Feminine Personal Nouns in the Polish Language. Derivational and Lexicographical Issues Vroulike persoonsname in Pools. Afleidings- en leksikogra-fiese kwessies.

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to issues related to designations of women in the Polish lan-guage from the second half of the 19th century until the present time. The socio-cultural history of a group of Polish feminine personal nouns (referred to as feminitives or feminatives) which denote women's social and/or occupational status is discussed. It is argued that feminine personal nouns have been directly dependent on various ideologies: women's emancipation, socrealism and femi-nism. Ideologies have impacted the use of feminatives, by intensifying or limiting their use in dis-course during a particular period, and the attitude of language users to ideologies has influenced the way in which feminatives are perceived. While presenting the richness of the repertoire of gen-der exponents in contemporary Polish, the possibility of the incorporation of feminine personal formations into dictionaries of general Polish in a scientific and objective manner is investigated. A similar idea was proposed at Wrocław University, as a result of which a group of female lexicogra-phers compiled Słownik nazw żeńskich polszczyzny [Dictionary of Polish Female Nouns]. Some of its innovative lexicographical assumptions (description, not prescription, a discourse-centred method) are discussed in this article. The text corpus presented in the article enables the reader to trace the history of feminine personal nouns in Polish, i.e. their disappearance and re-appearance in the language.

Hierdie artikel skenk aandag aan kwessies rondom die benoeming van vroue in Pools vanaf die tweede helfte van die 19de eeu tot vandag. Die sosio-kulturele geskiedenis van 'n groep Poolse vroulike persoonsname (waarna verwys word as feminitiewe of feminatiewe) wat vroue se sosiale en/of beroepsstatus aandui, word bespreek. Daar word aangevoer dat vroulike persoonsname direk afhanklik was van verskeie ideologieë: die emansipasie van vroue, Sosialis-tiese Realisme en feminisme. Ideologieë het die gebruik van feminatiewe deur middel van die intensivering of beperking van hul gebruik in die redevoering in 'n bepaalde periode beïnvloed, en die taalgebruikers se houding teenoor ideologieë het 'n uitwerking gehad op die manier waarop feminatiewe waargeneem word. Terwyl die rykheid van die repertoire van gendervoorbeelde hedendaagse Pools bespreek word, word die moontlikheid van die insluiting van vroulike per-soonsnaamvorme in algemene Poolse woordeboeke op 'n wetenskaplike en objektiewe manier ondersoek. 'n Soortgelyke idee is by die Wrocław Universiteit voorgestel waarna 'n groep vroulike leksikograwe die Słownik nazw żeńskich polszczyzny [Woordeboek van Poolse vroulike naam-woorde] saamgestel het. Sommige van die innoverende leksikografiese aannames (deskriptief, nie preskriptief nie, 'n diskoersgesentreerde metode) word in hierdie artikel bespreek. Die tekskorpus wat in die artikel voorgelê word, stel die leser in staat om die geskiedenis van vroulike persoonsname in Pools, m.a.w. hul verdwying en herverskyning in die taal, na te spoor.