| Abstract: | The dissertation’s assumption is to present the evaluation of the image of family and
its alternative forms, which are received by the readers of the most popular women’s press
and polish weekly magazines.
In the polish society, family is recognised as one of the supreme values. Deep changes
of the post-modern reality has resulted in the existence of many alternative forms of family,
such as: single-parent family, cohabitation, LAT marriages, stepfamily, singles as well as
homosexual families.
The aim of the dissertation is to present the linguistic ways of the evaluation of the
term “family’’ and its alternative forms in the polish press. The contemporary media not only
provide information and comment events, but also significantly create reality, evaluate news
and select them. Thereby, they influence the receivers and can mould their attitude towards
values, life, behaviour and language. The language is extremely important, because, according
to Bartmiński, it is ‘’the tool of the evaluation, the carrier of the values and it informs about
the values’’ (Bartmiński, 2003; 64-65).
The dissertation consists of two main parts: theoretical and the research. The
theoretical one is divided into three chapters. It describes the historical changes of the model
of family in the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial period. It shows the general
characteristics of the alternative forms of family – cohabitation, single life by choice, singleparent
family, homosexual couples, LAT relationships, circles of friends and marriages
childless by choice. Also, it presents the lexicographical definitions of the lexeme family in
the chronological order and the study on the stereotype of family by Iwona Bielińska-Gardziel
in her doctoral dissertation The stereotype of family in the contemporary polish language. Finally, it engages theoretical issues of the evaluation and values (in terms of philosophy,
psychology, pedagogy, sociology and linguistics) and the description of the media’s
educational role.
The research part, which is simultaneously the last part of the dissertation, presents the
study on the content of the press, carried in terms of lexical ways of its evaluation. The
research materials were 306 copies of the following press items: Skarb (12), Twój Styl (12),
Viva (24), Gość Niedzielny (52), Polityka (52), Newsweek Polska (50), Sieci (52) and Do
Rzeczy (52). From these copies 65 articles were chosen. From the chosen articles emerged the
diverse image of singles, single-parent families, patchwork families, LAT relationships,
cohabitations and homosexual couples. Conclusion and relevant research postulates are
placed at the end of the dissertation, which constitutes the summary of the consideration
discussed in the work.
Presented ways of the evaluation of family and its alternative forms in the most
popular women’s press and polish weekly magazines, let us to create the image of them,
which is received by the polish reader. The present dissertation thereby fits in the linguistic
strand of the study on the press language and broadly defined sociological study concerning
family and its transitions. |