This article investigates lexical gender in specialized communication. The key method of
analysis is that of forms of address, professional titles, and 'generic man'in a 10 million word
corpus of written Business English. After a brief introduction and literature review on both
gender in specialized communication and similar corpus-based views of lexical gender in
General English, the results obtained are explained. Mixed results were found. On the one
hand, the 'male-as-norm'principle contributes to reinforcing typical gender stereotypes: for …