PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 6 / 2018

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Stanisław Gajda : Positive linguistics

    The term positive linguistics implies that linguistics is joining the transdisciplinary research orientation, which examines the idea of individual and social well-being and is called positive humanities (with reference to the term positive psychology coined by A. Maslow). This idea has immemorial roots and has been taken up in various cultures, cf. universal virtues (wisdom, bravery, humanity, fairness, restraint, and spirituality) as mental and moral personality traits supported by cultural patterns, social roles and institutions as well as language.

    The stimuli for developing this orientation in linguistics include the disturbing situation of the contemporary world and impacts of numerous disciplines (not only within the humanities, and hence the name valeology from Latin valeo ‘to be strong, healthy, not only in the medical sense’ is proposed) and one’s own traditions related to language culture and ethics of the word. Positive linguistics is underlain by the theory of language which assumes the mutual interactive impact of the world, mind and language, and various manners in which the linguistic reality exists. Positive linguistics is interested also in such
    a good speech as is accompanied in various spheres and situations of the human life above all by moral responsibility assumed by individual and collective
    entities.

  • Anna Cegieła : Comments on the criteria of an ethical evaluation of utterances and statements.
    Unethical utterances and statements should be evaluated based on several criteria. The most important include: the type of the linguistic device, the method of its application, and the effect. What should be taken into consideration next is the circumstances in which the utterance or statement occurred: who the sender was, what his/her position was, to whom and when he/she spoke, what the text genre was, and in what situation it was formulated. It is lies as well as humiliating and exclusive utterances and statements that can be considered most dangerous. They can be defined as verbal abuse. Insults inflict slightly less damage but can be humiliating and exclusive in certain circumstances, too. The same words in different situations can cause more or less damage. Therefore, any unethical utterance or statement needs to be analysed separately and with all circumstances taken into account.
  • Iryna Kononenko : Fundamentals of the contrastive analysis of Polish and Ukrainian.
    This paper specifies principles for contrastive analysis of Polish and Ukrainian. The explanation of the causes and effects of the coincidences/discrepancies between languages is based on the data of historical and comparative linguistics, semasiology, onomasiology, ethnolinguistics, sociolinguistics, etc. The most important common and diverse phenomena in phonetics, lexis, phraseology, word formation, inflection, and syntax were shown. The causes of the similarities and differences between Polish and Ukrainian are related to complex linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The formation of linguistic phenomena is, to an extent, influenced by the differences in the perception of the world by each of the nations.
  • Wojciech Włoskowicz : Glosses to the theory of normative linguistics.

    The aim of this paper is to present selected theoretical observations in the area of normative linguistics (in particular the concept of a language norm and related concepts) as well as to provide a concise synthesis of the standpoints presented to date and a proposition of a new view on the essence of normativism and the relation between the language norm and langue.

    This study adopts a narrow definition of the term normative linguistics, limiting its scope to the theory of proper language use. Langue was defined as a system the carrier of which is an individual language user. A concept of a universal norm, e.g. the extratextual assessment of the normative status of linguistic elements, was proposed. The notions of active and passive norm, related to the complete separateness of the essence of language usus (actual use)
    and the essence of normativeness (no objection against a given linguistic element) were introduced. The issue of the subject of approval as a condition of normativeness was also discussed.

  • Joanna Kowalczyk, Piotr Zbróg : Language eclecticism in the texts of court judgments.

    The research on the surface structure of judgments was undertaken to confront the methods of building a jurisdictive text with the formalistic convention of the official legal discourse. The method of verbalising information in judgments is not only a linguistic form of shaping the style of expression but also and foremost a tool for regulating the extralinguistic reality. Hence, the actual effect depends on communication effectiveness.

    Based on the conducted analysis, it was found that the text of a judgment is characterised by semantic, stylistic and functional eclecticism resulting from the engagement of various (professional and unprofessional) entities in the text of the statement. It was proved that the analysed type of an act implementing the legal norms was a conglomerate containing elements of an idiolect, professiolect, dialect, and jargon.

    The grounds for the conducted research were the methods of pragmatic linguistics. Hence, the studies of the textual form allowed for the discoursive context.

  • Anna Cegiełka : The language of job advertisements.

    This paper presents an analysis of the language used in job advertisements in the press based on the material of job advertisements published in Gazeta Wyborcza in the issues released between January and June 2014. Job advertisements are characterised by a clear and wellorganised structure, which is connected with their fundamentally informative function. Yet, the analysis shows that the language used in the examined job advertisements exhibits features which are not typical of informative style. The texts often contain many professional expressions, borrowings, abstract words, and complex phrases. The use of loaded words and expressions which build a positive view of the business world, as well as the tendency towards exaggeration regarding job requirements and job descriptions are noticeable. Furthermore, the texts are not free from redundancy, euphemisms and expressions lacking precision. This leads to the conclusion that the language of job advertisements goes beyond its informative function and enters the sphere of valuating, persuasion and manipulation, which raises questions about the intentions of such operations and their impact on the reception of such texts by applicants.

POLISH GRAMMAR

  • Andrzej Piotr Lesiakowski : Gramatyka języka polskiego większa (Greater grammar of Polish) by Antoni Małecki – the grammar which introduced the historical and comparative method to the Polish research on language

REVIEWS

  • Agnieszka Piotrowska-Wojaczyk : Urszula Sokólska, „O, mowo polska, ty ziele rodzime...”. Wokół refleksji nad kształtem polszczyzny (“O Polish speech, you native herb…”. On the reflection on the shape of the Polish language), Białystok 2017

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

  • Andrii Baran : The preposition na (on) in the expressions with the names of some countries (Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Hungary) in the locative and accusative

WORDS AND PHRASES

  • Stanisław Dubisz : The planned „destrukcja” (“destruction”) of architecture.