Quantifying non-sexist language: the case of Ms

After implementing Ms as alternative to Mrs and Miss in non-sexist language guidelines, a lot of research on the title quantifies its distribution and documents socio-economic backgrounds in which Ms users are most likely to befound. More recent research draws on (real or hypothetical) Community of Practice to theorise different title choices of women. In this paper, I will briefly identify the merits and shortcoming of these two approaches and which of their aspects I incorporate in my research: its aim to work towards change and the assumption that different choices are not neutral from the former, the research method (focus group discussions) and analysis (looking for metalinguistic awareness of non-sexist language) from the latter. I will discuss how my research participants report on their own practice of Ms, their evaluation of the title, and concepts they associated it with, such as 'Ms as alternative choice', 'Ms as indication Of certain marital statuses and non-disclosure of marital status', 'Ms as indication of being a feminist or being a lesbian' and 'Ms as an indication of age'. I will show which of these concepts are foregrounded in the three groups which were made tip by participants of different age groups and whether differences in the three groups can be traced back to the different age of the participants.