one, but [we should be] particularly committed and determined to follow it” (Equality and Diversity Unit &

Directorate-General for Personnel, 2016, p. 4).

Mona Baker (2011) highlights that we need to “learn to appreciate the influence that the grammatical system of a language has on the way events are presented in that language” (p. 107). In other words, we, as translators, need to consider what kind of connotations the constant absence, lack, disappearance and invisibility of women in written and spoken language bear, prior to rendering a text from one language to another. As Baker adds, “the difficulties that arise from the different demands made by the grammatical systems of different languages in translation should not be underestimated” (ibid.). On the contrary, they should be taken into account, bearing in mind that although some languages are gendered, like Greek, and others are genderless, such as English, for instance, our translations need to be gender-fair, given the fact that,

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as it has already been noted several times, no language system is by its own virtue sexist.

Translators are carriers of messages. As Pym (2012) correctly accentuates,

“translators are not responsible for the content of messages they bear” (p. 61).

Therefore, if the text they are rendering from one language to another is sexist, they should not be held accountable, since they are solely messengers, mediators. However, as the author adds “at the same time, they are somehow responsible for the effects of those messages” (ibid.). As a consequence, translators are considered liable when their use of gender-exclusive language perpetuates the existence of male dominance in public speech. Apostolou (2015) is right to underline that translators should not interfere with the texts they translate, by altering the message that needs to be conveyed that is (p.

176). But, in case the language of a text to be translated is gender-fair or at least it is gender-exclusive up to a specific extent, their linguistic choices should reflect that and their selection of words should be made consciously, bearing in mind that their translations have specific effects upon their target audience, their readership and by extension the society as a whole. Interpretation, for Diriker and Apostolou (2011, p. 8), and we may add translation as well, is not merely an instance of communication; it also interferes “between different spaces, disciplines and practices”. The role of translators should not be diminished to that of heralds, or go-betweens. On the contrary, translators’ actions have social repercussions and implications. For Castro Vázquez

(2010) translators “contribute to the configuration of our identities and social roles” (p.

108). Therefore “non-sexist translation has a crucial role to play in social change” (ibid., p. 108), by subverting the way men and women are linguistically represented and by promoting “a non-sexist language which allows the questioning of hegemony and the values underlying an androcentric use of language which are promoted by the dominant

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patriarchal group in society” (ibid., p. 117). Translators are “ideological, political, social, cultural and linguistic mediators” and they need to take on a “social commitment” (ibid., p. 118) in order to break free from the “mind-forged manacles” of patriarchy, to quote William Blake (1794/2006, p. 94). This constitutes the link between translation and Feminist Linguistics.

Therefore, there is a great need today for “generalised use of non-sexist language in practice”, rather than the “ineffectual publication of non-sexist style guides and recommendations” (Baxter, 2006, p. 12). Translators can play an inexorable role in this process, since they constitute interlinguistic and intercultural mediators (ibid.). The aim of the present paper seems to lie in that notion exactly. By stressing major asymmetries within the English and Greek language system, this study tries to encourage translators to avoid sexist language in the texts they produce with the “aim of redressing gender social inequalities”, as Castro Vázquez (2013b, p. 36) puts it.

To sum up, non-sexist translation and gender-neutral language use could influence the way women are treated and represented in language. It constitutes a social act, in view of the fact that “[a] change in linguistic practice is not just a reflection of some more fundamental social change: it is, itself, a social change” (Cameron, 1990, p.

90). By exposing and subverting the linguistic mechanisms which support the asymmetric representation of men and women in our linguistic system, speakers are encouraged to reflect upon not only the linguistic, but also to ponder over the social implications of patriarchy and the unequal treatment of men and women within society.

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SUGGESTED AREAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The scope of the present research is quite limited, since it is exclusively preoccupied with non-sexist language use within the framework of an international institution, within the European Parliament, to be more exact. Under no circumstances does it pretend or intend to be exhaustive. It is therefore imperative that the field of study be broadened so as to include instances of the vernacular. It would be most thought- provoking to ascertain whether people are influenced by the official guidelines provided by an international body and if they have actually adopted gender-neutral language in their everyday communication. In short, we need to investigate whether officially prescribed rules have aided the migration of gender-fair language use in everyday

Greek language.

In addition to this, the present study needs to be expanded in order to compare more natural-gender languages except for Greek, such as Italian, Spanish and French for instance, with languages lacking grammatical gender, other than the English language that is predominant in the literature. Taking into consideration that English constitutes a lingua franca today and the fact that “the bulk of research on language and gender is still produced with respect to English and in the English language” (Pavlidou,

2015, p. 5), it would be immensely stimulating to investigate languages that are significantly less widespread than English.

Moreover, a great contribution to the field would be to comparatively analyse the guidelines on gender-neutral language that have been published by various institutions of the European Union. For example, the guidelines of the European

Commission entitled English Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Translators in the European Commission (European Commission, 2011), of the Council of the

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European Union named as Inclusive Communication in the GSC (2018a), which is also published in Greek as Πολυδεκτική Επικοινωνία στη ΓΓΣ [Inclusive Communication in the GSC] (Council of the European Union, 2018b) could constitute a proliferate ground for further research on the topic of gender-fair language within the EU.

Furthermore, another aspect to take into consideration is that the number of texts explored in the present study is restricted. In addition to this, this research was limited to the investigation of only two calendar years. As a consequence, it would be interesting if other researchers expanded the field of this research by examining a greater number of press releases published prior to and after the publication of the

European Parliament’s guide on gender-fair language use. Possibly, the subject matter of the study could be extended to include other texts produced under the auspices of the

European Parliament, apart from press releases. For instance, it would be challenging to analyse not only non-binding texts, but also legal ones and compare and contrast the ways and the extent to which the guidelines on gender-neutral language are implemented in different text types published by the European Parliament.

Finally, making an allowance for the fact that in the publication Gender-Neutral

Language in the European Parliament the following is declared:

what works in one language may not work in another. For each of the

official languages, appropriate non-sexist terminology must be

sought which is in accordance with the national customs, and takes

into account any legislation on the matter, guidelines at national level

or other authoritative sources. (European Parliament, 2008b, p. 8)

Hence, another insightful area of research would be to compare the guidelines included in the Greek version of the European Parliament’s handbook with the Οδηγός Χρήσης

μη Σεξιστικής Γλώσσας στα Διοικητικά Έγγραφα [Guide for the Use of Non-sexist

97

Language in Public Documents] (Gasouka et al., 2018), which is the official guide used by the Greek state regarding the elimination of gender-exclusive language with the

European Parliament’s guidance document of 2008.

Obviously, the list of topics proposed herein is not extensive, however it provides a basis for further investigation, pinpointing new paths for exploration on the subject and hopefully other researchers will consider it as a good starting point for their research, hoping that more studies on feminist translation and Feminist Linguistics will be conducted in the future.

More importantly though, except for addressing other researchers, the present paper appeals to language professionals. It is an indisputable fact that the vast majority of those involved with language are women. Therefore, we, as linguists, translators, interpreters, authors, can choose either to “faithfully and accurately reproduce an already given Western patriarchal discourse, while remaining … absen[t]” (Apostolou,

2010, p. 187) from public discourse, invisible behind texts and words that exclude us or, alternatively, we could endeavour to “articulate or rather mediate the new discourses of female subjectivity and counterculture that try to break from conventional divides”

(ibid., p. 181) by raising our voice, by becoming visible, by fighting against sexist language and language that semantically refers to us as males. It is rather strange that

“the most discussed animal in the universe” (1929/2001, p. 21), to allude to Woolf’s words, is actually non-existent in our writings. It is due time that we started including women in our words, albeit these are spoken or written, rather than merely talking or writing about them. Women do not wish to be the subject of the discussion; they wish to be part of the discourse. (2010)

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II. ENGLISH PRESS RELEASES

European Parliament. (2008d). All-inclusive air fares just around the corner as MEP

back legislation on transparency. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080708IPR33693+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008e). Attract researchers and stop the brain drain, say

116

MEPs. Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20080129IPR19923+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008f). Cancer: MEPs call for EU cancer task force to be set

up. Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20080408IPR26045+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008g). Coach drivers will be able to work up to 12

consecutive days under strict conditions say MEPs. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080604IPR30766+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008h). Cotton-support schemes for farmers. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080505IPR28211+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008i). Drugs policy: Civil society can play a key role say

MEPs. Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080422IPR27266&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2008j). Equality of men and women in the EU in 2008: For

quality jobs. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080902IPR35956+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008k). How to fight organ shortages and “transplant

tourism.” Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080418IPR27078+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

117

European Parliament. (2008l). Increasing the number of women scientists—gender

parity implies at least 40 % female representation. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080520IPR29483+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008m). MEPs advocate a holistic approach to eradicating

poverty and a target minimum wage for all Member States. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20081009IPR39070+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008n). MEPs call for better protection of workers from

occupational diseases and workplace accidents. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080111IPR18262+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008o). MEPs support the European “Blue Card” proposal

for highly-skilled immigrants. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20081117IPR42214&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2008p). More choice and lower costs for bank customers.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20080604IPR30758+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008q). Return Directive debate: Political groups hold

different positions ahead of vote. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080616IPR31741&secondRef=0&language=EL

118

European Parliament. (2008r). Stereotypes in advertising continue despite EU efforts.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20080902IPR35960+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008s). Summary of hearing of Androula Vassiliou,

Commissioner-designate for Health. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080331IPR25292+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008t). Tackling the pay gap between men and women.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20081117IPR42147+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008u). Taking account of the special needs of women in

prisons. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080312IPR23864&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2008v). Women in rural areas. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080311IPR23702+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2008w). Young farmers need more incentives say MEPs.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20080604IPR30754+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2009b). Airline bankruptcies: MEPs call for better passenger

compensation. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

119

PRESS&reference=20091123IPR65054&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009c). Awareness of mental health in the EU. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20090218IPR49800+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2009d). Clear legal basis needed to combat violence against

women. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20091124IPR65219&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009e). European Parliament marks ten years of the euro.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090112IPR45938&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009f). European Parliament urges Member States to fulfil

their goals on childcare. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090203IPR48120&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009g). Family Package: MEPs wants to strengthen the social

protection of self-employed workers and assisting spouses. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090504IPR54918&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009h). Five European Parliament Quaestors elected.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-

//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20090714IPR58187+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2009i). Fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament

120

elected. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20090714IPR58147+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2009j). MEPs adopt legislative resolution on crackdown on

employers of illegal immigrants. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090204IPR48320&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009k). MEPs adopt road transport package. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090422IPR54167&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009l). MEPs approve new rules on safer cosmetics. Retrieved

from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090323IPR52331&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009m). Milk prices: More needs to be done, say MEPs.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090915IPR60695&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009n). Music copyright to be extended to 70 years for

performers. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090422IPR54191&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009o). On-line gambling: It is up to Member States to stop

match-fixing and fraud. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

121

PRESS&reference=20090310IPR51382&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009p). Parliament considers the future of the European

Common Asylum System. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090309IPR51321&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009q). Prominent cinema figures coming to the EP for a

special LUX Prize event. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20091106IPR63975&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009r). Protection of minors using video games. Retrieved

from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090311IPR51575&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009s). Second edition of European Parliament Prize for

Journalism launched. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090107IPR45532&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009t). Security and safety of Internet transactions need to be

strengthened, says European Parliament. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090204IPR48481&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009u). Stop female genital mutilation. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20090323IPR52352+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

122

European Parliament. (2009v). Sweeping away obstacles to cross-border healthcare.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090422IPR54193&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009w). Telecoms package conciliation: MEPs and Council

representatives agree on internet access safeguards. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20091105IPR63793+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

European Parliament. (2009x). U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joins a

“Town Hall” meeting at the European Parliament. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090303IPR50707&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009y). War on hospital bugs. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090422IPR54195&secondRef=0&language=EN

European Parliament. (2009z). “YOUrope needs YOU”: Best European Charlemagne

Youth Prize project. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20090508IPR55522&secondRef=0&language=EN

III. GREEK PRESS RELEASES

European Parliament. (2008x). Αγώνας κατά των ναρκωτικών: Ενίσχυση του ρόλου

της κοινωνίας των πολιτών. Retrieved from

123

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080422IPR27266+0+DOC+XML+V0//EL

European Parliament. (2008y). Αίτημα για βελτιωμένη πληροφόρηση των

καταναλωτών από τις τράπεζες. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080604IPR30758+0+DOC+XML+V0//EL

European Parliament. (2008z). Ακρόαση της Ανδρούλας Βασιλείου, της ορισθείσας

Επιτρόπου για την δημόσια υγεία. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080331IPR25292&secondRef=0&language=EL

European Parliament. (2008aa). Διασφάλιση την ισότητας των αμοιβών των δύο φύλων

ζητεί το ΕΚ. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20081117IPR42147&secondRef=0&language=EL

European Parliament. (2008ab). Διατήρηση των ενισχύσεων στους

βαμβακοκαλλιεργητές της ΕΕ. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080505IPR28211&secondRef=0&language=EL

European Parliament. (2008ac). Διαφανέστερη τιμολόγηση των αεροπορικών

εισιτηρίων. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-

PRESS+20080708IPR33693+0+DOC+XML+V0//EL

European Parliament. (2008ad). Επαγγελματικές ασθένειες: Καλύτερη προστασία στους

124

εργαζομένους ζητεί το ΕΚ. Retrieved from

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080111IPR18262&secondRef=0&language=EL

European Parliament. (2008ae). Ευκολότερες οι δωδεκαήμερες εκδρομές με πούλμαν.

Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-

PRESS&reference=20080604IPR30766&secondRef=0&language=EL

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131

ANNEXES

I. PRESS RELEASES OF 2008

Attract researchers and stop the brain drain, say MEPs

Τέλος στη "διαρροή εγκεφάλων" ζητούν οι ευρωβουλευτές

132

Increasing the number of women scientists - gender parity implies at least 40 % female representation

Στήριξη στις ερευνήτριες ζητούν οι ευρωβουλευτές

133

Women in rural areas

Προτάσεις του ΕΚ για την στήριξη των αγροτισσών

134

Return Directive debate: political groups hold different positions ahead of vote

135

Συζήτηση για την επιστροφή των λαθρομεταναστών

136

Equality of men and women in the EU in 2008: for quality jobs

Προτάσεις κατά των ανισοτήτων στις αμοιβές των γυναικών και των ανδρών

137

Young farmers need more incentives say MEPs

Προτάσεις για την στήριξη των νέων γεωργών

138

Cancer: MEPs call for EU cancer task force to be set up

Προτάσεις για την καταπολέμηση του καρκίνου στην Ευρώπη

139

Taking a ccount of the special needs of women in prisons

Προτάσεις για την βελτίωση των συνθηκών κράτησης των φυλακισμένων γυναικών

140

MEPs advocate a holistic approach to eradicating poverty and a target minimum wage for all Member States

Πρόληψη του κοινωνικού αποκλεισμού: προτάσεις για ενίσχυση του εισοδήματος

141

Coach drivers will be able to work up to 12 consecutive days under strict conditions say MEPs

Ευκολότερες οι δωδεκαήμερες εκδρομές με πούλμαν

142

MEPs call for better protection of workers from occupational diseases and workplace accidents

Επαγγελματικές ασθένειες: Καλύτερη προστασία στους εργαζομένους ζητεί το ΕΚ

143

All-inclusive air fares just around the corner as M EP back legislation on transparency

Διαφανέστερη τιμολόγηση των αεροπορικών εισιτηρίων

144

Cotton - support schemes for farmers

Διατήρηση των ενισχύσεων στους βαμβακοκαλλιεργητές της ΕΕ

145

Tackling the pay gap between men and women

Διασφάλιση την ισότητας των αμοιβών των δύο φύλων ζητεί το ΕΚ

146

Stereotypes in advertising continue despite EU efforts

Αντιρρήσεις για την παραγωγή διαφημίσεων που απεικονίζουν ιδανικά σώματα

147

Summary of hearing of Androula Vassiliou, Commissioner-designate for Health

148

Ακρόαση της Ανδρούλας Βασιλείου, της ορισθείσας Επιτρόπου για την δημόσια υγεία

149

More choice and lower costs for bank customers

Αίτημα για βελτιωμένη πληροφόρηση των καταναλωτών από τις τράπεζες

150

Drugs policy: civil society can play a key role say MEPs

Αγώνας κατά των ναρκωτικών: ενίσχυση του ρόλου της κοινωνίας των πολιτών

151

II. PRESS RELEASES OF 2009

Airline bankruptcies: MEPs call for better passenger compensation

Καταβολή αποζημίωσης στους επιβάτες μετά από πτωχεύσεις αεροπορικών εταιριών

152

Awareness of mental health in the EU

Αλληλέγγυοι με τους ψυχικά ασθενείς οι ευρωβουλευτές

153

Clear legal basis needed to combat violence against women

Να ενταθεί ο αγώνας έναντι της βίας κατά των γυναικών θέλει το ΕΚ

154

European Parliament marks ten years of the euro

155

Δέκατη επέτειος του ευρώ: πανηγυρική συνεδρίαση

156

European Parliament urges Member States to fulfil their goals on childcare

Παιδική μέριμνα: Το ΕΚ καλεί τα κράτη μέλη να εκπληρώσουν τους στόχους τους

157

Family Package: MEPs wants to strengthen the social protection of self-employed workers and assisting spouses

Υποχρεωτική κοινωνική ασφάλιση για συμβοηθούσες/ντες συζύγους

158

Five European Parliament Quaestors elected

Εκλογή των Κοσμητόρων του ΕΚ

159

Fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament elected

160

Κράτσα και Λαμπρινίδης εξελέγησαν Αντιπρόεδροι του ΕΚ

161

MEPs adopt legislative resolution on crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants

Τελικό "ναι" για την επιβολή κυρώσεων στους εργοδότες παράνομων μεταναστών

162

MEPs adopt road transport package

Υιοθέτηση της δέσμης μέτρων για τις οδικές μεταφορές

163

MEPs approve new rules on safer cosmetics

Μεγαλύτερη ασφάλεια στη χρήση καλλυντικών στην ΕΕ

164

Milk prices: more needs to be done, say MEPs

Τιμές γάλακτος: πρέπει να γίνουν περισσότερα, λέει το ΕΚ

165

Music copyright to be extended to 70 years for performers

Προστασία των δικαιωμάτων πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας των μουσικών

166

On-line gambling: It is up to Member States to stop match-fixing and fraud

Τυχερά παιχνίδια online: εθνικές πολιτικές για την αντιμετώπιση των κινδύνων

167

Parliament considers the future of the European Common Asylum System

Περισσότερη αλληλεγγύη στα κράτη μέλη που δέχονται πολλούς αιτούντες άσυλο

168

Prominent cinema figures coming to the EP for a special LUX Prize event

169

Σημαντικές μορφές του κινηματογράφου στο ΕΚ σε ειδική εκδήλωση για το Βραβείο LUX

170

Protection of minors using video games

Χρήση των βιντεοπαιχνιδιών: προτάσεις για την προστασία των ανηλίκων

171

Second edition of European Parliament Prize for Journalism launched

2η χρονιά του Δημοσιογραφικού Βραβείου του ΕΚ

172

Security and safety of Internet transactions need to be strengthened, says European Parliament

Περισσότερη ασφάλεια στις συναλλαγές στο Διαδίκτυο

173

Stop female genital mutilation

Καταπολέμηση των ακρωτηριασμών των γυναικείων γεννητικών οργάνων

174

Sweeping away obstacles to cross-border healthcare

175

Τα δικαιώματα των ασθενών στη διασυνοριακή υγειονομική περίθαλψη

176

Telecoms package conciliation: MEPs and Council representatives agree on internet access safeguards

Τηλεπικοινωνίες και πρόσβαση στο Διαδίκτυο: συμφωνία ΕΚ και Συμβουλίου

177

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joins a “Town Hall” meeting at the European Parliament

Συμμέτοχη της Χίλαρι Κλίντον σε μια συζήτηση στο ΕΚ

178

War on hospital bugs

Μέτρα για τη μείωση των λοιμώξεων που συνδέονται με την υγειονομική περίθαλψη

179

"YOUrope needs YOU": best European Charlemagne Youth Prize project

"Η Ευρώπη σε χρειάζεται": νικητής του Βραβείου Καρλομάγνου για τη Νεολαία

180

III. RESEARCH DATA OF 2008

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

IV. RESEARCH DATA OF 2009

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196