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Ewa Kołodziejek : Why does the Society Need Linguists? Remarks on the Tasks of Contemporary Normative Linguistics
The article expresses views in the discussion initiated by A. Markowski on the tasks of contemporary normative linguistics, the contribution of linguists in spreading the knowledge of correct Polish, as well as on the new concept of language culture in the changing social-cultural reality. The author underlines the importance of linguistic education of the society and the necessity to introduce linguistics as a separate school subject. She advocates strengthening the role of the ideal model norm, guarding communicative and cultural community. She is in favour of the concept of language culture, which includes an ability to estimate correctness of various linguistic behaviours, linguistic competence of communication participants, their ability to cooperate linguistically, linguistic ethics and esthetics. It is the linguists' duty to persuade the society that the ideal knowledge of Polish guarantees better functioning in social life and better understanding of the world.
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Irena Szczepankowska : Between Logic and Conversation: on the Phenomenon of Double Negation in Natural Language
The paper includes reflections on statements (formulated in the Polish language) containing the expression of the so-called double negation (e.g. Nieprawda, że nie byłem wczoraj w kinie; Eng. It is not true that I wasn't at the cinema yesterday). It highlights certain interpretation problems arising when applying rules of formal logic to the analysis of structures of the kind. From the point of view of logic, a sentence based on double negation is semantically equal to an affirmative one, and thus, in a natural language, it is redundant. The author questions the formal perspective and proves the usefulness of double negation in everyday discourse, basing her conclusions on observations of how the expressions under consideration are used in the context of communication and referring to the analyses conducted in A. Bogusławski's work (2003).
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Andrzej Kominek : The Metaphorical Model of SUMIENIE (Conscience) - A General Outline
In many abstract domains of discourse, there are notion metaphors associated with two major human senses: sight and hearing. In the domain of knowledge and cognition, the metaphor WIEDZIEĆ TO WIDZIEĆ (to know is to see) seems predominant. However, the author of the article shows that in the process of conceptualization of SUMIENIE (conscience), the domain of hearing seems more important than the one of sight: WIEDZIEĆ TO SŁYSZEĆ (to know is to hear), or to put it differently: POZNANIE DOBRA I ZŁA TO SŁYSZENIE (to know good and evil is to hear). The analysis of the metaphorical phrase shows conceptualization of what is restrictive, associated with the domain of hearing, as the sense which is rather passive and subjecting an individual (usually in colloquial speech). The image pattern of MANIPULACJA (manipulation) is also associated with the Christian model, which offers a rather active attitude of the agent of action, letting his conscience undergo the "formation" process, according to the desired ideal. The pattern of MANIPULACJA corresponds to the one of SŁYSZENIE, which also in this model stresses the activeness of the agent: SUMIENIE TO WEWNĘTRZNY GŁOS NAKAZUJĄCY CZYNIENIE DOBRA (conscience is the inner voice ordering to do what is good).
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Józef Jaworski : Slogans and Watchwords Used in the Period of Kosciuszko&s Insurrection (based on journalistic texts)
Among the linguistic means that strongly influenced the participants of Kosciuszko's Uprising in 1794, there were slogans and watchwords - structures conveying political content and usually emotionally expressive, which were propagated in the insurrectional press, leaflets and political brochures. Insurrectional watchwords embodied a guiding thought, such as the idea of liberation, freedom, independence, unity of the country, equality or brotherhood. Insurrectional slogans were aimed at a mass audience and essentially fulfilled an impressive-persuasive function. They exerted a powerful impact on the audience's standpoints: stimulating new thinking, inciting action and, many a time, igniting armed uprisings. The author gives an insightful analysis of two basic linguistic units: a) the standard insurrectional watchword in the form of a triad: Freedom - Unity - Independence; b) the standard battle slogan representing the parataxis formed according to the syntactic configuration "p or q": Victory to Death. Slogans and some watchwords were used in the texts as self-contained syntactic units or segments built in the textual structure of a sentence.
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Mirosława Podhajecka : Does the Noun ryzyko (Risk) Still Belong to singularia tantum?
The paper aims to provide an answer to the question whether the plural forms of the noun ryzyko - traditionally classified into the category of singularia tantum - present in the texts, reflect common or incidental use. The analysis was based on two largest corpora of the Polish language: the PWN Corpus of Polish and the IPI PAN Corpus of Polish. Although conclusions drawn from it are unequivocal, the corpus material shows a clear linguistic tendency. It thus seems that information on the atypical use of the word ryzyko should be included in contemporary Polish dictionaries.
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Piotr Tomaszewski,
Paweł Rosik : Nonmanual Signals and Complex Sentences in Polish Sign Language: Grammar on Face
Nonmanual components of PSL have important linguistic roles in creating not only single but also complex sentences in visual-gestural language. The authors' study illustrates how different combinations of nonmanual components signal different kinds of complex sentences: (1) rhetorical questions, (2) conditionals, (3) relative clauses, and (4) oppositional clauses.
