PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 3 / 2018

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Marek Świdziński : On three aspects of naturalness of sign languages

    Polish Sign Language (PJM) is the language of the Deaf in Poland. It represents the class of visual-spatial languages. They satisfy the structural definition of natural languages as semiotic systems that have grammar and lexicon and are used for universal communication. PJM is the mother tongue for a subset of deaf Poles: the so-called dynastic deaf. It is acquired in the process of natural acquisition. A majority of the population learn PJM as the second language. PJM is a natural rather than cultural phenomenon. It was developed in the Institute for the Deaf and Blind in Warsaw after 1817 based on individual endemic languages. PJM has been subject of studies at the University of Warsaw for two decades.

  • Anna Kuder, Malwina Kocoń : On rigidness of constraints on the negation morpheme. Discussion with Piotr Tomaszewski’s paper

    This paper constitutes a discussion with Piotr Tomaszewski’s work Constraints on Negative Prefixation in Polish Sign Language, where he claims that morphological negation marker taking the form of circular movement of the wrist preceding positive signs is a prefix subject to several grammatical constrains. As part of a large-scale project aiming to examine negation markers in PJM, we conduct a study similar to the one proposed by Tomaszewski. We rely our research on the linguistic material available in the PJM corpus that is being currently compiled by the Section for Sign Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. We investigate videos showing more than a dozen of native PJM signers using their language in natural communicational situations. We find most Tomaszewski’s conclusions and findings accurate. However, we cannot agree with all of the proposed constraints on the negation morpheme. We argue that the morpheme in question is used more freely by the PJM users than Tomaszewski is willing to admit.

  • Jadwiga Linde-Usiekniewicz, Sylwia Łozińska : Kinships terms in Polish Sign Language (PJM)

    The paper discusses kinship terms in the contemporary Polish Sign Language (PJM) against a broader typological perspective of kinship terms in spoken and sign languages. The study is partly based on the Corpus-based Dictionary of Polish Sign Language and partly on raw data from the Polish Sign Language Corpus. Particular attention is paid to polysemy of PJM kinship terms and the influence of spoken Polish on both the signifiers and the signifiants of PJM signs. The former is illustrated by initialised signs and mouthing, while the latter by semantic extensions of signs that mirror derivational phenomena in spoken Polish. For example the sign ‘sibling’ refers only to ‘brother’s wife’ and not to ‘husband’s sister’, and, although sign language kin terms tend not to be marked for gender, it does not mean ‘brother-in-law’. The reason for such a semantic restriction is that it extends only to senses covered by a spoken Polish term derived from ‘brat’ (‘brother’), i.e. ‘bratowa’ (lit. ‘of brother’), and not to senses covered by the loanword ‘szwagier’ (‘brother-in-law’) and ‘szwagierka’ (‘husband’s sister’). The corpus-based part of the study has revealed that the preferred method of disambiguating signs is through mouthing rather than using compound forms.

  • Ewa Wolańska, Adam Wolański : Audio description as a translation of an iconic code into a spoken verbal code. The semantic composition, macrostructure and the linguistic and stylistic layer of a description text
    Audio description is an additional audio narration track intended primarily for blind and visually impaired consumers of visual culture, including television, film, theatre, opera and fine arts. The narrator speaks in a presentation of an (audio)visual work, describing what is happening on the screen or stage during natural pauses in the audio. In the case of performing arts (theatre and opera), the media (television, video and DVD) as well as museums and visual art exhibitions audio description is a form of intersemiotic translation. Audio description translates the visual image into a verbal form that is accessible to thousands of individuals who otherwise lack full access to visual media.
  • Olga Jauer-Niworowska : Phoneme in the structural and functional model – analysis of biopsychic considerations of the formation of the notion of phoneme (relations between perception and oral motor skills)
    This paper presents the formation process of the notion of phoneme in the structural and functional model. Biopsychic considerations of the notion’s formation are presented with relations between perception and oral motor skills taken into account.

REVIEWS

  • Małgorzata Witaszek-Samborska : Krzysztof Skibski, Poezja jako iteratura. Relacje między elementami języka poetyckiego w wierszu wolnym (Poetry as iterature. Relations between elements of the poetic language in a free verse), Poznań 2017

WORDS AND PHRASES

  • Stanisław Dubisz : Zdradzieckie mordy (treacherous mouths) or on inappropriateness – not only unparliamentary one