The demands to the RAE on the sexism of the dictionary: The repercussion of the media discourse

Abstract

The press and social networks constitute the most recurrent platform for debate on the subject of "women and language". The media discourse on this subject covers many aspects that have not yet been addressed in depth, including the discourse that is generated when the academic dictionary is taken as a point of reference. This article analyses sexism (or not) of some definitions in the dictionary through a press corpus obtained from the Hemeroteca Virtual de las Lenguas de Espana (HEVILE), which has allowed us, in the first place, to catalogue the words and definitions related to women which have been news in recent years and, therefore, the object of debate; secondly, to verify the beliefs and linguistic attitudes regarding the role of the Academy and its dictionary in society; and, finally, to decide what effects the debate generated (especially through social networks) on the latest changes carried out in some of these definitions.