Magdalena Pastuch
Magdalena Pastuch, Professor in linguistics, Institute of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, the University of Silesia.
I am interested in all aspects of in Polish language history – beginning from the historical word-formation to semantics and historical pragmatics. I am the author of three monographies: “Semantic and Structural Changes in Polish Denominal Verbs” (2000), “Hidden Heritage. Traces of Old Lexicon in the Vocabulary of Contemporary Polish” (2008) and “Polish expressions with a polar answer function – the history and the present” (2020). I am also the co-author of the book devoted to verbal word-formation in Old Polish (“Word Formation of the Old Polish Verbs”, 2005).
I have been conducting research on historical lexicology and shaping as well as changing notions in the Polish language. I am also keen on the process of lexicalization and grammaticalization in Polish. I deal with universal language phenomena, but I observe them in the Polish language.
The second important research direction is teaching Polish as a foreign language. I am the author of many articles on this topic and co-author of a manual for the beginners.
In 1998-2003 I worked as a language teacher and lecturer at the University of Turin (Università degli studi di Torino). In the academic year 2011/2012, I was a visiting professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
I am interested in all aspects of in Polish language history – beginning from the historical word-formation to semantics and historical pragmatics. I am the author of three monographies: “Semantic and Structural Changes in Polish Denominal Verbs” (2000), “Hidden Heritage. Traces of Old Lexicon in the Vocabulary of Contemporary Polish” (2008) and “Polish expressions with a polar answer function – the history and the present” (2020). I am also the co-author of the book devoted to verbal word-formation in Old Polish (“Word Formation of the Old Polish Verbs”, 2005).
I have been conducting research on historical lexicology and shaping as well as changing notions in the Polish language. I am also keen on the process of lexicalization and grammaticalization in Polish. I deal with universal language phenomena, but I observe them in the Polish language.
The second important research direction is teaching Polish as a foreign language. I am the author of many articles on this topic and co-author of a manual for the beginners.
In 1998-2003 I worked as a language teacher and lecturer at the University of Turin (Università degli studi di Torino). In the academic year 2011/2012, I was a visiting professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
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Keywords
diachrony, history of the Polish language, language change, historical pragmatics, sub-jectification, metatextual expressions
(on the Example of słuchaj)
keywords: history of language, historical pragmatics, functional derivation, imperative mood,
pragmaticalization
The article aims to present the process of forming the discursive function of the imperative form of the verb słuchać (słuchaj). These changes were presented as an example of the process of pragmaticalization The analysis referred to contemporary and historical semantic context and the syntactic distribution of the form słuchaj The author listed the conditions in which the form słuchaj should be acknowledged as a discourse marker. The diachronic viewing of the linguistic data attests that there were two triggers in the development of this new function: the regular (systemic) meaning of the imperative mood and the occurrences detached from the etymological meaning.
The linguistic material analysed comes from the Electronic Corpus of 17th- and 18th-century Polish Texts (up to 1772), the Polish Language Corpus 1830–1918 and the National Corpus of Polish. The study consisted of a contextual analysis of linguistic units' semantic and syntactic properties in the shape ogromnie. It turned out that even in the 16th century, the adverb ogromnie functioned in the meanings resulting from its etymology, that is related to the meaning of the root -grom-. In the subsequent stages of the development of the Polish language, there was a process of lexicalization, i.e. breaking the semantic link with the base adverb ogromnie. The intensifier expanded its categorical collocability compared to the adverb but limited semantic collocability and it coexists only with graduated predicates. The contemporary intensifier ogromnie has wholly lost its connection with its etymon and is an independent language unit belonging to the metatextual level of language.
The historical analysis of the intensifier ogromnie has made it possible to draw both specific and more general conclusions, relating to the role of subjectivisation in the formation of the metatextual level of language. This change is semantic-pragmatic and consists of the fading of the lexical meaning and the simultaneous development of a general meaning related to the speaker's assessment of a given fragment of reality.
keywords: history of Polish language, historical semantics, intensifiers, subjectivisation, intersubjectivisation
(‘cruelly’), strasznie (‘terribly’) and szalenie (‘madly’). These units are tradi-
tionally considered to be adverbs, and their formal structure and original
meaning indicate derivation from proper adjectives. We presume that
adverbs might develop into intensifiers, which are semantically close to
bardzo (‘very’). By analysing the linguistic material extracted from chrono-
logically differentiated corpora of Polish (korba, kf19 and nkjp), we want to
show how this linguistic process has been evolving over the centuries. Our
research examines quantitative and qualitative collocational data of
okrutnie, strasznie and szalenie with their categorical value and semantic
evaluation (positive, neutral and negative). Our research reveals that the
changing of words’ meaning, and their syntactic function, switched from
the object language to the metalanguage level, is a feature associated with
grammaticalization. We used a statistical chi-square test to verify the proba-
bility of word co-occurrence.
Keywords: adverbs, diachronic corpora, historical linguistics, intensifiers,
Polish
Keywords
diachrony, history of the Polish language, language change, historical pragmatics, sub-jectification, metatextual expressions
(on the Example of słuchaj)
keywords: history of language, historical pragmatics, functional derivation, imperative mood,
pragmaticalization
The article aims to present the process of forming the discursive function of the imperative form of the verb słuchać (słuchaj). These changes were presented as an example of the process of pragmaticalization The analysis referred to contemporary and historical semantic context and the syntactic distribution of the form słuchaj The author listed the conditions in which the form słuchaj should be acknowledged as a discourse marker. The diachronic viewing of the linguistic data attests that there were two triggers in the development of this new function: the regular (systemic) meaning of the imperative mood and the occurrences detached from the etymological meaning.
The linguistic material analysed comes from the Electronic Corpus of 17th- and 18th-century Polish Texts (up to 1772), the Polish Language Corpus 1830–1918 and the National Corpus of Polish. The study consisted of a contextual analysis of linguistic units' semantic and syntactic properties in the shape ogromnie. It turned out that even in the 16th century, the adverb ogromnie functioned in the meanings resulting from its etymology, that is related to the meaning of the root -grom-. In the subsequent stages of the development of the Polish language, there was a process of lexicalization, i.e. breaking the semantic link with the base adverb ogromnie. The intensifier expanded its categorical collocability compared to the adverb but limited semantic collocability and it coexists only with graduated predicates. The contemporary intensifier ogromnie has wholly lost its connection with its etymon and is an independent language unit belonging to the metatextual level of language.
The historical analysis of the intensifier ogromnie has made it possible to draw both specific and more general conclusions, relating to the role of subjectivisation in the formation of the metatextual level of language. This change is semantic-pragmatic and consists of the fading of the lexical meaning and the simultaneous development of a general meaning related to the speaker's assessment of a given fragment of reality.
keywords: history of Polish language, historical semantics, intensifiers, subjectivisation, intersubjectivisation
(‘cruelly’), strasznie (‘terribly’) and szalenie (‘madly’). These units are tradi-
tionally considered to be adverbs, and their formal structure and original
meaning indicate derivation from proper adjectives. We presume that
adverbs might develop into intensifiers, which are semantically close to
bardzo (‘very’). By analysing the linguistic material extracted from chrono-
logically differentiated corpora of Polish (korba, kf19 and nkjp), we want to
show how this linguistic process has been evolving over the centuries. Our
research examines quantitative and qualitative collocational data of
okrutnie, strasznie and szalenie with their categorical value and semantic
evaluation (positive, neutral and negative). Our research reveals that the
changing of words’ meaning, and their syntactic function, switched from
the object language to the metalanguage level, is a feature associated with
grammaticalization. We used a statistical chi-square test to verify the proba-
bility of word co-occurrence.
Keywords: adverbs, diachronic corpora, historical linguistics, intensifiers,
Polish
convinced that the research of the contemporary Polish could support and enrich the analyses of old Polish language and, at the same time, the old material can verify the hypothesis on modern language.
key words: word formation, English borrowings in Polish, language stability
ABSTRACT
The article concentrates on word formation factors that support stabilization of English loan words in Polish. The lexical material was excerpted from two dictionaries: Angielskie elementy leksykalne w polszczyźnie (1994) and Słownik zapożyczeń angielskich w polszczyźnie (2010). The comparison of those sources leads to the conclusion that the following factors influence stabilization: the presence of roots from classical languages (e.g. edytor); the presence of secondary morphemes with classical provenience (e.g. detoks); a real or potential word formation nest (e.g. test, testować, tester, testowy); the presence of an earlier stratum of borrowings in language-recipient (e.g. park – parking); the identity (true or only formal) regarding the morphemes’ composition of the loan words and native words (e.g. amonal vs. nochal).
słowa klucze: językoznawstwo historyczne, pragmalingwistyka historyczna, potoczność, dawny dialog
The author considers two diachronic processes: lexicalization and grammaticalization, in the context of the so called polar answers. The starting point for these deliberations are the definitions taken from linguistic literature. The common places and divergences of grammaticalization and lexicalization are presented, in order to give evidence that polar answers are predominantly a product of grammaticalization, rather than lexicalization. Since polar answers belong to the space of dialogue, they should be considered included within the notion and term pragmaticalization, for the purpose of analysis. This term refers to linguistic expressions which play a role in the building of a dialogue’s cohesion and can be treated as expressions that convey information about a sender’s / addressee's attitude (e.g. zapewne, owszem, naturalnie, absolutnie, ba). In the last part of the article the author points out the most crucial needs for historical pragmatics in Polish linguistic research and puts forth propositions for future research.
The aim of the paper is to present a portrait of the contemporary handyman in the context of the changes taking place in the contemporary (self) creation of men. The authors put forward a thesis stating that the image of a handyman presented in the media reflects the stratification of the image of men in modern culture. The authors use the example of online advertising campaigns to show that the creation of the image of (male) handyman is in a close relation to the changes going on in modern culture and takes place in parallel. An additional argument to confirm this thesis is a comparison of modern day handyman and the corresponding creation from past decades. The background for these considerations is set by the personage of Adam Słodowy who personified the handyman of the 1970’s. This reference accentuates the traits present in today’s discourse.
development of transpositional derivatives (Chapter Three), changes in mutational formations (Chapter Four), status of verbs derived from foreign bases (Chapter Five), lexicalization of denominal verbs (Chapter Six).
The main objective of this monograph is tio describe the invariable set of semantic and structural features of denominal verbal constructions and also to indicate those elements that doundergo changes. The dynamic approach makes this book useful for both diachronic and synchronic studies of Polish.
In Chapter One the author discusses the terminology, methodological problems and the adequacy of the existing tools of study. The most satisfactory results are achieved owing to the combination of historical linguistics methods with those of modem synchronic word formation.
The definition of denominal verbs adopted by the author allows one to include and exclude certain examples.
Referring to previous works of Polish and foreign slavicists, in Chapter Two the author presentes various classications of denominal formations in two major groups: those that represent structural linguistics and those that might be called semanto-syntactic. In the final part she proposes her own classification, which she believes to be the most adequate for her material.
Since transpositional formations make up a major part of her language material, the author has decided to devote a separate chapter (Chapter Three) to the study of those derivatives, where subsequent sections deal with verbs of different transpositional formulas. Here we also find the analysis of dependencies between word formation paraphrases and analytic constructions.
Chapter Four is a detailed semantic description of mutational formations, where prefixed verbs are discussed separately, as their formal and semantic structures are different from other
formations.
The title of Chapter Five "Derivation or adaptation? Verbs derived from foreign bases" points to the existence of a certain number of formations which are derived so regularly that one might tend to believe that this phenomenon resembles inflectional processes. The problem is referred to the ongoing debate in Polish linguistics about he fuzzy borderline between inflection and word formation.
In Chapter Six the author considers various lexicalization models on the basis of numerous examples. She comes to he conclusion that whereas some derovatives are fully lexicalized, in others the process of lexicalization is not complete yet. She also pays attention to the relationship between lexicalization and semantic change.
The work’s structure is entirely derivative of the semantic criterion, therefore, the language units/expressions which are subsequently discussed include: units/expressions which answer decision questions, express disagreement or lack of consent, or negate the content expressed by preceding decision question (Chapter III); then there are discussed units/expressions which stand as autonomous expressions of agreement/consent or an affirmative answer to a decision question (Chapter IV). The final research material-based chapter (V) describes the units which express various degree of the interlocutor’s unsureness in relation to a question asked. The semantics of the sequences under analysis is encapsulated by the following paralocutions [phrases expressing analogous content]: ‘yes, I agree with what my interlocutor has said’ / ‘yes, I confirm what my interlocutor has said’ or ‘no, I do not agree / no, I do not confirm’; in the case of units expressing unsureness, the generalised meaning is the following: ‘the unsureness (of a judgement) in relation to the question asked by another participant of a dialogue (the previous speaker)’. The research material-based chapters have been designed according to similar pattern, so that a reader can compare both historical and lexicographic knowledge related to the topic of expressions selected for description with the conducted interpretations.
I approach the development of a new function as a kind of functional derivation. The material gathered testifies to the fact that in many cases a polar answer function is created based on a particle which, in turn, is derived from a homonymous adverb (e.g. oczywiście, absolutnie). The transitions of the said kind are sometimes accompanied by mechanism visible in surface structure, that is, ellipsis and composition. The former is among others represented by być może > może, as illustrated by the following examples:
Miałby pan kłopoty, prawda? Być może. Kloss nie tracił spokoju.
Co, miałaś wizje religijne? – Może.
While an example of composition as a mechanism resulting in expressions with a polar answer function are contemporary colloquial answers to decision questions, for instance:
Czy jak się spotykasz z przyjaciółmi, to oferujesz im granie na konsoli? No raczej.
Gorzałka. Chcesz? No chyba.
The point of departure for the provided descriptions of answers to decision questions is always semantics, yet complemented with pragmatic information in accordance with the cumulative pragmatic theory. The foregoing assumption mainly necessitates referring to the semantic values of particles which have become a basis of a polar answer function’s development. Epistemic particles are naturally predisposed to this aim, since they comment upon epistemic acts, that is, operate within the realm of knowledge. In the case of answer to decision questions, so an answer that occurs in a dialogue, it is necessary to specify that such a commentary, which conveys the sender’s information regarding the level of sureness, in fact refers to a question from the dialogue. This very reservation bars some of the epistemic particles from becoming polar answers. Since an interrogative sentence is neither a sentence in the understanding of logic, nor is it a judgement, answers to decision questions may, therefore, originate from both the particles implying that a given state of affairs is actual (e.g. na pewno) and from the particles devoid of the mentioned feature (e.g. chyba). However, particles implying factuality of a given judgement may not be, for the reasons already stated, basis for polar answers (e.g. faktycznie). Also units which, from today’s point of view, qualify as instances of meta-textual commentary, constitute bases for their usage as polar answers (e.g. ba).