PORADNIK JĘZYKOWY

ISSUE 10 / 2013

ARTICLES AND DISSERTATIONS

  • Wanda Decyk-Zięba : Narty (skis) in the history of the Polish language
    The history of the word narty (Ger. Schneeschuhe, Eng. skis) in the Polish language is extremely interesting. Its development reflects the complex history of Polish-Russian language contacts; in this case the role of the medium was played by Rerum Moscoviticarum commentarii by Siegmund von Herberstein. If assuming that narty acquired the meaning ‘boards for gliding over snow’ under the influence of Old Russian, rty, narty should be considered a semantic Russianism, even if a slightly camouflaged one. If rejecting such an interpretation, it needs to be accepted that narty is a (direct/ indirect?) lexical borrowing from the Russian language or a neologism coined by Marcin Bielski. The word is recorded in the major old dictionaries of Polish, beginning with Knapski’s dictionary. They treat it first as a synonym of kośle and then łyże (later łyżwy); it denotes not only ‘Schneeschuhe’ but also ‘Schlittschuhe’. The emergence of Scandinavian skis on Polish lands at the end of the 19th c., which were called łyżwy śniegowe (snowskates) or ski at that time, changed the history of the word. After the World War II, it became a mere name of a designatum.
  • Maria Borejszo : The world of music in Old Polish Christmas carols and Christmas songs (on the material of the so-called Kantyczki karmelitańskie (Carmelite canticles) from the 17th and 18th centuries)

    The author of this paper presents the connections of Old Polish Christmas carols with the world of music, which are manifested in the literary aspect of the preserved texts. The object of the research included issues such as: 1) the degree of saturation of the analysed works with the vocabulary derived from the field of music or referring to that field; 2) planes where this impact is particularly visible; 3) functions fulfilled by music and musical lexis in the narrative (fictional) aspect of the works; and 4) conditioning the degree of saturation of the analysed texts with musical elements on their belonging to various genre variations of Old Polish Christmas carols.

    The research encompassed the 18th-century collection of Christmas carols recorded for the needs of Cracow Carmelite nuns, which included 358 texts of Christmas carols and 78 melodies, and which was published by Barbara Krzyżaniak in 1980. The author arranges the collected lexis into three major sets: 1) what is related to p l a y i ng mu s i c a l i n s t r ume n t s ; 2) what is related to s i n g i n g ; 3) what is related to d a n c i n g . What arises from the conducted research is that the lexis naming old instruments, both professional and folk ones, proved to be the best documented collection.

  • Milena Wojtyńska-Nowotka : Lexical Latinisms and Grecisms in Rozprawy literackie (Literary Treatises) by Maurycy Mochnacki

    This paper is a continuation of a cycle dedicated to discussing the share of borrowed words in the vocabulary used in Rozprawy literackie (Literary Treatises) by M. Mochnacki. The author analyses the issue of Latin and Greek influences among others by indicating the manners of adapting the discusses borrowings to Polish, confirming their occurrence in lexicographic sources of the period, and conducting a sematic analysis of the vocabulary with the use of lexical and semantic fields. Based on the presented material, the researcher concludes that the discusses lexical resource cannot be considered innovative since the lexemes originating from Latin and Greek used by Mochnacki belong to the standard general variance of the 19th-century Polish language.

    The conducted analysis falls into the stream of research devoted to the lexis of the 19th-century language.

  • Anna Cegieła : Words that are dangerous and unwelcome in the social space. The ethics of the word and political correctness
    Political correctness was intended by its creators to prevent discrimination against social minorities by excluding marked and discreditable expressions from language and eliminating stereotypes. In the Polish context, stereotypical perception of women has been significantly reduced due to political correctness. From the viewpoint of ethics, political correctness – as a system of orders and prohibitions regarding the use of words – resembles a newspeak with its excess of the magic function and exclusion of dangerous words. Political correctness restricts the possibility to evaluate and express differences and deprives language of its axiological dimension. It usually serves the presentation of one’s own views and identification with the left-wing and liberal persuasion group, whereby it enhances the already sharp social divisions. Unfortunately, it is substitute to the necessary educational activities, which change convictions about and attitudes towards various discriminated groups. Observation of language leads to the conclusion that it is not words themselves that are harmful but their usages in the confrontational model of communication.
  • Barbara Batko-Tokarz : About diverse dictionary defi nitions of masculine personal nouns
    This paper aims to describe the issues of masculine personal nouns, which are defined in dictionaries of Polish in an ambiguous manner. They are normally lexemes stereotypically attributable to men (particularly regarding age, appearance, character and behaviour), which – depending on a dictionary – are defined with expressions that either clearly specify the male sex or do not inform about the sex (a human being, a person, someone). This issue was infrequently described by linguists. Based on a comparative analysis of four dictionaries of Polish (Słownik języka polskiego (Dictionary of Polish) ed. W. Doroszewski, Słownik współczesnego języka polskiego (Dictionary of contemporary Polish), Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego (Universal dictionary of Polish) and Inny słownik języka polskiego (Different dictionary of Polish)), it was possible to separate several dozen lexemes of this type that differ in terms of definitions (they are presented in the table), and a closed group of compounds with the particle -latek was also described from this angle. On this basis, strategies of defining such terms that are employed in dictionaries are discussed. Secondly, attempts are made to identify the causes of this type of doubts by referring to lexicographic studies and by describing potential possibilities to determine references of a particular noun. These discussions are preceded by a brief reflection about relations between gender and sex and a description of masculine personal lexeme groups in the case of which there is always or sometimes information only about the male sex.

OLD AND CONTEMPORARY DICTIONARIES

REVIEWS

  • Beata K. Jędryka : Ewa Lipińska, Anna Seretny, Między językiem ojczystym a obcym. Nauczanie i uczenie się języka odziedziczonego na przykładzie szkolnictwa polonijnego w Chicago (Between the mother tongue and a foreign language. Teaching and learning the inherited language on the example of education of the Polish community in Chicago), Kraków 2012
  • Przemysław Wiatrowski : Magdalena Czachorowska, Świat roślin w pismach Bolesława Prusa (The world of plants in the works by Bolesław Prus), Bydgoszcz 2012

EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

WORDS AND PHRASES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Jadwiga Latusek : A review of Polish linguistic studies and journals published in 2012
Wersja polska