Redefining The Concept of Language: On the Example of the Women’s Strike Protests Language In Poland (2020)

"The paper examines the linguistic and discursive images of the protests that broke out in Poland in late 2020 in reaction to a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal tightening the law on abortion. Verbal and non-verbal expression of the movement was conceived of in terms of ‘language’ (the language of protest) in the debate which surrounded the protest. As such, this paper aims at redefining the term language and the concept behind the term through the use of a cognitive definition within the methodological paradigm of cultural (ethno)linguistics. The set of features that attributed to the language of protest is reconstructed on the basis of various metalinguistic data, and presented as a specific ‘text of culture,’ emphasizing the close relation between the notion of language within a given context, experience, and set of values and ideas. "