Comparative Analysis of the Use of Feminatives in the Speech of Bilinguals and Monolinguals (on the Material of Russian and Greek)

This research was conducted within the framework of gender linguistics, the main task of which is to study how grammatical categories related to biological sex are reflected in language and affect the perception of men and women in the minds of speakers of a particular language. The research paper focuses on the use of feminatives in Russian and Greek among bilinguals and monolinguals. The aim of the study was to identify trends in the use of feminine correlates of the names of professions and job positions in legal and political fields, as well as to determine the influence of the linguistic environment on the formation of linguistic norms regarding gender terminology. The authors employed an experimental approach based on a comparative analysis of the use of feminatives among Russian-Greek natural bilinguals aged 16-25 living in Cyprus and learning English as a foreign language, and artificial bilinguals, native speakers of Russian/ Greek who also speak English. The experiment participants were given English sentences containing professional designations. The task set for them was to translate the sentences in such a way that the agentive subject or addressee was indicated as a female; after that a systematic analysis of the use of feminatives and their derivational models was conducted. This analysis revealed gender asymmetry in both linguistic contexts, reflecting the unequal representation of male and female genders in the linguistic consciousness of the speakers. The main conclusions emphasize the importance of the linguistic environment and cultural factors in shaping gender-specific lexicon used in everyday communication and media, and indicate the presence of interference in the speech of bilinguals.