For a sociolexicology of queer naming: On problematizing the LGBTQ lexicon in historical linguistics

Nicholas Lo Vecchio. Forthcoming. “For a Sociolexicology of Queer Naming: On Problematizing the LGBTQ Lexicon in Historical Linguistics.” In Battlefield Linguistics: Queer, Trans, and Feminist Interventions in Linguistic and Discursive Change, edited by Scott Burnett and Francesca Vigo. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [link to publisher]

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Starting from the observation that metadiscourse is omnipresent when queer sexualities or genders are being named, this article offers two general explanations for it. One is the socially bound pragmatic markedness of queerness, a more linguistically accurate way to describe its “taboo” nature. The second involves speakers’ awareness of historicized claims to a paradigmatic rupture, posited for the late nineteenth century, after which identity becomes the principal frame of analysis. A sociolexicological perspective centers the study of structured lexical variation among agentive speakers aware of their naming practices and offers a way out of burdensome essentialist/constructivist thinking as well as taboo-based analytical models. Positionalized empirical lexical description is a more compelling way than prescriptivist assertion for language researchers to enter the sociocultural battleground that typifies the current moment.

Keywords: linguistic agentivity; linguistic authority; constructivism vs. essentialism; euphemism/dysphemism; Michel Foucault; lexicon; metadiscourse; metalinguistic consciousness; naming; paradigm shift view of sexuality; pragmatic markedness; prescriptivism; prototype semantics; sociolexicology; taboo