PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 4 / 2018

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Stanisław Gajda : On the trail of style (meta-stylistic discussions)
    The author presents an outline of the comprehensive theory of style the structure of which is composed of three levels: philosophical (ontological and epistemological assumptions), theoretical and metaphorical (a network of highly abstract key notions and terms conceptualising and structuring the theoreticised world), and empirical (a set of empirical notions and statements asserting something directly about the analysed world). After philosophical ontology, it adopts the assumption of four methods of existence of the linguistic reality and, accordingly, style (which is treated as a humanistic text structure, its highest organisational rule): 1. specific language actions and their textual products as well as the style of a given text; 2. a language system and stylistic patterns in the standard; 3. individual language awareness and individual style; 4. language awareness of specific human populations and collective styles. This outline can constitute the basis for creating more developed forms of the theory.
  • Tadeusz Zgółka : Dilemmas of a practising lexicographer. A lexicographic essay.
    This essay discusses the issues related to basic decisions made by lexicographers concerning methods of creating a list of entries to become the material for a complete compilation of a dictionary. The principles and methods of collecting entries regard in particular the size of the planned dictionary and the sources from which dictionary entries are obtained.
  • Kazimierz Ożóg : Latest changes in Polish (based on the observations by Stanisław Dubisz and other researchers)
    The author of this paper presents the contemporary status of Polish as a dynamically developing linguistic and cultural reality. The rapid changes occurring in Poland in various fields of the nation’s life following 1989 are immediately reflected in the Polish language, which has been radically changing since then. By comparing the research conducted by Stanisław Dubisz, Stanisław Gajda and his own observations, the author seeks the most general causes of the changes. Apart from the internal evolution of the system, the most important causes of changes in Polish after 1989 arise from the enormous pressure of the new reality triggered by the political revolution and the influence of new global cultural tendencies, in particular consumerism, mediality, IT revolution, Americanisation of life and culture, Europeanisation, and Postmodernism.
  • Halina Zgółkowa : Language of children and language for children. Vocabulary in contemporary theatrical plays for children and youth.
    This sketch is dedicated to the confrontation of the vocabulary used spontaneously by pre-school children with the lexis used by authors of contemporary theatrical plays addressed to the “young viewer”. Spontaneous vocabulary is contained in frequency dictionaries. The conclusions of the comparisons are addressed to authors of children’s literature, teachers and psychologists (psycholinguists). The main question asked at the end of the sketch is whether words used in literature are understandable to children.
  • Marek Cybulski : On the language taboo in Trylogia (The Trilogy) by Henryk Sienkiewicz
    The taboo was identified in the content plan and in the expression plan applicable in the 19th century and in the described period, i.e. in the 17th c. Emphasis was put on the linguistic exponents of the examined phenomenon. It was stated that Sienkiewicz did not care about a pedantic faithfulness to the language and custom of the described period. He selected such a manner of expression as was comprehensible to Polish readers and at the same time hidden from the Russian censorship. The major scopes of the language taboo is the Polish-Russian war and human sexual behaviours. The methods of disguising political contents are persistently repeated, probably in order to draw the reader’s attention. Camouflaging the Muscovy invasion consists in blending Russia, named with the use of euphemisms, with the background of nationalities which are similar to Russians in some respects, in pars pro toto metonymy, in a metaphor of flood and/or fire that blurs facts, and in periphrases. There is hardly any periphrasis and manner of concealment in the presentation of eroticism, metaphors derive their vocabulary from various fields and various stylistic genres, the metonymy of the effect of an action instead of the action is used frequently.
  • Halina Karaś : Frequency as one of the determinants of diversifi cation of the Polish language in Lithuania (on the example of the dialects of the areas of Ignalina and Zarasai)
    The aim of this paper is to present the issues related to examining the frequency of linguistic characteristics as one of important determinants constituting a given language variant. The significance of the frequency of linguistic phenomena as a factor differentiating the north borderland Polish language in Lithuania is discussed on the example of Polish dialects used in the areas of Ignalina and Zarasai. This region, which is a narrow strip running along the Lithuanian-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Latvian borders, considered the third most dense Polish-speaking area in Lithuania, constitutes only a part of the former Polish enclave, which is currently divided between three countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. The issues are presented on the example of the realisation of unstressed o, particle czy and forms of the 1st person singular of the past tense. The basis for the analysis was the text corpus containing 117,446 textual words (ca. 200 pages of a computer script of the recordings of 50 informers from 40 locations from the periods 2000-2001 and 2010-2011).

REVIEWS

  • Milena Wojtyńska-Nowotka : „Białostockie Archiwum Językowe” (“The Bialystok Linguistic Archives”) no. 16, Białystok 2016

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

WORDS AND PHRASES

  • Stanisław Dubisz : Szmal, szmalec (dough), szmalcownik (a shmaltzovnik), or on “low” vocabulary entering the public language