Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32728/tab.13.1.2015.05
From "masculification" to "feminification" in language
Blaženka Martinović
Abstract
Sociolinguistic studies on natural and grammatical gender in language are becoming increasingly numerous and, in Croatian studies, their origins can be found in the mid 20th century. In these works, a clash between two standpoints is evident: one starts from language and moves towards society and the other does the converse. Both strive to reconcile what is not readily reconcilable: grammatical and referential gender, i.e. real biological sex. The biological and sociological cathegory of gender is thus opposed to the grammatical one. The language problem arises in case of "masculification" or "feminification" in every (con)text. This paper attempts to elucidate the three concepts which have appeared in the last few decades, concerning "linguistic gender inequality", and adduces examples (from different discourses) where insisting on feminine motion pairs leads to semantic chaos and grammatical incorrectness.
Keywords
grammatical gender; referential gender; grammatical cathegory; epicenes; motion pair; sociolinguistics
Hrčak ID:
158145
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2015.
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