PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 2 / 2015

  • Resolution of the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL)

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Bartosz Broda, Bartłomiej Nitoń, Maciej Ogrodniczuk : In search of a method of automatic measurement of readability of informational texts
    Numerous texts that are incomprehensible for some of their intended recipients can be found in the Polish public space. In many cases, the problem is related to the structure of the text, which can be measured objectively. Methods of determining the degree of readability of texts have been developed for many languages. The importance of this problem has also been noticed by certain Polish institutions, publishing houses and offices in recent years. In the Polish academia, the problem is being investigated primarily by two centres: Pracownia Prostej Polszczyzny (Plain Polish Laboratory) at the University of Wrocław and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS) in Warsaw. This paper presents the state of research on this problem within the project “Mierzenie stopnia zrozumiałości polskich tekstów użytkowych (pozaliterackich)” (“Measuring the degree of readability of nonliterary Polish texts”) carried out at SWPS. The problem and the state of research thereon in Poland and abroad are described in the first place. A tool for measuring readability of Polish texts called Jasnopis, which is currently under construction and which uses both known methods, such as Pisarek index, as well as new ones, such as the automatic Taylor test, is presented afterwards. This paper is finished with a presentation of conclusions from the works performed so far and ideas for further research.
  • Marek Świdziński : Here you are: that’s the word oto – and that’s how to grasp it. That’s it!
    In this paper, syntactic properties of the word oto ‘here; there; over hear; over there’ are examined. The account proposed is purely distributional, not semantic. The word, regarded traditionally as a particle by Polish lexicographers, used to appear also in contexts that hardly meet this interpretation. Following Inny słownik języka polskiego (A different dictionary of Polish), Warsaw 2000, by Mirosław Bańko, the newest Polish dictionary in which the item is treated more carefully, it is argued that two different lexical items should be distinguished. Examination of the data of the IPI PAN Corpus made it possible to confirm the account, as well as to strengthen it. Except cases of freely omissible tokens that represent the lexical unit OTO2 (particle), the word oto may precede the Nominative NP or the indirect WH-question. On this basis, a predicative OTO1 should be introduced. It has a two dimensional (tense: present, mood: indicative) and one-word paradigm. It subcategorises for the noun phrase in Nominative, as in Oto on! ‘There he is!’, or for the indirect question, as in A oto co powinien zrobić. ‘That’s what he should do.’ Finally, the particle OTO2 often follows the demonstrative pronouns TEN ‘this’, TAKI ‘such’, TAK ‘this way’, and TYLE ‘as much as’, and collocations such as ten oto, takiego oto, tak oto, tylu oto are to be included in the lexical entries for TEN, TAKI, TAK, and TYLE.
  • Magdalena Danielewiczowa : Między niebem a ziemią or Między niebem i ziemią (Between heaven and earth)?
    This paper discusses the semantic opposition between the Polish expressions między _k a _l and między _k i _l (between _k and _l). The author proposes a thesis that the opposition is clear and yet very subtle and hence, difficult to grasp and verbalise. First of all, one should notice the lack of identity between the conjunction i and a similar linguistic form, which alternates with a in the meaning of the discussed expression, but which is not semantically independent and autonomous, cf. rzucić kamień między pokrzywy i osty (throw a stone among nettles and thistles), włożyć gazetę między ścianę i szafę (insert the newspaper between the wall and the wardrobe). Although substitution of a by i does not result in a clear anomaly in the analysed contexts, semantic regularities are noticeable in their distribution. When establishing a relation between objects that are strongly associated with each other in terms of time or space (including mental space), which constitute a certain whole from the viewpoint of the speaker, i will occur. On the other hand, a is used to outline a certain opposition, contrast, and most of all autonomy of the respective items.
  • Urszula Andrejewicz : Koń się śmieje (A horse is laughing), or are there idiomatic errors?
    This paper touches upon the issue of correctness of idiomatic expressions in the context of research based on large text corpora. It asks which forms of idiomatic expressions should be deemed correct: the ones recorded in dictionaries, codified, or the ones with high frequency in corpora. Ignoring the usage would result in the situation where an assumed, rather than the actual, resource of idiomatic expressions in the Polish language would be described. On the other hand, a large number of the units recorded in corpora cannot be described with the concept of variant or rejected by deeming them incorrect. They simply constitute a different method of using idiomatic expressions.
  • Magdalena Derwojedowa, Dorota Kopcińska : On the so-called non-nominal subjects
    The object of this paper is non-nominal phrases, which are traditionally described as non-standard realisations of the subject. This standpoint is assumed also by M. Gębka-Wolak and M. Świdziński, who find infinitive and sentence realisations non-standard realisations of the subject-nominative understood in the narrow sense, according to SWJP definition, as a component accommodated mutually by the finite form. We believe that the equivalence of the units regards the deep structure. This is because syntactic analysis proves that the observed surface structures are built around the centre, which is an improper verb that not seldom has homonymic forms with the proper verb. We allow not only for syntactic relations (described in I.A. Mel'čuk’s relation instrument) but also for morphological agreements between components, as well as for tests of coordination with the components the morphological and syntactic properties of which are unambiguous.
  • Janusz S. Bień : On concepts of a sign, word and fl exeme
    This paper presents certain terminological innovations (całostka (a whole), fleksem prosty and złożony (simple and compound flexeme)) against other terms in taxonomic morphology, which are described in detail elsewhere. Problems caused by the strict definition of a character are also demonstrated.

OLD AND CONTEMPORARY DICTIONARIES

  • Piotr Żmigrodzki : Piotr Żmigrodzki (ed.), Wielki słownik języka polskiego (The great dictionary of Polish), Kraków 2007–

POLISH GRAMMAR

  • Konrad Kowalczyk : Grammatica seu institutio Polonica linguae by Franciszek Meniński

REPORTS, NOTICES, POLEMICS

  • Wanda Decyk-Zięba, Monika Kresa : “Poradnik Językowy” (The Linguistic Guide) on-line
  • Anna Kamińska : Report on the session “Językowy przekaz medialny” (“Linguistic media message”), 21 March 2014, Polskie Radio S.A., Warsaw

REVIEWS

  • Grażyna Zarzycka : Ewa Lipińska, Polskość w Australii. O dwujęzyczności, edukacji i problemach adaptacyjnych Polonii na antypodach (The Polish identity in Australia. On bilingualism, education and problems with adaptation of the Polish community in the Down Under), Kraków 2013

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

WORDS AND PHRASES