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Witold Mańczak : On Pre-Historic Times of the Polish Lands
In 2005 a 600-page-long book by A. Kokowski was published, stating as the main thesis that Germanic tribes lived on the area of contemporary Poland between the 3rd century B.C. and 5th century A.D. The author of the article believes that the Slavonic country in pre-historic times spread between the rivers Odra and Vistula, and he presents his polemical attitude towards Kokowski’s views. Thus he draws attention to K. Godłowski’s statement: “Although the early-medieval Slavonic culture of Ukraine and Middle Europe cannot be derived directly from any North-East-European cultures, yet, the major influence of the population originating from that area seems quite probable”. This thesis cannot be defined otherwise but as nonsensical: it is like claiming that someone is an offspring of his grandfather, though not of his parents.
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Tomasz Korpysz : Remarks on Stylistic Comicality in Cyprian Norwid’s Writings
The article is devoted to the aspect of Cyprian Norwid’s writing which has never been described before, namely to comical elements in the texts. As it turned out, the poet, in order to achieve a comical effect, frequently uses various linguistic mechanisms. The major part of the article covers an outlined typology of stylistic comicality, accompanied by analyses together with examples excerpted from Norwid’s writings.
The author distinguishes five types of such comicality:
- Comicality based on combination of multi-stylistic elements.
- Comicality based on contrast between the form and the content of an expression.
- Comicality based on referring to a certain style in a joking way.
- Comicality associated with onomatopoeic words.
- Comicality of accumulation and repetition.
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Jaroslav Lipowski : Remarks on the Margins of Popularity of the Czech Song Jožin z bažin
The article offers an analysis of the lately quite popular Czech song Jožin z bažin. From the confrontational perspective, it describes particular language levels, going out of the framework of the lyrics. A lot of attention has been paid to the specific Czech phonetics, which vastly differs from Polish. A special attention has been paid to the variety of informal elements, particularly in the lexical area. At the end of the article, the author points to one of the crucial features of Czech language: diglossia.
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Marcin Zabawa : More about Semantic Borrowings in Polish
Presently, English has a great impact on Polish, not only in the lexical area (lexical borrowings), but also in the semantic one (semantic borrowings). While lexical ones have been broadly described, papers on semantic borrowings are still quite scarce. The article then aims to define the latest semantic ones, functioning in Polish. The analysis consists in a comparison between former and present meanings of selected Polish words, followed by matching those with the meanings of their English equivalents.
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Anna Kisiel : O szczególnych upodobaniach (On Peculiar Likings). Connecting Ability and Semantics of the Adjective szczególny (Peculiar) in Polish
The aim of the article is to describe syntactic and semantic qualities of the adjective szczególny (peculiar). It has been categorized by the author as an adjective of the object level, explicitly based on convertible units coś(k) wyróżnia kogoś(n)/coś(n) and ktoś(n)/coś(n) wyróżnia się czymś(k) (sth distinguishes sth/sb and sb/sth is distinguished by sth). In the course of the analysis, the component %dziwny’ (%strange’), offered in dictionary definitions of the analyzed unit, has been excluded. The explication offered in the article shows that attachment of the predicate %szczególny’ to a given object, connected in a way with another one, results in projecting the predication on the other object. This quality distinguishes szczególny from its quasi-synonyms niezwykły, wyjątkowy, nadzwyczajny (unusual, exceptional, outstanding).
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Renata Kucharzyk : The Position of Appellativisation in Contemporary Linguistic
The subject of the article is appellativisation, i.e. the process of formation of common nouns based on names (e.g. Judasz>
judasz %zdrajca’ – Judas>
judas %traitor’), and its position in linguistic research. The first part of the study presents the history of formation of this term in Polish linguistics. The second part includes various theoretical approaches to the discussed issue. The phenomenon has become more and more popular among linguists, though it is differently interpreted. Some linguists state that appellativisation means formation of new odonimic appellatives by means of semantic derivation (
golgota %męka, cierpienie’
Golgotha %torture, sufferring’ maciejówka %a kind of cap’ REPORTS, NOTICES, POLEMICS
REVIEWS
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Jan Ożdżyński : Jolanta Machowska, Nabywanie kategorii przypadka. Wiek wczesnoszkolny, Kraków 2006
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Magdalena Przygudzka : Erika Worbs, Andrzej Markowski, Andreas Meger, Polnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch der Neologismen, Wiesbaden 2007
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Jowita Latko : Mirosław Bańko, Współczesny polski onomatopeikon. Ikoniczność w języku, Warszawa 2008
EXPLANATIONS OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
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Marta Chojnacka : The New Vision of Bachelorship. A Single Person as a Social and Linguistic Phenomenon
WORDS AND PHRASES
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Stanisław Dubisz : About a Saint Person, Some Holidays and Sacrum in Reply to Mr. Zdzisław Sawrutin’s Letter at the Polish Language Committee, to Reflect on
