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Stanisław Dubisz : Development of vocabulary in the history of the Polish language – outline of the issues
In the history of language, vocabulary has been
developing on two basic planes: quantitative and
qualitative changes. The former allow the conclusion that
the development of the lexical resource of the Polish
language has been progressive: from 5,000–7,000 to ca.
300,000 lexical units. On the plane of qualitative changes,
vocabulary is developing within several scopes: 1) thematic
circles; 2) communicative and stylistic variants;
3) semantic relations; 4) semantic changes of words;
5) vocabulary reproduction processes. The data obtained
from the conducted analysis confirm the dominance of
the completion trend on the plane of qualitative changes,
yet the hierarchy of other development trends is known to
an insignificant degree only and requires further studies.
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Radosław Pawelec : Words and values – examples of semantic changes in evaluative lexis
This text analyses semantic changes of 5 Polish
adjectives: morowy (bubonic, groovy), sztuczny (masterly,
artificial, fake), podły (lousy, cheep, base, mean), piękny
(beautiful) and gładki (smooth, comely, fluid) over the past
several centuries. The aim of this analysis is to define
such characteristics of the emerging changes as dynamics,
changes in evaluative markedness, linearity and
predictability. Changes of individual words differ in terms
of each of the examined aspects. Some develop by
evolution, others in steps, evaluative markedness changes
its mark or nature, it appears or disappears, some
transformations are predictable, while in the case of others
it is extremely difficult to find logical justifications. One of
the hypotheses which could explain this state of affairs is
that transformation diversity is implied by creativeness of
language, it is a manifestation of its flexibility in adapting
to new communication situations in the changing material
and spiritual culture.
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Krystyna Długosz-Kurczabowa : Lost words from the viewpoint of Bible translations into Polish
This paper aims at examining the mechanism of
“being lost” (and “being found”) in the case of selected
words and phrases in various Polish translations of the
Bible, observing lexical and semantic changes, and
making an attempt at a fuller interpretation of the
message of the analysed fragments of the Bible. The
comparison of selected vocabulary (e.g. stolec nagłego
spadnienia (to seat in the sit of scoffers), marność nad
marościami (vanity of vanities), czynić sobie wczas
(to relieve oneself)) in individual translations of the Holy
Bible permits conclusions regarding its presence in or
absence from the contemporary Polish language and
semantic transformations, if any.
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Dorota Kondratczyk-Przybylska : Names of women having extramarital relations in Słownik warszawski (Warsaw Dictionary) (semantic fi eld <adulteress>)
This paper is an attempt at describing the sematic
field CUDZOŁOŻNICA (ADULTERESS). The basis for
the excerption was the lexicographic material included
in Słownik języka polskiego (Dictionary of Polish) edited by
Jan Karłowicz, Adam Antoni Kryński and Władysław
Niedźwiedzki, called the “Warsaw” Dictionary. The material
obtained from Swarsz was subjected to a semic analysis
discussed from the viewpoint of the semantic field theory
as approached by Ryszard Tokarski. What was considered
archisems was kobiecość (femininity) ([+Human being],
[–Childish], [–Male]) and an extramarital erotic relation,
where the archisem [–Marriage] refers directly to the
archisem [+Erotic relation]. The analysed vocabulary
group was characterised in terms of hierarchical relations,
genetics, stylistics, word formation and chronology.
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Kazimierz Sikora : Dialect in the past and at present – reflections of a dialectologist
This paper contains comments on the operation of
dialects in the contemporary Polish language. Based on
the topical literature and his own observations, the author
presents considerations for transformation of dialects as
a result of the changing nonlinguistic and extralinguistic
realities, in particular ones connected with the change
in methods of communication. What is noticeable is that –
despite the richness of various dialects – a strong trend
for neutralising and disintegrating the dialect consisting
in getting rid of the peculiar (different from colloquial)
lexis, which at the same time usually constitutes
a significant component of the local cultural heritage. The
fact that dialect vocabulary appears in colloquial and
expressive Polish is also noticeable.
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Anna Piotrowicz,
Małgorzata Witaszek-Samborska : Disappearing words and the urban dialect of Poznań
This paper concerns words which used to be present
in general Polish but disappeared from it over time (that
is archaisms), and yet have survived in Poznań Polish.
They are characterised by a varied degree of persistence
in the dialect used by Poznań residents. A considerable
number of them have been moved or is moving to
the linguistic archives even in this dialect (e.g. celstat,
dęga, gardyny, nawarka, sztykutać, taszka, wenerować),
others, however, are still alive (e.g. chęchy, drabka, kejter,
korbol, nabierka, nieusłuchany, wysiepać, zesmyknąć się,
żybura and semantic archaisms, e.g. ból ‘a wound, a sore’,
pyza ‘a steamed bun’, uliczka ‘a gate’, or zatrzasnąć
‘to kill’). The persistence of the Poznań dialect is influenced
by factors such as: the tradition of cultivating linguistic
distinctness and conservatism, which is stereotypically
attributed to inhabitants of Wielkopolska region, and most
of all their positive emotional attitude to the dialect. The
residents of the city often use it for ludic and stylisation
purposes, and the fact that they have made it an
important element in promoting their city is a sign of
the times.
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Małgorzata B. Majewska : Stages of works on database digitalisation of Słownik wileński (Vilnius Dictionary)
This paper contains a discussion of differences in
the assumptions and process of works in two digitalisation
projects of Słownik wileński (Vilnius Dictionary).
Difficulties encountered in the course of its
implementation are indicated and methods of their
resolution are shown. The scope of the performed works
is presented in tables. Twenty-nine text files including
the content of the Dictionary, consisting of more than
eighteen million characters, which constitutes over three
million textual words, were created as part of EESW
implementation. More than a million tags were introduced
to text files. The total time of work on the files of the
Dictionary exceeded one and a half thousand hours.
