My Research

I am a PhD student in the Linguistics Studies program at the Universidade de Vigo, in Spain. I also have an MA in Medical Translation from the Universitat Jaume I, also in Spain. My PhD research focuses on the development and use of non-binary language in Spanish, and my personal research also encompasses non-binary English.

The terms I find most useful to approaching my research are Indirect Non-binary Language (INL) and Direct Non-binary Language (DNL), or, in Spanish, lenguaje no binario indirecto (LNI) and lenguaje no binario directo (LND). I avoid using “inclusive language” because that’s a very broad category, as language can be inclusive of many things: people with disabilities, people of color, or even self-employed people or people who don’t like sweets.

You already know how to use INL: it is indirect and unspecific, and you use it every day to speak about unknown people. “Some kid was running around the store,” “Espero que tu colega no pierda el tren,” and “My boss’ partner is coming to the party,” for example. Looking at these sentences, you don’t know the subject’s gender, and that’s why it’s indirect. All of these sentences are correct whether you’re speaking about a binary man or woman or about a non-binary person.

DNL is full of neologisms and neomorphemes, and that’s what’s really interesting. You may have seen these sentences around: “Mx. Smith invited hir friend over,” “Mi amigue RJ es escritore,“ or “Alex is a Latinx activist.” The subjects in these sentences are clearly (directly, if you will) non-binary, and that’s the heart of my research: how are we non-binary people and our loved ones using our language to accurately reflect the non-binary reality of the world?

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