PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 3 / 2013

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Jolanta Mędelska : In pursuit of the agnonym wirowiec (about applying Piotr Wierzchoń’s theory of linguochronologization in research concerning the Northern Borderlands lexis)

    The application of Piotr Wierzchoń’s theory of linguochronologization for removing blank spots in the descriptions of the Northern Borderlands lexis to date is discussed on the example of the currently unknown derivative wirowiec (‘helicopter’). The empirical basis of the said theory is a collection of texts gathered in Polish digital libraries. With the use of dLibra software one can search the extensive resources for the needed language units, view the context in which they were used and determine the dates of the individual usages.

    The derivative wirowiec, which can be found in post-war Vilnian press and books published there until 1975, was verified on the basis of the texts collected until mid-2011. It was found that the noun wirowiec was not present in any of them after 1945, but it often appeared in texts from the 1930s. It was then that it was formed with native components as a recommended synonym of the borrowing autożyro. Therefore, the noun wirowiec is an ephemeral form. It became obsolete very soon and was replaced by helikopter and śmigłowiec. However, within the territories of the Northern-Eastern Borderlands, which were separated from the centre, wirowiec became obsolete at a much later period.

  • Wanda Decyk-Zięba : A contribution to the history of Polish and East Slavonic language contacts (Ruthenian words in Kronika W. X. Moskiewskiego by Alexander Gwagnin, 1611)
    The object of the description is East Slavonic words excerpted from book VII of Kronika Sarmacjej Europskiej by Alexander Gwagnin of 1611. The work was translated from Latin into Polish (and supplemented) by Paweł Paszkowski. The origin of the borrowings from the East Slavonic languages acknowledged in Polish prints is diverse: many of them were borrowed from the Turko- Tatar languages, the Greek language and the Finno-Ugric languages. Printed texts (including translations) in both Polish and Latin contributed to their popularisation in the public awareness of Poles in the early 17th c. In terms of chronology, the Ruthenian words acknowledged in Kronika W. X. Moskiewskiego belong to the following three classes: the oldest one comprises words borrowed in the period from 14th to 15th centuries (24), the younger one – the 16th-century borrowings (33), whereas the youngest one – the 17th-century borrowings (10). The largest group is words related to the religious sphere of life. First Russianisms emerged in the Polish language in the 16th c.
  • Janusz Siatkowski : Is the East Slavonic spina ‘plecy’ [‘back’] a borrowing from the Polish language?
    The direct neighbourhood of the Polish language with the East Slavonic languages substantiates various hypotheses of mutual borrowings. Detailed historic source records and data concerning linguistic geography permit a review of earlier suggestions regarding the etymology of such borrowings.
  • Joanna Joachimiak-Prażanowska : Lexical Russianisms in “Kurier Warszawski” from the first half of 1918 (letters A–K)

    This paper presents lexical Russianisms used in the Polish language in the interwar period. Only a portion of the collected lexis is demonstrated here; namely, words and expressions beginning with letters A-K.

    The analysis of the singular vocabulary was performed on the material from “Kurier Warszawski”, a popular daily published in the capital city of Poland in the years 1918-1939.

    The aim of this paper is to investigate into the extent to which the Russian language influenced the lexis used in the Warsaw daily published in the interwar period, that is directly after regaining independence.

    The excerpted lexical phenomena from the first half of 1918 are confronted with the resources of definitional dictionaries of Polish and Russian as well as translation and etymological dictionaries.

    The author noted 34 borrowings from the Russian language. From among this lexis 15 units had been recorded in central Poland, as early as in the period of the Russian rule. 4 lexemes were in use in the interwar period in the North-Eastern Borderlands. Two borrowings from Russian (etap, gilza) were noted as late as at the close of the 20th century in the 20th c. in the Vilnian Polish language. 10 words are the so-called Sovietisms, that is lexical items naming the Russian reality of the postrevolutionary period.

  • Tamara Graczykowska : Lexical Russianisms in the Kaunas weekly “Chata Rodzinna” (1922–1940)

    The paper presents lexical Russianisms excerpted from the weekly “Chata Rodzinna” published in Kaunas in the interwar period (1922-1940).

    Only a portion of Russian-origin words are demonstrated here; namely, the Russianisms which are unknown in the contemporary Northern Borderlands Polish language.

    57 lexemes were used in the Kaunas weekly “Chata Rodzinna” (which account for 31% of all excerpted words of Russian origin). Despite the fact that these Russianisms were not permanently adopted in the lexical resources of the contemporary Polish language in the North-Eastern Borderlands, they were recorded at the earlier stages of this variant of Polish.

    These old borrowings from the Russian language did not survive in the Borderlands probably because they concerned mainly reality-related lexis (political, administrative) linked with the period of the Russian rule.

  • Anna Piotrowicz, Małgorzata Witaszek-Samborska : Intra-variety semantic derivation in the urban dialect (on the example of the Poznań lexis)
    This paper applies to the results of the process of intra-variety neosemanticism, that is regional meanings derived from other regional meanings (for example, dołyszek in the meaning ‘żołądek’ [‘stomach’] from the meaning ‘dołek’ [‘hole’]). It is a supplementation of the other work by the authors regarding extra-variety semantic neologisms, that is ones coined as a result creating regional meanings from Polish nationwide meanings (e.g. onion in the Poznań dialect is ‘a hole in a sock, a stocking, a sleeve’). The authors present the results of different neosemanticism mechanisms: metaphorisation, metonymisation, changes in the semantic dominant, generalisation and specialisation. They demonstrate complex chain, radial and mixed structures from among polysemantic regionalisms. The authors highlight also the anthropomorphism observable in the semantic fields represented by semantic neologisms as well as formal & genetic and chronological diversity of the analysed vocabulary.
  • Tomasz Szutkowski : About apellativisation of proper names in the vocabulary of student slang

    The research on the specificity of the secondary use of proper names in the so-called non-onomastic function requires a range of analyses of various varieties of the Polish language, including the area of dialects and sociolects. The apellativisation process is as intensive in jargons and slangs as in general Polish. Apellativised proper names are a particularly useful material in linguoculturological research.

    The factographic material collected in the paper demonstrated a significant nominative and expressive potential of proper names, which is realised in specific connotations transferred from their primary carriers (people and places). The number of the proprietary items applied secondarily proves also the high level of their transonimisation, the results of which are usually shortterm in jargons.

    It was possible to obtain the aforementioned results owing to excerption of the lexical and phraseological material by the criterion of presence of proper names in any form (official, derivative, onomastic derivative). Next, the secondary meaning of a given item was compares with its primary proprietary sphere, which, as a consequence, enabled a description of the connotation of the proper name and preparation of a simplified ideographic classification.

OLD AND CONTEMPORARY DICTIONARIES

  • Marcin Będkowski : Jadwiga Puzynina, Tomasz Korpysz, Internetowy słownik języka Cypriana Norwida, Warszawa 2009

REPORTS, NOTICES, POLEMICS

  • Joanna Szerszunowicz : A report from the international academic conference “ASIALEX2011. LEXICOGRAPHY: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives”
  • Marta Chojnacka, Marta Falkowska : A report from the academic seminar “Metodologie językoznawstwa V”

REVIEWS

  • Paulina Gajda : Małgorzata Milewska-Stawiany, Ewa Rogowska-Cybulska (red.), Polskie języki. O językach zawodowych i środowiskowych. Materiały VII Forum Kultury Słowa. Gdańsk, 9–11 października 2008 roku, Gdańsk 2010
  • Milena Wojtyńska-Nowotka : Urszula Sokólska (red.), Odmiany stylowe polszczyzny dawniej i dziś, Białystok 2011

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

  • Monika Zaśko-Zielińska : Is an unofficial signature still a signature?
  • A position of Rada Języka Polskiego [Polish Language Council] regarding female forms of names of professions and titles

BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRIES AND MEMOIRS

  • Stanisław Dubisz : The memory of our departed – prof. dr hab. Halina Rybicka‑Nowacka (23 Jul 1929–11 May 1992)