On Sex, Gender and Sexism in the Bulgarian Culture and Language

Ezikov Svyat volume 18 issue 2, 2020

The present paper examines some aspects of the interaction between diminutivity and gender of personal nouns (especially ones formed with the suffix -che) in contemporary Bulgarian (for the present, the augmentatives are not an object of our study). The author demonstrates the existence of a correlation between the semantics of neuter nouns and diminutives. It is emphasized that neuter nouns for professions or posts are not used regarding children because, as a rule, those professions or posts are only performed or occupied by adults. Aside from the semantics, stylistic features of diminutives, such as their expressiveness are also examined (I agree with the authors who put stress on the pejorativity of the nouns with the suffix -che). I use examples of informal written language (the sources are two Facebook groups) and informal spoken language (the difference between both forms of language is that with the written one the rules are a little more strictly observed). I reach the conc...

Од демедикализација до истополови бракови: поновата историја на хомосексуалноста и трансродовоста на Западен Балкан, 2021

Оваа книга е, пред сè, наменета за сите оние кои ги интересира хронологијата на развојот на правно-политичкиот однос на општеството и на државата кон ЛГБТИ-заедниците на Западен Балкан, од моментот кога хомосексуалноста престанала да се смета за болест до денешен ден, триесет години подоцна. Ја пишувавме во стил што не е академски (гер. Fachbuch), туку повеќе може да се одреди како публицистички (гер.Sachbuch). Сепак, имајќи предвид дека нашиот приод кон работата го засновавме на собирање литература, архивска граѓа и документација, ги почитувавме сите научни стандарди за подготовка на една ваква книга. Нашата намера не беше да понудиме оригинално научно дело, туку книга која го собира знаењето од претходните 30 години и на тој начин нуди избран поглед на минатото. Станува збор за прегледна книга која им овозможува на читателите/ките да се запознаат со главните идеи, но и со авторите/ките кои подлабоко се занимавале со одредени теми, прашања и проблеми. Изворите што ги користевме се наведени по секое поглавје.

Slavic ethnic groups, languages and cultures in the modern world

Bastina

Based on the relevant foreign and domestic research and references, this article aims to offer an insight into the most prominent former and current studies in the field of language and gender studies. In this paper we attempt to present the research that shaped the field known as language and gender studies. When it comes to unequal treatment of women in society and language alike, there have been some positive changes since the seventies, especially in the Western countries. The reality is somewhat different in the Serbian society, due to the influence of persistent patriarchal norms. Moving forward in the field and searching for new and fresh research topics seems to have brought the things right back at the start. The question of male power over women and the role that gendered language plays in that process is no longer the central issue of sociolinguistic studies. Hence, some of the most prominent authors from the field are urging to turn the focus back on the issue of gender ...

Наукові праці Національної бібліотеки України імені В. І. Вернадського, 2020

The paper deals with the maiden axiological portrait reconstructed on the materials of folk songs recorded by different scholars from the Bulgarian migrants in Ukraine. The Bulgarian ethnical minority has been existing in Ukraine since the end of the 18th century. The members of the present-day Bulgarian ethnical community are the descendants of migrants from the Bulgarian lands had been annexed by the Ottoman Empire. These migrants had settled in the Southern Ukrainian prairies in present Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. Some settlements had been also founded in the Crimea. Now the Ukrainian Bulgarians speak their native language and preserve their traditions, including the authentic folklore. This archaic mode of the lingual activity could help researchers to revive some peculiarities of the national worldview as a whole and the values hierarchy as an element of this national world image. The author analyzes texts of the songs and the aim is to reveal any stereotyped expressions, metaphors and comparisons in these texts. Several signs of the Bulgarian ethnic culture holding the potential to form the traditional image of the Bulgarian girl are in focus of the research. In addition to it, the article provides an analysis of accomplishments and values perceived as key factors in creation of the female ideal. Analyzing the traditional Bulgarian maiden portrait in the migrants’ folk songs leads us to the conclusion that there are some exclusively important values of a “valid” girl in the Bulgarian linguistic worldview. The lingual modes of expression varies from lexemes and phrases (the girl’s symbolic name, derived from something positive in the traditional culture) to the expanded descriptions of a maiden’s look (white skin, black eyes, fair hair, slim waist, childness etc.) and her behavior, skills, talents.

Класика и канон в руската литература. Поглед от ХХІ век. С., 2024., 2024

Bulgarian Language, 2019

Статията представя наблюдения върху функционирането на феминативите в полски, руски и български. Разглеждат се в съпоставителен план феминалните названия за лица по признака професия, длъжност или степен и се представят някои характерни за всеки един от трите езика практики при назоваването на лица от женски пол. Установява се, че в съвременния период употребата на фемина-тиви в полски, руски и български не е равностойна и симетрична. Анализираният лексикален материал показва, че открояващата се до неотдавна значителна меж-дуезикова асиметрия по отношение на образуването на феминални названия нама-лява, но за сметка на това се запазва практиката за използване на маскулинни фор-ми за назоваването на лица от женски пол (особено в официална комуникация). Посочените тенденции се проявяват и в трите езика, но в по-силна степен в пол-ски и руски, а по-слабо в български. Ключови думи: феминативи, полски език, руски език, български език, езикова асиметрия, съпоставително изследване, андроцентризъм FEMINITIVES IN POLISH, RUSSIAN AND BULGARIAN

In this article is presented a thesis about the nature of anticulture and counterculture as opposed to culture in the life of the society. Anticulture, like culture, has its prototypical representatives -- heroes or bearers -- and their distinctive features become coded in the semantic structures of language when others speak about them and they speak about themselves. Four lexical loans borrowed in the Bulgarian language at different times during its history are discussed here and their meanings are analyzed as embodiments of the three main senses ascribed to the bearer of the Bulgarian anticulture during last nine centuries -- as "bastard", "son of a bitch", and figuratively as "root sucker".

Yearbook of the Law Department

The Bulgarian Constitutional Court (CC) finds it necessary to differentiate between the concept “sex” and the concept “gender” in the Istanbul Convention within its preliminary constitutional control. As the second one is fundamental for the convention and the CC sees a problem with it, the CC concludes that the convention is in contradiction with the Bulgarian Constitution. Furthermore, in November 2021 in an interpretation decision the CC states that the under the Constitution the Bulgarian concept relates only to the meaning of “sex”, in its biological meaning. The way in which the CC operates with the terms “sex” and “gender” brings to the fore serious deficits in Bulgarian legal discourse resulting from the total lack of any feminist jurisprudence and the isolation from the contemporary debates on the gender-based inequalities and injustices.

Between English and Bulgarian. Selected papers, 2019

Selected articles organized in five sections: English and Bulgarian in Contact and Contrast, English, Bulgarian, Language and Translation, In the Eyes of the Other: English Studies in Bulgaria and Bulgarian Studies in England.

Ezikov svât/Ezikov svât, 2024

Българите направиха нещо за света чрез богомилите. Това, което изнесоха българите, е принципът на свободата.

Балканската историографија и современите предизвици. Зборник на трудови од Mеѓународниот научен симпозиум одржан по повод 70 години од основањето на Институтот за национална историја – Скопје (Скопје, 9 – 10 ноември 2018 година), 2021

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to make a review of the methods and forms of theoretical interpretations of the “sworn virgins”, a type of female celibacy combined with partial or total gender inversion unique to the Balkans, in contemporary Balkan historiography and ethnography. The ethnographic landscape of the phenomenon is found in pre-modern patriarchal communities in the northern parts of Albania and Monte Negro. The “Balkan sworn virgins” are first noticed and “researched” by western pilgrims in the 19th century. Since then, discussions about the sworn virgins have developed in two realms, mostly dominated by the “western gaze”: the “bourgeois vogue of romantic primitivism”, in the 19th century; and the neoromantic discourse of the European paternalism towards “third world countries”, in the 20th century. Interpretations of the phenomenon, done by researchers based in academic institutions on the Balkans, advance in the 20th century, taking a special interest in the gender dimension of the phenomenon.

Психосемантичний зміст поняття сексуальності в мовній свідомості дорослих Psychosemantic Content of the Concept of Sexuality in the Language Consciousness of Adults, 2020

Introduction. The article presents the results of psycho-linguistic study of the representation in the linguistic consciousness, psychosemantic and psychological content of the relative neologism «sexuality» formed in the conditions of natural Psychosemantic Content of the Concept of Sexuality... 311 © Shevtsov Andrii & Hupalovska Viktoriia transcultural semiosis. Herein the author's own definition of the phenomenon of sexuality was formulated. The aim of the study is to research the semantic content of the concept of «sexuality», to analyze the existing definitions, to accentuate the concept of sexuality. On the basis of the results of psycho-linguistic and psychosemantic studies to formulate author's own definition. Research Methods & Techniques. The psycho-linguistic methods were used: (a) extended word association experiment; (b) modified semantic differential method; (c) modified incomplete sentence method. Results. The extended word association experiment has shown that in the linguistic consciousness of the student's youth (20-22 years), in the understanding of sexuality, most often there exist semantic associates to «sexy» (28,27%) calqued from the American English. In the associative field of persons the age of early adulthood, who have grown up in the conditions of natural linguistic semiosis, where there was no meaning of «sexy», other verbal reactions prevail, namely trust, openness, safety, reason, a man. The modified unfinished sentence method revealed that the psychosemantic understanding of sexuality in men and women has both common and distinct features. Conclusions. The living word represents the cognitive-discursive activity of the individual and the society. Sexuality as a product of natural linguistic semiosis and as a psychological phenomenon is not reduced to sexual physicality. Being the part of a holistic self-concept and a meaningful identity, the concept of sexuality reaches the mental-spiritual level and is actively present in the linguistic consciousness of the adult. Therefore, sexuality functions on the physical, psycho-emotional and mental-spiritual levels and is considered in at least biological, psychological (psycholinguistic) and cultural aspects.