Keywords

gender, bilingual, language learning, creativity

Abstract

Research on the influence of gender on language across different cultures has mostly concentrated on qualitative measures of analysis. These measures demonstrate that there are differences in rhetorical and literary style across world Englishes in both and outer circle. Using Biber's multidimensional analysis (1988) to examine a large corpus of world English literatures written in Indian, West African, Britain, Anglo-American and Mexican American varieties of English, this paper examines whether quantitative analyses can also be insightful and useful in the examination of the influence of gender on language and in expanding our understanding of what "bilingual creativity" entails. The results of this study reveal that computational methods of analyzing texts both confirm former research comparing differences between texts written by men and women in different varieties of English and also shed new light on differences that exist between these varieties.

Original Publication Citation

Baker, W. (2001). Gender, bilingual creativity, and world English literatures. World Englishes, 20, 321-339.