Językowa egzemplifikacja pojęcia feminatywy we współczesnej polskiej prasie centro-liberalnej

Linguistic exemplification of nomen feminativum in the modern Polish centre-liberal press The aim of the article is to present the results of a cognitive analysis of the concept of feminatives in the Polish centre-liberal press. The research was carried out on the basis of texts published in the years 2021-2023 in „Gazeta Wyborcza” and „Wysokie Obcasy” supplement, an opinionated daily paper with a centre-liberal profile with a nationwide coverage.Feminatives are primarily the subject of research in the field of structural linguistics, the history of their formation and usualization is also an important issue in the field of the history of language and word formation. In the context of the debate that has been going on in recent years about the validity of the use of feminatives and their obvious political and ideological characteristics in the modern Polish language, it is only right to analyze the components that make up the concept of nomen feminativum. This allows to reconstruct the public debate on this linguistic issue, to revise the arguments used by those who promote the use of feminine forms, as well as the justifications cited by opponents of the use of feminatives. During the cognitive analysis of the term of nomen feminativum, it was divided into components e.g. the history of their origin and use; ideologization; purposes of the use of feminatives; characteristics of people using and not using feminatives; usualization of feminine forms; associations of the use of feminatives with feminist views; associations of feminatives with professions of lower social prestige or associations of language users with individual feminatives. This concept reflects the extreme polarization of participants in discussions about the appropriateness of using feminine forms, as well as the confrontation between scientific views presented by people professionally connected with linguistics, and unscientific views that replicate myths and stereotypes, which are presented by people who associate feminatives primarily with ideology and not with the language issue. The article also presents the history of the use of feminatives in Poland in the 20th and 21st centuries and introduces the the various ways in which linguists define feminatives.