Title:

"Military Ranks Are not Nouns, therefore, They Cannot Be Classified by Grammatical Gender". Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Discussion on Feminisation of Military Ranks in Germany

Creator:

Mikołajczyk, Beata

Publisher:

Instytut Języka Polskiego Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Kraków

Date issued/created:

2021

Subject and Keywords:

Modern German language variations ; military sociolect ; forms of address ; military ranks ; feminised forms

Abstract:

The article analyses internet comments concerning feminised forms of address triggered as a result of the discussion that took place in German media in September 2020 regarding the plans of German Federal Ministry of Defence to introduce feminised equivalents of existing military ranks. The article presents the collected research material and discusses its social and linguistic arguments that have led to the decision of not introducing top-down planned changes. The analysis deals with relevant sociolingustic aspects incl. relations that currently take place in processes both within German society and in standard language vs the development of military sociolect. Moreover, the article indicates crucial dependencies between constitutive values for military community and communicative practices of this community. Those dependencies, on the one hand, influence the choice of linguistic forms used daily in military communication and, on the other hand, determine factors that have an impact on the development of the sociolect (its linguistic forms and behavioral scripts). The article also presents historical determinants that provoke certain approach to feminised forms in the military. Furthermore, the article highlights the character of communicative community which creates the opportunity to introduce crucial changes (also in linguistic routines such as the discussed introduction of feminised equivalents of existing military ranks) in a formal, top-down manner. The conducted analysis of internet comments displays a significant linguistic awareness of military community members also related to behavioral scripts that tend to be difficult to change. The said analysis allows to define the specificity of how the addressing system functions in military sociolect and its impact on creating feminised forms of address.

References:

Bąk, P. 2013. „Poprawność polityczna a problem ekwiwalencji polskich i niemieckich żeńskich nazw oso-bowych”. Lingwistyka Stosowana. Applied Linguistics. Angewandte Linguistik 8: 27–41.
Carreiras, H., i G. Kümmel. 2008. Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Cieszkowski, M. 2015. „Zum geschlechtergeregelten Sprachgebrauch am Beispiel deutscher und polnischer Stellenausschreibungen”. Linguistik Online 70 (1): 23–42.
Dargiewicz, A. 2021. „Ist das Polnische eine geschlechtergeregelte Sprache? Zur Movierung im Polnischen”. Prace Językoznawcze 23 (1): 179–198.
Diewald, G., i A. Steinhauer. 2020. Handbuch geschlechtergerechte Sprache. Berlin: Duden.
Grabias, S. 2019. Język w zachowaniach społecznych, wyd. 10 popr. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu
Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.

Relation:

Socjolingwistyka

Volume:

35

Start page:

391

End page:

406

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Format:

PDF

Resource Identifier:

click here to follow the link

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Rights Reserved - Free Access

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. May be used within the limits of statutory user freedoms

Access:

Open