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Elżbieta Awramiuk,
Urszula Andrejewicz : Indeterminate points in Polish punctuation – selected issues
This paper is dedicated to indeterminate points in
principles governing Polish punctuation. It indicates
that new phenomena, which are not covered by the
standard, have occurred in the Polish language.
Moreover, it notices that the writing practice of
educated language users is alarmingly often
inconsistent, also where there should be none as the
standard has been considered obvious with this
respect to date. There are also issues that are
described in principle in a prescriptive, yet too
generalised, manner, which fails to allow for all
questionable structures. The discussed problems are
exemplified with authentic sentences containing
controversial punctuation solutions accepted by
language editors.
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Jerzy Podracki : The status of punctuation in old handbooks of Polish grammar
This paper presents methods of describing and
codifying Polish punctuation in the major grammars
of the Polish language of the late 18th, 19th and early
20th centuries. I am interested in connections of
punctuation with spelling and with syntax, as well as
the evolution of grammatical concepts and terms in
textbooks and general purpose handbooks of those
times (from Onufry Kopczyński to Antoni
Krasnowolski and Stanisław Szober). I confront the
old Polish theoretical and prescriptive tradition in this
field with newer (almost contemporary) publications,
in particular with studies by Stanisław Jodłowski and
Jan Tokarski.
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Danuta Krzyżyk : On (non-)presence of punctuation in schools
In this paper, the author shares her observations
of and reflections on teaching punctuation at all
school levels. She puts forward a thesis that the
condition of punctuation is becoming increasingly
poorer among children and youth, that punctuation
gradually vanishes from their statements. The author
makes an attempt at answering the question about
the causes of the decreasing punctuation skills of the
young generation. She points to institutional factors
(contents of the core curriculum and, in consequence,
insufficient elaboration of the issues related to correct
punctuation in textbooks), teaching factors (the
concept of teaching is unclear, the work on correct
punctuation of students’ statements is not
individualised, the time for consolidating and
repeating rules and using the acquired knowledge in
practice is insufficient, the students’ motivation is
weak), civilisation and cultural factors (the influence
of the electronic writing culture on the language of
the young generation). In the final part of the paper,
the author formulates conclusions and postulates
regarding teaching punctuation at all educational
stages.
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Edward Łuczyński : Why is Polish punctuation troublesome for its users?
Punctuation errors are common in Polish texts.
The author of this paper provides numerous
examples of this kind of errors from students’ written
works in evidence. According to the data, the use of
commas proved to be most difficult for the students.
From the author’s point of view, the cause of
problems with using punctuation is poor knowledge
of the difference between spoken and written
language. When you treat spoken language as a
model for writing, you cannot avoid punctuation
errors. The author believes that awareness about the
specificity of written language needs to change.
Moreover, curricula must be modified with respect to
teaching grammar and syntax should be learnt in
connection with punctuation.
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Maciej Malinowski : On Polish punctuation shortcomings (no turning of a blind eye)
This text analyses selected examples of
punctuation shortcomings encountered in Polish
statements (an official document, scientific and
journalistic texts, a known idiom). The errors consist
mainly in misusing commas (unjustified insertion
after a phrase in a clause or omission from a
subordinate clause). The author puts forward a thesis
that the punctuation confusion in Polish texts results
from insufficient familiarity with punctuation rules
among numerous editors and proofreaders of articles
before approving them for publishing. The author
admits that, at times, a statement is not as
unambiguous when it comes to evaluating
punctuation as it seems. In such a situation,
optionality of the punctuation standard should be
permitted. In the conclusion part, the author points
to the fact that “punctuation is a lesson of thinking”
and that, as a result of the noticeable deterioration of
linguistic competence among authors and editors, a
subject such as Advanced Punctuation should be
introduced for students of Polish Philology and
Journalism.
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Adam Wolański : Special and specialised uses of brackets, quotes and typographic stokes
This paper discusses special and specialised (yet
extra-punctuation or at least quasi-punctuation) uses
of brackets (round, square, double square, curly,
angle, pointy and slash ones), quotes (single and
double curly, French and German angle ones), as well
as typographic strokes (hyphen, en dash and em
dash). These marks, along with other non-letter
typographic marks, are a type of markers that assign
meanings to individual fragments of a text or at least
determine the semantic repartition of the text in the
contemporary writing practice.
