How feminine is a linguist? On the meaning of non-feminine names of professions

Abstract

"There are good reasons to assume that the meaning of non-feminine names can be described as ‘non-female person’. We have, however, seen that with many names we nevertheless picture a man and, furthermore, that other names are assigned male gender in actual language use. Jakobson’s claim holds in the case of pedagogue: usually it signifies a man, or at least the context makes us think of a man, but it is also used in a gender- neutral way, and occasionally, serves to denote a woman. Polysemy did not seem a satisfactory alternative to the meaning ‘non-feminine’, but how do we manage to account for both conception and usage?"