Człowiek, polityk, podatnik. Czy generyczne maskulinum ma charakter w pełni inkluzywny?

Based on new language data, the present paper attempts to answer the question of whether masculine generics are indeed fully inclusive and refer to the same extent to women and men. The author argues that this is not the case as proved in an examination of the hitherto uninvestigated phenomenon in Polish of the socalled slippage from the generic item to its masculine exemplifications (e.g. podatnik ‘taxpayer’ > Kowalski ‘male surname’). It is also shown through the results of an original questionnaire study with university student participants. The study inquired about the students’ male and female connotations with masculine generics denoting people involved in politics, sports, art and science (e.g. naukowiec ‘scholar, masc.’) in comparison to phrases with two genders (e.g. naukowiec ‘scholar’/ naukowczyni ‘female scholar’). The forms of the nouns were provided in two orders and the responses studied in relation to participants’ gender. The results are interpreted in terms of the cognitive prototype theory, according to which the prototypical human is male, as expressed by the androcentric rule ‘people = male’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]