Językowy aspekt feminizacji niektórych zawodów

Abstract

The derivational system of Polish, which was shaped in the patriarchal society through the centuries, shows a strong generic-sexual asymmetry and a lack of feminine equivalents for masculine names. In the face of dynamic cultural changes, most of European languages which had a similar problem, took up different activities to ensure the equality of sexes in grammar. Language usage of Polish favours masculine components in the names referring to women, and treats masculinised forms as logical categories of the names of functions and posts, and not as terms referring to men. Therefore, Polish remains exceptionally asymmetrical, and the names of professions show incoherence between social identity and biological gender. However, in the opposition to the language usage, there is a strong trend demanding a complete derivation of feminine names, and making the feminization of job names a requirement of political correctness. In my paper, I come back to the problem, confronting grammatical possibilities of the language with the cultural aspect of the phenomenon.