Obituary for Antoni Furdal, an eminent linguist, specialist in Polish and Slavic studies, theory of language and semiotics. The text presents some of his most important achievements in each of these fields.

This article discusses some proposals aimed at creating a new discipline named polonistyka (Polish studies), an umbrella term which would encompass those research (sub)divisions that fall outside the traditional academic taxonomy. The article identifies three cultural turns whose shockwave effect have significantly changed the face of the humanities. They are the transition from the analogue to the digital; an impasse in the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies; and the continual fragmentation of research interests. The new discipline, as envisaged by the article, would reintegrate and provide institutional recognition to all kinds of studies, projects and probes. It would also create a framework for some kind of academic certification of research interests that are in dispute. To achieve these goals it would be necessary to redefine the subject matter, the scope as well as the functioning of the new discipline. That, in turn, implies a reformatting of the legacy model of teaching and study to fit in with the new discipline. The transition is absolutely necessary, not least because of the real danger of marginalization and pauperization of the profession (i.e. teachers and specialists in the field of ‘Polish philology’).