Linguistic Rigidity of Gender Binomials

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic rigidity of the components of gender binomials, particularly the pairs “man and woman” and “husband and wife.” The study draws on texts from the media, specifically a newspaper subcorpus of the Russian National Corpus. The objective of this research is to uncover the social factors influencing the degree of linguistic rigidity within these gender binomials. It has been established that the specific structure of a binomial (the primacy of the male gender versus the secondary status of the female gender, or vice versa) reflects entrenched social hierarchies in society based on gender differences and stereotypes. Additionally, it has been found that the irreversibility or reversibility of a binomial may depend on the degree of phraseologization, grammatical number (singular/plural), as well as prosodic features. Key themes have been identified in which the female gender is preferred in the initial position of the binomial. A high degree of linguistic rigidity has been noted in the examined binomials, following the established model with the male gender in the first position. Temporal segments have been identified during which a decrease in this rigidity is observed: from 1990 to 1994 and from 2014 to 2021, particularly highlighting an increase in the proportion of binomials featuring the female gender in the first position. Prospects for further research into gender binomials as significant units of linguistic encoding of sociocultural experience are also proposed.