Gender peculiarities rendered in standard and slang terms
Gender peculiarities rendered in standard and slang terms

Author(s): Katharine Bondarenko
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: nonstandard; slang; semantic field; gender;contrastive analysis;
Summary/Abstract: The research aims to compare Ukrainian and English standard and nonstandard markers of gender. Contrastive analysis into standard and nonstandard forms provides information about lexicon development trends. The contrastive study of the two languages can provide arguments for the universal nature of the studied issues. The adopted methods are based in classical field theory. The fields were compiled by standard and nonstandard gender labeled lexemes. The objectives are to reveal reality fragments related to political correctness (PC) problems; to hand-pick lexical units reflecting reality fragments revealed (501 Ukrainian and 594 English lexemes); to single out lexical semantic fields; and to compare quantitative features of the fields. The lexical semantic microfields identified include: male/female nominations: age characteristics, male/female nominations: height, weight characteristics, and male/female nominations: physical (un)attractiveness. This result may be explained by the social-psychological status of substandard as part of the “humor culture” that concentrates primarily on divergences. What is crucial are properties that provide successful survival and reproduction. Gender identity is viewed as a kind of “anomaly,” with female nominations predominating in the analyzed semantic fields. An analysis of nonstandard language (slang) shows that, in the case of women, the most important properties are those that provide for successful reproduction of human race. Intellectual properties or social status are mostly neglected or even undesirable. The PC problem correlates with human psychology irrespective of the society analyzed. Language reflects primeval reproduction intentions. Thus, politically incorrect lexemes that contain semes denoting physiological deficiencies will persist. Prescriptions may cause usage narrowing (in official style, media) but will not affect real life lexicon.

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