Defining Feminine Personal Nouns in Polish: A Practical and Postulative Overview Based on the Dictionary of Polish Female Nouns

Abstract

This article considers and analyses various ways of defining feminine personal nouns in Polish-language lexicography. It deals with the techniques of defining products of the feminitive word-formation category which have been recorded in historical and modern dictionaries. It aims to determine the best way to define feminine personal nouns from the perspective of what the modern user needs and how they perceive the world. Against the recognised definition practices, a proprietary method developed at the Formation of Feminine Personal Nouns Research Section at the Institute of Polish Studies of Wrocław University, Poland, has been proposed. It has become the basis for lexicographic description used in Słownik nazw żeńskich polszczyzny (Dictionary of Polish Female Nouns). This article puts forward a rationale for defining lexical items in which a reference to the generic masculine, i.e. a systemic motivation typical of presentations of Polish word formation, has been abandoned. Keywords: feminine personal nouns, feminitive, Polish word formation, dictionary, definition