Dėl vieno sociolingvistikos termino: „giminė“ ar „lytis“

ON ONE SOCIOLINGUISTICAL TERM: RELATED OR SEX! With the emergence of various interdisciplinary studies, such fields of science that did not exist before in Lithuania have increased. It is understood that together with the research of new directions, there is also a need for terms to identify the concepts of these areas. Along with the anthropology studies, the attention to various social sections of society has increased — both typical phenomena, characteristic of the majority of society, and those that are observed only on certain margins are studied. One of the directions of such studies is the analysis of the culture of men and women, as well as the analysis of those people who understand their identity (or others understand their identity) differently. This is also related to the emergence of feminist theory, since from these studies, which focused primarily on the role of women in society, broader studies emerged, which also concerned themselves with the cultural characteristics of men, as well as people who do not consider themselves to be representatives of either of the biologically defined genders. In addition to other characteristics of culture, the analysis of language becomes important, which is viewed both as a system and as the realization of that system. Therefore, a considerable amount of work is devoted to analyzing the expression and structure of speech acts. In the English language, which has produced and published the majority of feminist and anthropological studies, the term gender is used for this purpose. It, like the studies of this direction themselves, is not old, it was used only in the second half of the 20th century. Some languages did not look for an equivalent, but simply accepted the English term. The term gender is used by Latvians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Russians, Estonians. Even in German, where foreign words are usually avoided, the term Gender has been introduced, 0 with which enriched words or word combinations are formed: Genderforschung, Gender Akademie, etc. In English-Lithuanian dictionaries, the meaning of the word gender “Jytis” is either not marked, or presented only as a subject of spoken language. In Lithuanian linguistics, the term gender or any of its derivatives has not been used in sociolinguistics, sociology or other studies. J. Džežulskienė was perhaps the first, based on sociology, to use the word kinship to name one of the objects of sociolinguistic research, defining a whole complex of social, cultural and psychological characteristics related to gender (Džežulskienė 1994: 55). The suitability of this term has not been discussed so far, because sociolinguistic studies in Lithuania are not abundant, and those that exist usually confuse the names of the male language and the Morerian language. The proposed family term is not widely accepted. ' The article was prepared with the support of the LR Science and Studies Foundation. Project —Dictionary of Gender Studies. 148 This word as a sociolinguistic term is not very convenient. On the one hand, the genus is already a term of linguistics, and the ambiguity of terms of the same branch of science should be avoided. As S. Keinys states in the Terminology Alphabet, “the unambiguity of a term is not the same as the unambiguity of a common word. To demand that a term be unambiguous in the entire vocabulary of a language would be completely pointless. This would mean overloading the language with various new words or borrowings. The unambiguity of a term is required or at least desirable in the terminology of the field to which it belongs*. In the same sense, it is to be used in adjacent, related and other fields to which...“ (Keinys 1980: 29). In this context, the term "sociolinguistics" is not appropriate. On the other hand, this word in the current Lithuanian language has as many as 5 meanings. One of its main semantics is to indicate commonality, a certain connection — it defines structures associated with generations and blood ties. It is also often used as a group noun, defining a certain group of people, e.g. : His broad family; You see what kind of family she comes from [i.e. attic). The gender of the word semema is secondary, related to the grammatical term. It is true that for some time literary and cultural scholars used this term either in conjunction with the term gender (Giminė 1995; Feminismas 1996), or tried to do without it (Kavolis 1992). Later, the term gender became common in their work. For all these reasons, the term kinship is not acceptable for anthropology or philosophy studies, nor for sociolinguistics. Thus, at present, two words are used in various interdisciplinary studies to describe the same phenomenon, the same concept: genus and gender. This is not necessary. The use of a few words brings confusion to studies (especially when students have to familiarize themselves with interdisciplinary subjects- ), creates difficulties in communicating with specialists from different fields. The word /ytis/ would be a better term in this respect. It has long been used in the medical and biological sciences. It is also convenient that it is not a multi-meaning word. It has only two meanings in the present Lithuanian language, the first of which is related to the description of male and female beings. Thus, its primary sema is directly related to different biological prades. Of course, in the human community they are supplemented by social, cultural and psychological peculiarities, but this does not eliminate the biological understanding of gender. The word gender as a term has not been used in sociolinguistics so far, but it is already used in other studies. Perhaps first of all ? Thinned my —G. C. 149 It was first used in translating feminist literature (December 1995). Later, the term gender became established in other social sciences (anthropology, philosophy, etc.) and is used in the study programmes of all Lithuanian universities. Conclusions 1.Semantic analysis of the genus and gender of words shows that the first is characterized by the semantics of connection, the second — of separation. In sociolinguistics, this is not a question of connection, but of separation, so the term /yries is better. 2. In linguistics, the term 'genus' refers to grammatical, but not social dependence. In the terminology of the same branch of science, the polysemantic nature of the same word as a term should be avoided. 3. In the works of various social and humanities sciences (philosophy, anthropology, sociology, law, etc.) the term /yrties has been used to name this phenomenon for a decade. 4.The word gender is better suited to sociolinguistic terminology than the word kinship, it would help to communicate and avoid confusion. —Sociolinguistics and Language Culture: a collection of articles, Vilnius, 55-61. Feminism 1996: Feminism and Literature, Vilnius. 1995: Gender and Literature: Gender and Literature, Vilnius. December K. 1995: Excursions in Feminism: The Concept of Woman from Antiquity to Postmodernism. Anthology. Compiled by K. Gruodis, Vilnius. Kavolis V. 1992: Women and Men in Lithuanian Culture, Vilnius. Keinys S. 1980: Terminology alphabet, Vilnius. English Dictionary for Speakers of Lithuanian, Vilnius, 2000. Piesarskas B. 1998: English-Lithuanian computer dictionary Alkonas, Vilnius. Giedrė ČEPAITIENĖ Received 2005-03-05 Šiaulių University P. Višinskio g. 38, LT-76352 Šiauliai E-mail [email protected] 150