Kobiecy i męski świat. O asymetrii funkcjonalnej przymiotników określających przynależność do płci
A woman’s world and a man’s world. On the functional asymmetry of gendered adjectives

Summary/Abstract: The study focuses on five adjectives representing the concepts of femininity and masculinity in Polish. The former is represented by four adjectives: kobiecy, babski, damski and żeński, the latter is described by only one: męski. That is why as early as in the title the article mentions a peculiar functional asymmetry of the compared expressions. The aim of the research is to determine whether this asymmetry is only quantitative or also qualitative, affecting the meaning and use of the presented units. The analytical sections of the text consist of overviews of the linguistic units which include the expressions and the descriptions of syntactic properties and lexical connectivity of the five adjectives undergoing scrutiny. The analyses reveal lexical dif- ferences (both semantic and pragmatic) between the four semantically related expressions of femininity, as well as the interactions they have with the adjective męski. The study is a part of structural linguistics and thus refrains from extra-linguistic conclusions concerning the relationship between language and gender.

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