Inclusive Gender in Spanish
Subverting the Binary Taxonomy by Expressive Means
Abstract
This paper discusses inclusive gender in Spanish from a morphosemantic perspective. It is proposed that the inclusive exponent -e in pronouns and human nouns introduces a new mixed expressive morpheme. The truth-conditional value of -e is modeled as a partial identity function with a [human] presupposition, whereas its expressive value contributes a profile of the speaker regarding their belief system with respect to the dominant binary taxonomy. Crucially, the new item impacts on the entire gender system by giving up a version of the human-cloning rule according to which under some conditions human nouns in Spanish are either female or male.
Submitted: Feb. 22, 2026 | Accepted: July 16, 2026 | Published Oct. 12, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords (anti-)presupposition • Binary taxonomy • Spanish • Expressive semantics • Inclusive gender
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