PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 1 / 2008

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Monika Bielińska : On the Dictionary Culture
    The article is an attempt to define the notion mentioned in the title more precisely and to enumerate the elements of individual and social dictionary culture, as well as factors influencing its level. The author analyses relations between language culture in its broadest sense and dictionary culture, highlighting the fact that dictionary culture cannot be studied without reference to language awareness of (potential) dictionary users. The author focuses on the description of lexicography status in the society, based on observations as well as Polish and foreign research results. Another important part of the dictionary culture analysis is dictionary didactics viewed as one of the crucial factors positively affecting the level of dictionary culture of individuals and society. Further on, she focuses on the notion of lexicographic awareness and analyses its major manifestations. The paper finishes with an attempt to define dictionary culture and a catalogue of criteria which can be used to estimate its level.
  • Julia Legomska : How POWER, RICHNESS, HIGH SOCIAL POSITION Built the State in Old Polish – Reflections of a Linguist Based on Semantic Ideology
    In the article, the author focuses on the presence of ideology in signification process. Her presumptions are based on the following theses by J. Fiske on ideology in meaning: (1) ideology is a process of social generation of meanings; (2) every kind of cognition is social and perspective, i.e. it occurs though acquisition of the point of view represented by the dominant group; (3) one of the key tactics of ideology is formation of %the common feeling of common sense’ by the society (not natural) and of ideological character, i.e. partly supporting the power of the authorities. Using this background, the author analyses the phenomenon of polysemy in the lexeme państwo (state) as it functioned in Old Polish. In the research, she has used the apparatus of cognitive linguistics, and the concept of cognitive domains by R.W. Langacker, in particular. By means of semasiological analysis, she presents the way the myth of power was justified in the old times, the power which was connected with high social position and richness (the myth as one of three functions of a sign in the second signification level). The text includes numerous contexts which show the sign support of upper relation of the notion WŁADZA (power) in the lexeme państwo (the state) as much stronger in the past than it is now, or frequent impossibility to separate the sense of %possessing riches’ from %possessing a high social position.’ The author offers the view as one of many possible ones in historical semantics.
  • Joanna Madej : Persuasive Acts of Speech in Political Communication
    The aim of the article is to prove the thesis that persuasive acts of speech are basic, verbal means of persuasion in political communication, which was attempted to prove through the analysis of written texts of parliamentary election campaign 2005. Acts of speech used in the language of the campaign allow politicians to create the most effective image and to receive support. The acts include mainly promises about profits the individual will achieve if he votes for the X. Acts of courtesy also matter as they improve communication. Criticisms of the rivals and warning against them are aimed to degrade them in the eyes of the society. The texts include both direct acts (their intentions are open) and indirect ones (the recipient has to use implication mechanisms in order to decipher them).
  • Małgorzata Gębka-Wolak : Something Does Not Fit Here? On New Uses of the Verb pasować (Fit)

    The subject of the description in the article is constructions including forms of the verb PASOWAĆ (fit) connected with an infinitive. Ability to connect with an infinitive is an innovation, still unrecognized in dictionaries, yet, quite numerous in contemporary Polish texts, especially on the internet.

    The aim of the research is to characterize inflectional and syntactic qualities of the unit PASOWAĆ, as well as to find out if its new uses can be interpreted as one of the units described in dictionaries, which developed its syntactic ability to connect or whether a new lexeme needs to be distinguished. Grammatical description is accompanied by remarks on the meaning of the unit.

    The analysis is conducted according to methods created by Polish structuralism.

    The research leads to the conclusion that, in contemporary Polish texts, one can identify occurrences of a form belonging to two verbal lexemes PASOWAĆ followed by an infinitive. The first lexeme, marked as PASOWAĆ’, is the proper verb, synonymous to the unit ODPOWIADAĆ (suit), see: pasuje mi/odpowiada mi przyjść o piątej (it suits me fine to come at five). The infinitive following PASOWAĆ’ is a positional equivalent of a noun in the first declination case, i.e. receives the position of a sentence subject.

    The second lexeme, marked as PASOWAĆ’’, is an improper verb, and its meaning comes close to the meaning of the verbs NALEŻEĆ, TRZEBA (have to, should). In the forms of the verb PASOWAĆ’’, the infinitive is equivalent to a clause with the connector żeby (so that).

  • Anna Huk : What Dynamic Verbs Are Used by Kindergarten Children? Semantics and Grammatical Structure of Dynamic Verbs
    Language acquisition is a popular trend in cognitive linguistics. The article raises the issue of dynamic verb acquisition by kindergarten children. The analysis is based on dynamic verbs used by children of that age. The material was gathered during casual conversations with children, as well as in the course of games arranged at Przemyśl kindergartens. Thus gathered verbs were semantically and grammatically analyzed and compared with the verbs from the children’s book Wesoła szkoła sześciolatka (A Happy School of a Six-Year-Old). The research results show acquisition of eleven dynamic verbs (meaning: walk, go out, come back, fly, swim, sleep). The children are familiar with them, as they use them quite often in their talks, and they can also define their meanings. To explain them, the children frequently use gestures and faces. To explicate them, they usually use syntactic definitions, thus presenting positions opened by the verb in a syntagmatic chain. It proves the cognitivist assumption about contextual language acquisition and about constructions as basic acquisition units. The dynamic verbs mentioned by the children are concrete, successfully used in context, so they are well explained and perfectly understood.
  • Mirosław Dawlewicz : About Ways of Creating Word Formation Occasionalisms within Social-Political Lexis in Polish Press in Lithuania
    The aim of the article is a presentation and structural analysis of social-political occasionalisms occurring in contemporary Polish press published in Lithuania. Presented lexical material provides many examples of new vocabulary, both systemic and extra-systemic, functioning in Vilnius Polish nowadays. As the analysis shows, the most numerous group of structures in each derivation type is occasional forms created from personal names – surnames (e.g. Brazauskas, Paksas, Lenin, Rusłana, Stalin, Widacki, Zuokas etc.) and from the names of political parties (e.g. PPL). These are usually expressive forms qualified negatively. Those occasionalisms appeared in definite situations and linguistic contexts. Its occasional character derives from the connection with a certain political situation in the state, which happened at a certain time.
  • Tamara Graczykowska : %Recent’ Lexical Russian Influences in Contemporary Vilnius Polish
    This is the presentation of Russicisms excerpted from “Kurier Wileński”, which was published in Vilnius in the years 1990–1996. The author shows only this part of lexis of Russian origin, which has not been registered in other sources of the Northern Borderland. The numerous share of Russicisms in the press language proves a strong Russian influence on the analyzed variation of Polish.

REVIEWS

  • Alina Naruszewicz-Duchlińska : Małgorzata Lisowska-Magdziarz, Analiza tekstu w dyskursie medialnym. Przewodnik dla studentów, Kraków 2006
  • Justyna Walczak : Artur Rejter, Leksyka ekspresywna w historii języka polskiego. Kulturowo-komunikacyjne konteksty potoczności, Katowice 2006

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

Wersja polska