This article offers a further contribution to the studies already published concerned with the specialty of gender linguistics. The focus of attention is dedicated this time to phraseologism. The starting point for the investigation is the turns of phrases taken from the Hessky/ Ettinger collection of idioms 1997) which altogether encompasses 1400 phraseological units. The article attempts to determine to what extent German phraseological usage is “gender-specific”. Similarities, parallels and differences between the male and female phraseological units expressed are revealed and explained. The various turns of phrases in the main reflect the traditional gender differences and indicate that idioms follow the relatively conservative tradition of representing the male and female / men and women.
The article discusses the relation between lexicography and ideology. It proves that the monolingual Polish language dictionaries are designed according to the ideology of gender and that gender stereotypes can take different forms in dictionaries. The dictionaries not only reflect, but also preserve social and cultural values and rules. The analysis leads to the question, how should the ideology of gender be presented in the future, in order to avoid stereotyping?
Aim. This article is aimed at the study of different aspects of gender linguistics in the English language, namely, the grammatical category of gender, gender vocabulary and phraseology, male and female differences in using language, the problem of gender neutrality teaching in English. Methods. The article is based on the study and review of research works in the fields of cultural studies, linguistics, and sociology. The paper summarises the current state of understanding on the topic and makes contribution to the field. Results. In this paper the grammatical gender of English is studied, examples of lexical units, phraseology, proverbs, and sayings are given, and differences in speech between men and women are described, forms of gender-neutral English are presented. The results of research clearly show that in the past English used not to be a gender-neutral language. Nowadays, we can observe that changes in cultural views influenced by feminism in the English-speaking countries have led to changes in the language itself. Conclusions. English has become one of the first languages in the world in which gender neutrality has become predominant. We think since gender-neutrality is highly valued in the English-speaking society, it must be taught to learners of English in different countries since the primary aim of learning a foreign language is communication which always includes a cultural component.
The article elucidates the problem of gender linguistics. The focus is on the feminine linguistics, one of women’s speech styles, so called speech variety – ‘style of the bitch’. The author specifies strategies and tactics of the actualized speech style which are expressed through modelling the speech genre of the praise, speech pattern of the coquette, tactics of the Ego and Alter Ego dialogue, types of verbal play etc. Besides, the semantic structure of the lexeme bitch is outlined to prove that its polysemy reflects enantiosemy and represents intraverbal evaluative antonymy and different stylistic signs resulting from different male and female perception of the world and different types of gender lingual consciousness.
Societies that need to deal with diversity also need to deal with the ways in which their members use texts, conventions for different text types and, consequently, with the production of texts itself. As societies change and become more diverse, texts will have to reflect this change eventually. Yet, how exactly does this social diversity affect our minds? How does the awareness of diversity influence our texts and their production? In this article, I will examine – primarily on the basis of general observations in the press and the media – the current developments in changes in German society. I will discuss social diversity and illustrate the different ways in which these factors influence speakers of German when they produce texts. By using examples from three categories of texts – oral texts, forms of address, job advertisements – I will show changes in text types and their conventions. The result of this study will be that a mix of different denominations or labels can increase the number of people reached, that language can perform substantially more functions and be substantially less discriminatory than is usually assumed, and that at the end of the day, generic masculine forms almost always address male persons exclusively. We will see that text types and their conventions are subject to change, and that this change is still evolving. Where this evolution of text types and their conventions will lead, remains to be seen.
The word connections informing about the gender in a symmetric way appear recently in a various written and spoken texts. The splitting a lready h as b een used in the interwar period. Subsequently, it was associated mainly with the feminist discourse. Now it goes beyond this feminist discourse. The splitting can be treated as a manifestation of non-discriminatory attitude of the participants of a given language contact. The aim of the present paper is: (1) showing a various sources in which Polish speakers use a splitting; (2) considering the needs and intentions behind such linguistic behaviour.
PL
Połączenia wyrazowe informujące o płci w sposób symetryczny, t akie jak mieszkańcy i mieszkanki, politycy i polityczki, pojawiają się w ostatnim czasie coraz częściej w różnych tekstach mówionych i pisanych. Splitting stosowany już w międzywojniu, a następnie kojarzony głównie z dyskursem feministycznym, wykracza poza ramy tego dyskursu. Można go traktować jako przejaw równościowego nastawienia uczestników danego kontaktu językowego. Celem przedstawianego tekstu jest zaprezentowanie różnorodnych źródeł, w których użytkownicy polszczyzny stosują splitting, a także refleksja nad potrzebami i intencjami, jakie się kryją za takimi zachowaniami językowymi.
In the article a qualitative comparative analysis of Russian, Ukrainian and Polish paroemias with a zoomorphic component is conducted. A special attention is paid to the gender specifics of zoomorphisms and their functioning in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish paremiology as well as to the masculine, feminine and metagender references of zoomorphisms.
This paper describes some problems of the gender “asymmetry” of Russian from the point of view of perception and understanding. The double sense of many sentences in Russian and their potential misunderstanding caused by the use of male gender words which reference women can also cause extralinguistic problems. The paper deals with both linguistic and social issues which are closely connected with each other, especially in the gender area.
This article is devoted to the outline of contemporary gender mainstreaming policy in Poland, the European Union and the world. The main focus is the sex and gender diversity in the communication of the academic environment and its negative implications which are presented in the light of the latest research. The article conveys a brief outline of the history of gender and feminist linguistics and its influence on the emergence on the gender mainstreaming policy. It is emphasized that there seems to be a crucial need to regulate and eliminate gender markers in language so as to decrease their negative implication.
Dealing with questions of gender and sexual identity from a linguistic perspective requires an explicit and detailed examination of identity itself and of the variety of identity concepts. As one can see, some linguists ignore the variety of identities or, at least, the different identity concepts when they approach gender and queer linguistics questions. The current paper aims at providing a general basis for gender and queer linguistic research by offering a detailed and profound introduction to the concept of identity. Different identity concepts will be discussed and it will be shown that the knowledge on identity and identity concepts is essential for dealing with gender and queer linguistic topics. In the end, it will become clear that the prefabricated idea of man and woman as stable and universal categories is neither useful nor justified when one deals with the relation between language and identity.
W związku ze wzmożonym zainteresowaniem problematyką wzajemnych relacji między językiem a płcią, określanych mianem lingwistyki płci (gender linguistics), które można zaobserwować w polskim językoznawstwie ostatniej dekady, autorka artykułu przypomina często pomijane i zapomniane zasługi na tym polu jednego z największych polskich językoznawców Jana Baudouina de Courtenay, sytuując jego poglądy zarówno w perspektywie historycznej, jak i współczesnej. Pierwsza część artykułu relacjonuje najważniejsze obserwacje Baudouina dotyczące asymetrii rodzajowo-płciowych w języku polskim, które cechuje maskulinizacja (dominacja rodzaju męskiego nad pozostałymi) oraz wirylizacja (wyodrębnienie i uprzywilejowanie rzeczowników męskoosobowych w gramatyce polskiej). Zjawiska te przejawiają się m.in. w istnieniu rodzaju męskoosobowego i niemęskoosobowego w liczbie mnogiej, gatunkowości rzeczowników męskoosobowych czy derywacji form żeńskich od męskich. Baudouin nie poprzestaje na suchym opisie tych faktów, ale krytycznie ocenia je jako niesprawiedliwe i pozbawione logiki. Podkreślając ścisły związek między myśleniem i językiem, uznaje, że maskulinizacja oraz wirylizacja polszczyzny, wynikające z tradycji patriarchalnej, mają negatywny wpływ na myślenie i działanie jej użytkowników. Poglądy Baudouina na kwestie języka i płci zostają następnie usytuowane w kontekście zarówno współczesnych jemu badań tej problematyki, jak i prac najnowszych. Autorka wykazuje, że polski językoznawca znacznie wyprzedzał swoją epokę, porównując jego postępowe podejście z typowym dla tamtych czasów stanowiskiem Otto Jespersena, które dziś określić można mianem seksistowskiego. W najnowszych badaniach nad asymetriami rodzajowo-płciowymi w języku polskim wyodrębnia kilka stanowisk: niedostrzeganie problemu, podejście informująco-relacjonujące, podejście relacjonującokrytyczne, negacja seksizmu językowego oraz językoznawstwo feministyczne. Dowodzi, że poglądy Baudouina de Courtenay są najbliższe temu ostatniemu nurtowi, ze względu na jego bardzo krytyczny stosunek wobec zjawisk maskulinizacji i wirylizacji oraz ich społecznokulturowych konsekwencji, jak również traktowanie języka jako narzędzia, które można i należy usprawniać tak, by wyrażało poglądy posługujących się nim ludzi.
EN
The present paper sets itself two major goals. First, it intends to review Jan Baudouin de Courtenay’s largely and unjustly forgotten views on language and gender. Secondly, it attempts to place Baudouin’s ideas both in the past and the present perspective by comparing them with, on the one hand, the stance of his famous contemporary, a Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, and, on the other hand, with the current Polish research on gender linguistics. We argue that Baudouin’s critical attitude towards linguistic sexism, his conviction of its negative impact on people’s way of thinking and acting as well as his view that language should be modified to fit the needs of its users allow us to regard him as a genuine forerunner of modern feminist linguistics.
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