Wokół rekonstrukcji stereotypu młodego. Definiowanie chłopca i chłopaka przez młodzież gimnazjalną.
Around a reconstruction of a young stereotye. A definition of chłopiec and chłopak by junior high school learners.

Summary/Abstract: The articles constitutes a contribution to a reconstruction of a linguistic stereotype of a young male representative being neither a child nor a man. On the basis of the analysis of the answers received from the questionnaire filled in by the junior high school learners from the south Poland, the author of the article shows how young people understand the meaning of chłopiec and chłopak, which definition features consider as distinctive, as well as which of the expressions they use in order to define someone their age. The results present a peculiar deformation of the worldview, namely subjectivity and incompleteness. The learners’ choice of a given subordinate element (człowiek, osoba, mężczyzna, płeć męska, nastolatek, kolega, sympatia) conditioned an initial categorization and to a large extent influenced (a more or less conscious) judgment typical of an addressee. The respondents made a clear distinction between the very lexemes: chłopak being “a young man” and chłopiec defined as “a male child (being younger than chłopak)”. Thus, a person their age is usually called chłopak (not a childish chłopiec). One of the main distinctive elements was a different age range given in definitions of chłopak and chłopiec.

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