-
Stanisław Gajda : On the trail of style (meta-stylistic discussions)
The author presents an outline of the comprehensive
theory of style the structure of which is composed of three
levels: philosophical (ontological and epistemological
assumptions), theoretical and metaphorical (a network of
highly abstract key notions and terms conceptualising
and structuring the theoreticised world), and empirical
(a set of empirical notions and statements asserting
something directly about the analysed world). After
philosophical ontology, it adopts the assumption of four
methods of existence of the linguistic reality and,
accordingly, style (which is treated as a humanistic text
structure, its highest organisational rule): 1. specific
language actions and their textual products as well as the
style of a given text; 2. a language system and stylistic
patterns in the standard; 3. individual language awareness
and individual style; 4. language awareness of specific
human populations and collective styles. This outline can
constitute the basis for creating more developed forms of
the theory.
-
Tadeusz Zgółka : Dilemmas of a practising lexicographer. A lexicographic essay.
This essay discusses the issues related to basic
decisions made by lexicographers concerning methods of
creating a list of entries to become the material for
a complete compilation of a dictionary. The principles and
methods of collecting entries regard in particular the size
of the planned dictionary and the sources from which
dictionary entries are obtained.
-
Kazimierz Ożóg : Latest changes in Polish (based on the observations by Stanisław Dubisz and other researchers)
The author of this paper presents the contemporary
status of Polish as a dynamically developing linguistic and
cultural reality. The rapid changes occurring in Poland in
various fields of the nation’s life following 1989 are
immediately reflected in the Polish language, which has
been radically changing since then. By comparing the
research conducted by Stanisław Dubisz, Stanisław Gajda
and his own observations, the author seeks the most
general causes of the changes. Apart from the internal
evolution of the system, the most important causes of
changes in Polish after 1989 arise from the enormous
pressure of the new reality triggered by the political
revolution and the influence of new global cultural
tendencies, in particular consumerism, mediality, IT
revolution, Americanisation of life and culture,
Europeanisation, and Postmodernism.
-
Halina Zgółkowa : Language of children and language for children. Vocabulary in contemporary theatrical plays for children and youth.
This sketch is dedicated to the confrontation of the
vocabulary used spontaneously by pre-school children
with the lexis used by authors of contemporary theatrical
plays addressed to the “young viewer”. Spontaneous
vocabulary is contained in frequency dictionaries. The
conclusions of the comparisons are addressed to authors
of children’s literature, teachers and psychologists
(psycholinguists). The main question asked at the end of
the sketch is whether words used in literature are
understandable to children.
-
Marek Cybulski : On the language taboo in Trylogia (The Trilogy) by Henryk Sienkiewicz
The taboo was identified in the content plan and
in the expression plan applicable in the 19th century and in
the described period, i.e. in the 17th c. Emphasis was put
on the linguistic exponents of the examined phenomenon.
It was stated that Sienkiewicz did not care about
a pedantic faithfulness to the language and custom of the
described period. He selected such a manner of expression
as was comprehensible to Polish readers and at the same
time hidden from the Russian censorship. The major
scopes of the language taboo is the Polish-Russian war and
human sexual behaviours. The methods of disguising
political contents are persistently repeated, probably in
order to draw the reader’s attention. Camouflaging the
Muscovy invasion consists in blending Russia, named with
the use of euphemisms, with the background of
nationalities which are similar to Russians in some
respects, in pars pro toto metonymy, in a metaphor of flood
and/or fire that blurs facts, and in periphrases. There is
hardly any periphrasis and manner of concealment in the
presentation of eroticism, metaphors derive their
vocabulary from various fields and various stylistic genres,
the metonymy of the effect of an action instead of the
action is used frequently.
-
Halina Karaś : Frequency as one of the determinants of diversifi cation of the Polish language in Lithuania (on the example of the dialects of the areas of Ignalina and Zarasai)
The aim of this paper is to present the issues related
to examining the frequency of linguistic characteristics
as one of important determinants constituting a given
language variant. The significance of the frequency of
linguistic phenomena as a factor differentiating the north
borderland Polish language in Lithuania is discussed on
the example of Polish dialects used in the areas of Ignalina
and Zarasai. This region, which is a narrow strip running
along the Lithuanian-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Latvian
borders, considered the third most dense Polish-speaking
area in Lithuania, constitutes only a part of the former
Polish enclave, which is currently divided between three
countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. The issues are
presented on the example of the realisation of
unstressed o, particle czy and forms of the 1st person
singular of the past tense. The basis for the analysis was
the text corpus containing 117,446 textual words (ca. 200
pages of a computer script of the recordings of 50
informers from 40 locations from the periods 2000-2001
and 2010-2011).
