Los cambios en el genero de los nombres de profesiones en el Espano?l de los Estados Unidos

by Epperson, Bele?n Flo?rez

This thesis addresses grammatical gender changes in the terms for professions, both from a historical perspective and from a modern perspective. The modern analysis is based on a survey which asks native speakers of Spanish in various locations in the United States to provide the female equivalents for male terms for the names of various professions. It then correlates their responses with the sex, age, and level of education of the respondants of Mexican origin. The results of this survey are also compared to the evolving prescriptive rules compiled by lexicographers over the last century. The survey results show that there are grammatical gender changes that have not yet been incorporated by lexicographers. However, a comparison of the contents of dictionaries over time shows the gender changes are being incorporated. Rule changes occur after actual usage changes in society and depend on the percentage of women working in different professions.