Oh foxy lady, where art thou? : A corpus based analysis of the word foxy, from a gender stereotype perspective

Sammanfattning: Abstract The aim of this essay is to establish whether or not the word foxy can serve to illustrate gender differences and gender stereotypes in English. The analysis is conducted by using one American English corpus and one British English corpus in order to make a comparison of the two English varieties. Apart from the comparative study, foxy is examined and categorized according to gender and a number of features to help answering the research questions which are: • What difference in meaning, if any, does the word foxy carry when used for males, females and inanimate things? • Can the word foxy serve to illustrate gender stereotypes in English? • Are there any differences regarding how foxy is used in American English compared to British English? Throughout the essay previous studies are presented, terms and tools that have been used are defined and argued for. One of the conclusions drawn in this study is that there is a significant difference in meaning when foxy is used in American English compared to British English. There are, however, also differences concerning the use of foxy when referring to males, females and inanimate things. Keywords: Collocation, corpus studies, foxy, gender, language, linguistics, semantic prosody, stereotypes.