Do sex and gender go hand in hand? A study of their collocational profiles in EU documents regarding equal treatment of men and women

Abstract

The study of collocations has a long history that goes back to Firth (1957/1968). However, scholarly attention has focused mostly on collocations in general language, with research on this phenomenon within Language for Specialised Purposes (LSP) being a newer and not thoroughly explored line of research 2. The present article attempts to bridge this gap by looking at the way sex and gender are employed in the European Union legislation and documents regarding equal treatment of men and women. In particular, the study contrasts and analyses the combinatory potential of sex and gender as employed in the equal opportunities and non-discrimination regulations and other documents issued by the European Union and its bodies. It also offers a diachronic perspective on how sex and gender are used in the EU’s primary and secondary legislation as well as in guidelines and recommendations. The findings suggest that the two terms in question show completely different collocational profiles and their combinatory potential also varies, with sex appearing in a limited number of well-established collocations and gender being far more productive and frequent, especially in more recent documents.