ОТРАЖЕНИЕ ГЕНДЕРНЫХ ОСОБЕННОСТЕЙ РЕЧЕВОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ДЕТЕЙ НА РАЗНЫХ УРОВНЯХ ЯЗЫКОВОЙ СИСТЕМЫ

Abstract

The article is devoted to various (phonetic, lexical and grammatical) aspects of gender-language interplay. At all the levels analyzed, the authors focus on the problems which, in spite of all the attention previously received, remain debatable and open to different interpretations. At the level of phonetics, the authors draw attention to the phenomenon of the uptalk. This widespread linguistic phenomenon is – according to a traditional approach supported by a number of scholars – supposed to be an evidence of powerless and deficient women talk. However, there exist counter arguments proving that the situation is far from being that straightforward. At the lexical level, the authors focus on the pairs of the so-called parallel/seemingly equal terms denoting men and women. Having analyzed some of such pairs the authors reach the following conclusion: most of the words denoting women tend to undergo – with the course of time – the process of pejoration, whereas the words denoting men tend to develop in the opposite direction. A special attention is devoted to the level of grammar as the one where gender-language interplay is the least studied. Verbal transitivity – among other grammatical phenomena – is paid special attention to as it seems to be a salient factor in gender-language relations. Another grammatical point of interest in the article is the way gender may be intentionally or otherwise reflected in certain passive voice constructions.