This article aims to analyze the subject matter of Polish informative and reporting utterances (IRUs) extracted from messages sent by postcard. In addition to analyzing the subject matter of IRUs, the article aims to formulate hypotheses about the reasons for discussing specific topics. In addition, the characteristic linguistic devices used in IRUs are described. The considerations show that the subject matter of IRUs is primarily shaped by the text patterns of postcard letters, the relationship of the interaction partners, and their gender.

This article aims to analyze the structure and semantics of Polish and Russian speech acts of wishing sent in greeting cards in the second half of the 20th century. The research leads to the conclusion that speech acts of wishing usually come in a fixed and concise form in both languages. However, some of the described formulas have not been recorded by researchers so far. The brevity of the texts may be related to the small size of the card, which requires the senders to write concise messages. It is also worth pointing out that formal modifications of Russian wishes are sometimes made for pragmatic purposes, mainly with the intention of reflecting the asymmetry of relations and the distance between the interacting partners. In contrast to Russian wishes, the form and content of their Polish counterparts is more varied depending on the holiday they concern. In addition, Polish speech acts of wishing are more often combined with other speech acts than are their Russian equivalents.

The aim of the article is to analyze Russian words transcribed into the Polish alphabet extracted from the texts of a Polish conservative-liberal author, S. Michalkiewicz, from the years 2003−2015. The lists of both correctly and incorrectly transcribed units are presented and the mistranscribed words are examined. The categories of transcription errors are provided along with the examples of words in which they occur. The results of the analysis may serve as a point of reference in further studies concerning adherence to the transcription rules of Russian performed on a larger number of texts written by a greater variety of authors.