-
Marek Ruszkowski : O godzinie siódmej wieczorem w całym mieście zgasło światło (At seven o’clock in the evening, the light went out in the whole town) – a model initial sentence
The sentence cited in the title begins the novel
Zazdrość i medycyna (Jealousy and Medicine) by
Michał Choromański, which was published in 1933.
This paper aims at demonstrating that this initial
statement can be considered a model one, that is
a very good beginning to an epic work. Having studied
the characteristics desired in an initial sentence
(enumerated in both theoretical studies and style
guides) and carried out stylistic and semantic
analysis, the author found M. Choromański’s
statement a model one. The contributing elements
are as follows: 1. euphonic (the melody of the
sentence manifested in a clear caesura nearly exactly
in the middle in terms of the number of syllables and
in classical proportions between vowels and
consonants); 2. syntactic (word order and the related
distribution of individual parts of the sentence,
dynamism of the statement); 3. semantic (introducing
the reader to the centre of extraordinary events,
drawing their attention and enforcing their reflection);
4. graphic (isolating the initial statement in
a paragraph). Only the lexis of the examined sentence
remains neutral.
-
Wanda Fijałkowska : Can language afford the luxury of multi-motivation?
Multi-motivation is considered an indispensible
component of a derivation description by researchers
of word formation. A more in-depth study of the
literature dedicated to this issue and analysis of
material permitted a finding that this conviction can
change if a thorough and detailed formative
paraphrase and semantic analysis of the derivatives
which have been treated as multi-motivation ones to
date are made and if more difficult cases are
subordinated to the principle of system dominance.
Such an approach to the problem of the so-called
multi-motivation allows its elimination since it has
been wrongly sought 1) in words which have been
imprecisely paraphrased, 2) in derivatives for which
the direct motivation basis has been treated equally,
3) in lexemes in the description of which syntactic
connectivity has not been taken into account, and
4) in all (numerous) cases where the principle of
system dominance, which was postulated already in
1987, has been ignored. Remedying these deficiencies
enables exclusion of multi-motivation from the
morphological description.
-
Radosław Pawelec : Lexis related to physical disability in the history of the Polish language
The lexis related to physical disability belongs
to the scopes of vocabulary which have undergone
significant changes over ages. This regards the
structure of the field, the number of units and their
correlations, and the valuation ascribed to them. This
paper presents the history of lexemes connected with
motor, visual and auditory disabilities, as well as
words referring to the disabled in general. The text
ends with reflections about the concept of disability
in the contemporary Polish and English language and
possibility to define it (with historical data taken into
account), as well as various values associated with
disabilities.
-
Dominika Janus : The obituary in the service of propaganda
On the basis of the material excerpted from two
daily newspapers: Trybuna Ludu and Neues
Deutschland, the author of this paper shows that
obituaries can be also considered as texts in the
service of PRL (Polish People’s Republic) and GDR
(East Germany). Obituaries performed – like all other
press genres – the ritual function and thus, albeit
in a less direct way than typical propaganda texts,
served the socialist state and its ideology. The
following means of rituality confirm and consolidate
the adopted values: structure of the obituary, fixed
formulas, keywords, references to the past and the
present, adjectives, and full titles of the deceased.
Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted.
-
Urszula Kolberová : The linguistic worldview of the dog in tombstone inscriptions in virtual pet cemeteries
The purpose of this paper was lexical and
metaphorical analysis of tombstone inscriptions for
dogs found on Polish-language websites in the study
of the linguistic worldview (LWV) and showing the
view of the dog, the attitude of the contemporary
human being (a Pole) to the dog. The subject of this
paper was taken up as part of the research project
carried out by the Department of Slavic Studies of
the University of Ostrava The view of the dog in the
languages and culture of Slavic nations. The analysis
showed that the dog is defined very positively here,
as a family member, a friend, happiness, an angel,
a sweetheart, a treasure, etc. The similarity between
the choice of vocabulary on humans’ and dogs’
tombstone inscriptions is striking.
