Rodzajnik czy przedimek? O adekwatności użycia obu polskich określeń w odniesieniu do języka niemieckiego i szwedzkiego

This paper offers a detailed characteristics of gender-marked articles in German and Swedish and the rules of their use in both these Germanic languages. A comparative analysis demonstrates the distinctively gender-marked nature of these elements in the singular, so typical of both these Germanic languages, where they serve to distinguish the grammatical gender and the degree of definiteness of the nouns with which they occur. In the plural, on the other hand, the articles serve more as (gender-neutral) articles, as they no longer differentiate the grammatical gender of nouns but only indicate their definiteness. However, the fact that in German they are also used to indicate the natural gender of the names of living creatures supports defining them as gender-marked articles rather than as simply articles. This claim is illustrated by an analysis of the extensive lexical material, which includes the names of representatives of various social groups as well as first and last names.