Polish Linguistics Research Articles

Attitudes towards English for research publication in a multilingual context: The case of Polish linguists

Although the impact of English as a language of science on other languages and communities has been discussed from various perspectives, it has less often been explored in Slavic contexts. This paper analyses the attitudes of Polish linguists towards English for research publication, with special attention to its perceived impact on the discipline, language, and academic careers as well as perceived risks and benefits it entails in these areas. The analysis follows a mixed method design based on data from a survey at Polish universities and interviews. The results show that in comparison to other cultural contexts, more participants perceived the status of English as a threat to locally relevant research and as an unfair advantage to L1 English scholars. The main risk areas include academic practices, locally relevant research agendas, and cooperation with regions where English is not a commonly known language; the main benefits, access to recent findings, broader research perspective, and wider audience. Respondents identified the source of the problems with policies that seal the status of English as the language of science, affecting locally relevant research and disciplinary practices and contributing to the sense of disadvantage associated primarily with manifold costs incurred by publishing in English.

Greek Megas And Latin Magnus ‘Great, Big, Large’: A New Contribution To The Laryngeal Theory

Almost hundred years ago Jerzy Kuryłowicz, the well known Polish linguist, convincingly demonstrated that the Indo-European short vowel *a was secondarily formed by the interaction of PIE. *h2 with the next vowel *e. There are some instances where this explanation does not apply. The most characteristic example of the secondary root a-vocalism is the Latin adjective magnus ‘great, large’, etymologically related to Greek μέγας adj. ‘great, big, large’ (< PIE. *méĝhh2s, cf. Arm. mec ‘great’, OInd. mahi- adj. ‘great’, Hitt. mekkiš adj. ‘id.’, Goth. mikils adj. ‘id.’). Lat. magnus demonstrates an unexplained vowel [a] as opposed to PIE. *e. It is suggested that the Latin a-vocalism appeared as the effect of influencing the laryngeal *h2 on the preceding syllable. In other words, the Latin adjective is created by the following regular development: PIE. *méĝh2s adj. ‘great, large’ → *meĝh̥2-no-s adj. ‘id.’ > Proto-Latin *megḀnos > *magAnos > Lat. magnus ‘id.’. The same phonological law (which can be called the magnus rule) should be postulated for other Italic and Indo-European languages, e.g. MIr. maige adj. ‘great’ (< Celtic *magjos ‘id.’ < *megAi̯os ‘id.’ < *meĝh̥2-i̯o-s ← PIE. *méĝh̥2s); Toch. A māk, B māka adj. ‘many’ (< CToch. *măkă < *megAs < PIE. *méĝh̥2s).

Phraseology in the light of word-formation terms on the example of phraseologisms in the category of degree

The subject of the paper is a reflection on the use of the conceptual and terminological apparatus of word formation when describing phraseological issues. I am primarily interested in the findings made so far in the field of Polish linguistics. In their light, I look at a fragment of the phraseological space including comparative structures that can be assigned to the semantic category of degree. Therefore, these are units in which the word ?very? or ?more than very? is a necessary element in their semantic explication.

“Na dokładkę nog even dit.” Overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen de classificaties van partikels in de Poolse en in de Nederlandse traditie van partikelstudie

The aim of this paper is to present the characterisation of the category of Dutch and Polish particles and to compare the taxonomy of particles in Dutch and Polish linguistics. This article also provides an overview of approaches to particles taken in both linguistics areas with the aim of identifying their convergent points and suggesting a framework for a contrastive analysis. It appears that the specific relation between distinguished subcategories of particles in Dutch and Polish and the commensurability between the counterparts of individual particles in these two languages remain to be discerned but the findings made so far for both languages are significant and comparable enough to establish a basis for further contrastive research.

Aleksander Brückner and the Study of Issues of German-Slavic Cultural Contacts

The purpose of the work is to cover the views of Polish-German cultural historian and Slavist A. Brückner on the issue of German-Slavic cultural dialogue, which is key in the scientist's scientific and journalistic work. The research methodology is based on a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to solving the issue, a combination of both general scientific principles and research methods, as well as special ones, however, the basis of the theoretical and methodological tools when studying the issue of scientific development of the topic of intercultural dialogue by A. Brückner were the methods of modern cultural studies (biographical, method of factor analysis, content analysis, classification). The scientific novelty of the publication consists in the formulation of a complex, multi-level issue, which has hardly been researched in Ukrainian and foreign cultural studies. For the first time in national cultural studies, a complex and comprehensive study of A. Brückner's views on the issue of cultural interactions between Germanic and Slavic worlds is proposed, the influence of Aleksander Brückner's life circumstances on the formation and evolution of his cultural concepts is determined. Conclusions. The article points up the thesis about the ambiguity and controversy of A. Brückner's scientific views on the issue of cultural contacts between Slavs and Germans, who, according to the scientist, intersected and interacted on the territory of Poland. It is stressed that the specific nature of Aleksander Brückner's cultural generalisations is attributed to his linguistic approach to solving the debatable issues of intercultural relations since the Berlin professor considered language to be one of the main categories of culture and even equated the concepts of “culture” and “language” in his works. The attitude of A. Brückner's contemporaries to his scientific work is determined, which was revealed in numerous critical reviews by such outstanding representatives of Polish linguistics as J. Baudouin de Courtenay and H. Ułaszyn.
 Keywords: Aleksander Brückner, cultural dialogue, frontier culture, cultural linguistics, Slavic studies, University of Berlin.

On the language of liberalism

Abstract In this article, I look at linguistic studies of communist propaganda produced by oppositional scholars in the last two decades of state socialism in Poland. I argue that Polish discourse of linguistics in 1970–1989 was a vehicle for the promotion of liberalism in the People’s Republic of Poland and an important area of political contestation. I demonstrate that Polish linguistic studies of communist propaganda should not be assumed to be “objective” or politically disengaged. Ideas about language detectable in these studies, especially “referentialism”, promote liberal democracy by consistently implying values characteristic of liberalism as a political ideology. In this way, Polish linguists engaged in a form of anti-communist resistance and formulated language policy proposals for the language of liberal democracy. I argue that language ideologies are sometimes systematically related to political ideologies by promoting specific political values or points of view.

Nie tylko Bulla gnieźnieńska. O znaczeniu dokumentu fundacyjnego Zbyluta (1153) dla polskich badań historycznojęzykowych

NOT ONLY BULL OF GNIEZNO: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ZBYLUT’S FOUNDATION DOCUMENT (1153) FOR POLISH HISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC RESEARCH. PART 3: TOWARDS TRANSCRIPTION This article is the third part of a series dedicated to the documents sharing the name of “Zbylut’s foundation document”. The aim of the first part was to bring the three 12th-century documents into the field of interest of philologists and to review the historical literature with a view to identifying threads that may be relevant to philological (historical-linguistic) research, while the second part brought ananswer to the question of the relationship between the surviving documents, the degree of imitation between them, and the number of writers who were their authors. The present, third part, shows how complicated (and sometimes impossible) it is to get to the wording of the Zbylut document’s records and what procedures are used to do so. A comparison and analysis of selected records from the oldest three documents indicates the place of graphic substitution, the custom of redrawing records and the Latinization of records in the hierarchy of successive filters imposed on the record. We have also tried to show how making different assumptions leads to completely different readings of the same name and to different hypotheses about the presumed sound of its name. We have also discussed the consequences of “translating” a name written in simple graphics into the modern alphabet with which, according to the essence of transcription, ancient phonetic features were to be expressed, and which, aswe often get the impression, is no better suited for this than the graphics used by 12th-century scribes. We also took up the theme of the indispensable cooperation of historians and philologists in finding out the truth hidden in the oldest records of Polish proper names.

Ile jest słów pochodzenia ukraińskiego we współczesnej polszczyźnie ogólnej?

HOW MANY WORDS OF UKRAINIAN ORIGIN ARE THERE IN MODERN GENERAL POLISH? The answer the question posed in the title is by no means simple. So far, no analytical-synthetic work has appeared which would constitute a summary of detailed studies within the aforementioned area. In the article, the author cites and confronts quantitative data taken from the most important studies devoted to the issue of lexical influences of the Ukrainian language on contemporary general Polish, and the latest lexicographical sources. For the time being, we must be satisfied with the statement that the list of Ukrainianisms (rutenisms) in contemporary Polish general language includes between 106 and 366 words. This state of affairs certainly does not bring pride to Polish linguistics.

Set Phrases With the Lexeme ‟Thursday”. Considerations Regarding the Linguistic and Cultural Image of the Days of the Week in the Polish and Romanian Folk Calendar

"Set Phrases with the Lexeme ”Thursday”. Considerations Regarding the Linguistic and Cultural Image of the Days of the Week in the Polish and Romanian Folk Calendar. Ever since the 1970s and 1980s, the relationship between language and culture has been a topic of broad interest for linguists, which undoubtedly contributed to bringing linguistics closer to humanities. The prefix ethno- contained in the term ethnolinguistics used over the course of this article should be interpreted as an abbreviation for ethnology, a term synonymous with the American anthropology. Describing so-called language stereotypes is one of the main topics of interests for what we generally call “Polish cognitivism”, conducted for years by Polish linguists. The term stereotype itself is used in its original Lippmann's meaning as a schematic and one-sided “picture or image in a person’s mind” of a phenomenon, human being, or thing and at the same time an opinion assimilated from the environment even before discovering the object itself. In Polish language and culture, days of the week were not personified. Therefore, to a philologist-linguist who is comparing the two languages, the data derived from folklore will be a “weaker” starting point than “hard” linguistic confirmations (fixed structures). My goal is to offer a Polish and Romanian comparative analysis which is supported by ethnological or historical data. Keywords: ethnolinguistics, Polish and Romanian comparative study, folk calendar, Thursday "

Research profile and bibliography of Professor Łucja Biel

This article consists of two sections. The first outlines the research profile of Dr hab. Łucja Biel, Prof. ucz., a Polish linguist recognised nationwide and internationally who specializes in the analysis of legal varieties of Polish and English in the context of legal translation studies, corpus linguistics and translator training. The second part contains a detailed list of publications (co-)authored or co-edited by Łucja Biel and published between 2004 and 2022.

Tempo czytania ze zrozumieniem w języku polskim na przykładzie uczniów klas ósmych i maturalnych

Reading constitutes for one of the most important activities, both in work and in education. There are three major components to reading: comprehension, decoding and reading speed. The relationship between comprehension and reading speed is a tradeoff; after reaching a certain peak one has to decrease for the other to increase. The knowledge of how fast an average person reads can be a useful tool in planning any activity that requires the use of text, such as a language course. To date Polish linguistics lacks relevant research on the speed of reading with comprehension. The following paper presents part of the doctoral project that aims to answer the questions “How fast and with what level of understanding do Poles read?” The paper sums up two research studies which examined the reading speed and comprehension in Polish of students in the final year of high school and in grade 8 of Polish primary school. Both groups read a non-specific text of medium-difficulty about Sherlock Holmes and completed a 9-item comprehension test. The high school students on average scored 77% on the comprehension test with an average reading speed of 173 words per minute (wpm). On the same text, primary school students scored 66% and read at 156 wpm.

Mākslinieciski eksperimenti ar imaginārām rakstībām

The main undertaking of this article is to study imaginary writing in the field of visual arts, classify and introduce new terminology, and use the tools of imaginary writing to work with art projects relevant to the new media field. It also aims to inform the public about the existence of artists and their works in the field of imaginary writing and the author’s work and findings in the new media field. The article proposes to introduce new terms in Latvian, kodējummālsla (codification art) and imaginārā rakstība (imaginary writing) on the basis of Albani and Buonarroti’s Classification of Artificial Languages (1994). The text uses these terms to describe new applications of imaginary writing in art. Although linguistic signs are common in contemporary art, authors rarely invent their writing systems. Thus, it emerges as a new field or art genre, and no previous studies or terminology have been devoted to this field. To define the practice, the article’s author proposes a new term, kodējummāksla ‘codification art’. Its relevance and applicability were studied using expert interviews and viewer surveys. The expert interviews gave positive results, and the necessity for a new term was confirmed in most of the cases. The experts have different opinions regarding the question of how many and what practices should be included in the field defined by kodējummāksla. The surveys consisted of questionnaires that teachers from Latvian art schools filled out after attending a lecture on the research subject. The surveys also reflect positive results. Most of the respondents do recognize a need for a new term. The theoretical part of the research consists of a contextual review of literature on imaginary languages and writing and Polish linguist Ida Stria’s work “Inventing languages, inventing worlds. Towards a linguistic worldview for artificial languages” (2016) in particular. Stria focuses on artificial languages and their origins; she also suggests a system for classifying imaginary languages so necessary to the field. The article’s author has reached certain conclusions regarding imaginary languages as a practising artist working with various codes and techniques and developing imaginary alphabets over 20 years. The author has also developed typefaces that cannot be compared to any of the existing designs in use. There is a reference to works created by artists who have created their unique alphabets, including Allyson Gray (b. 1953) and Ryan Gander (b. 1976).

Silesian Language or Dialect: Why Do We Need a Standard?

The article’s goal is to reflect on the history of the regional identity of the Upper Silesian region of Poland. Although historical, political, and cultural aspects are considered, the focus is on the linguistic dimension, since language is one of the most important elements of collective identity. The article opens with a short historical overview, starting with the period of the Industrial Revolution, which was the crucial moment for the formation of the so-called Upper Silesian mixed code which is the subject of reflection in this article. Next, we analyse the status of the Silesian ethnolect and the possibility of raising it to the rank of a regional language. The investigation is conducted from the point of view of Polish linguistics, but based on a wider perspective of European minority language politics.

THE PERCEPTUAL ETYMOLOGY AND THE ORIGIN OF THE OLD TURKİC ‘ÏMGA’ AND ‘IL ÏMGA’ VIA THE NEW THOUGHTS

When it comes to etymology, two methods come to mind: 1. Scientific or linguistic etymology and 2. Folk etymology. However, the Polish linguist Marek Stachowski introduced a new etymology term to the literature: 3.”Perceptual etymology”. Stachowski explains the term, which he coined for the first time in his article titled “Perceptual etymology, or three Turkish culinary terms in Croatian and Slovene, and a Polish social term inteligencja ‘intelligentsia’” published in Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 138 (4) in 2021, in his article titled “Perceptual etymology. A social aspect of etymological research” published in issue 139 (1) of the same journal in 2022. In this study; unaware of this new term, the origin information of which is explained, 'اِمْغا', 'اَلِمْغا' in the Diwanu Lugati’t-Turk of Kashgari (Barskani) Mahmud and the titles ‘amγa’, ‘il ïmγa’ in Old Uighur letter documents, which mean “guard of the military governor, secretary of state”, which have meanings such as “state treasurer, treasurer, tax collector”, are reconsidered in the context of the concept of “perceptual etymology”. Based on the previous sources, it is accepted that the word was borrowed from a Chinese title, yaya (押牙 / 押衙), from a Middle Chinese pronunciation of *im go dar to Turkish during the Chinese Tang Dynasty. This title is represented by Sir G. Clauson ‘ımğa’, T. Takata ‘ąmäga’, N. Sims-Williams and J. Hamilton ’’mγ’ (amγa) and T. Moriyasu as amγa / ïmγa. Here, the origin information of the title in question will be tried to be explained again through their spellings, historical developments and meanings in old Uighur documents and to be shown that the title is not borrowed into Turkish from Chinese, but from Khotanese Sakan.

Formation of grammatical forms of full-meaning parts of speech in Ukrainian and Polish languages

The aim of the article is to find out and explain the reasons that differentiate these two grammatical systems and show that common which unites them and gives the basis to consider them closely related. The basis for writing this article served many years of experience in teaching the history of the Ukrainian language compared to other Slavic languages, and the source base, that the author relies on, are the numerous works of Ukrainian and Polish linguists dedicated to the history of Slavic languages.
 Basic methods that were used while writing this article – are descriptive and comparative, due to which the author was able to show a great similarity in grammatical forms of main (independent) parts of speech and at the same time differences in these forms caused by these or those reasons that arose in the process of development of languages. In this article those language issues were given, in the process of studying of which the students, who study Polish, had some difficulties. This, in particular, concerns masculine and non-masculine personal forms within the limits of every full-meaning part of speech in Polish, namely here separate forms of masculine were singled out that concern just the males. As for Ukrainian, there isn’t such a variety of declinable forms, that means it went through larger unifications, moreover, if we take the system of verbs (separate verb forms) – under the influence of female samples. Functioning of these grammatical forms is shown in the system of declension of a noun, adjective, pronoun, numeral and a verb.
 To conclude, this article will give students and all those who are interested in the language of the nation, namely the representatives of both countries – Ukraine and Poland – the understanding of main grammatical regularities and features of both closely related languages.

Przejście na ty jako demokratyzacja w języku polskim. Analiza danych ankietowych

TRANSITION TO FIRST-NAME BASIS AS DEMOCRATIZATION IN POLISH LANGUAGE: ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY RESPONSES
 The topic of this paper is transition to first-name basis (przejście na ty) in Polish, which one of the most important research topics in the field of Polish linguistic politeness. The transition to first-name basis can be seen as a phenomenon of democratization in language, because, as some of the Polish linguists describe, it creates a sense of equality, which is one of the basic elements of democracy. The results of a multi-stage survey proved that, in general, Polish people positively evaluate the contemporary tendency of faster transition to first-name basis. The analysis of the comments from the questionnaire survey showed that many people consider this tendency as a positive phenomenon in linguistic communication and treat it as an effective way of reducing the unnecessary distance which exists between interlocutors. However, it is worth keeping in mind that there are also negative effects of an inconsiderate decision to move to first-name basis, as mentioned by some of the survey respondents. This study has shown that the combination of several methods allows researchers to take a fresh perspective on the dynamic process of democratization in language and its perception among the users of a given language.

Mijn herinneringen aan Professor Ludwik Zabrocki (1907–1977)

Professor Ludwik Zabrocki (1907–1977), an eminent Polish linguist, was an inspiration in linguistic research on Germanic languages for a young scholar from Wrocław. At the end of the 50’s of the 20th century, Norbert Morciniec took part in scientific meetings in Poznań, where Zabrocki had worked on a holistic approach of Polish research on Germanic languages. The young MA then started to develop studies on the Dutch language. That resulted in establishing a language course, then a specialisation of Dutch within the Germanic studies. New books about Dutch language and literature were written, a scientific journal was established, finally an autonomous Chair for Dutch at the University of Wrocław was created. Today this Chair employs numerous researchers who have further developed the Dutch studies and who are educating numerous students in this field. The text ends with a wish to the pupils of the author, today themselves professors: that they, too, do open new horizons for their pupils.

Dokładna nauka języka i stylu polskiego w dwóch częściach. Cz. 1 Tomasza Szumskiego .

Tomasz Szumski (1778–1840) was a polyglot, teacher, bookseller, author of school textbooks, associated with Greater Poland. His grammar book, released in 1809, is the first Polish-language grammar book of the Polish language published in the 19th century where the grammatical description of Polish is made independent of the description of Latin. It is at the same time the first known 19th-century grammar of Polish where the author dared to polemicise with Onufry Kopczyński’s ideas contained in the Polish–Lati n Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych (Grammar for national schools). Keywords: school grammar books – Polish linguistics – 19th century – Tomasz Szumski – Onufry Kopczyński

ФАХОВА ПІДГОТОВКА МАЙБУТНІХ ФІЛОЛОГІВ-ПОЛОНІСТІВ У ПРОЦЕСІ ВИВЧЕННЯ ДИСЦИПЛІНИ «ВСТУП ДО СЛОВ’ЯНСЬКОЇ ФІЛОЛОГІЇ»

In the professional training system of the future philologist polonist, a special place is occupied by the obligatory propaedeutic discipline ‘Introduction to Slavic Philology’, which, by its content, ensures further study of all Ukrainian studies and Polonist disciplines at the undergraduate level. The discipline lays the foundations of Slavic studies, introduces the current problems of modern Slavic studies, features of Slavic languages and cultures, and prepares for an in-depth study of one of the Slavic (Polish) languages, literature and culture of the respective country. The article analyzes and shows the relationship between the study of the discipline and the school course of the Ukrainian and Polish languages, as well as the philological disciplines studied in the institution of higher education by the students. In particular, it was important to analyze the specific topics of the disciplines ‘Introduction to Linguistics’, ‘Introduction to Literary Studies’, ‘Slavic Folklore’, ‘Modern Ukrainian Literary Language’, ‘Modern Polish Language’, ‘Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages’, ‘ History of Polish Linguistics’, etc., which are included in the undergraduate training of future Polonist philologists and are interconnected with ‘Introduction to Slavic Philology’. After all, it is during this discipline that the foundations of the study of Slavic studies are laid, which have the opportunity for further study in the disciplines mentioned above, and it was also equally important to show the implementation of such training by the future philologist during his professional activity as a teacher of Polish/Ukrainian languages and literature, teaching students of relevant subjects in institutions of general secondary education. In this way, the role of the professional training of the future philologist polonist becomes clear, starting with the study of the basics of Slavic philology, continuing with related (main or optional) educational disciplines in institutions of higher education and ending with the application of acquired practical skills and abilities during professional activity according to the obtained qualification.

Development of Polish linguistics in the last century. Research on the Polish language used by the Polish communication community

The history of Polish linguistics of the last century should be analysed in three periods corresponding to the development stages of the Polish language: interwar period (1918–1939), second half of the 20th c. (1945–1990), contemporariness (since 1990), excluding the period of the Second World War and occupation (1939–1945), when there were no scientifi c publications in this fi eld. Polish linguistics has developed progressively, gradually achieving the status of an autonomous sub-discipline within Polish philology and developing the methods and instruments for a comprehensive analysis of the status of Polish, as regards both synchrony and diachrony.