Nasal consonants feature in phonological systems of both Polish and Welsh, yet, apparently, they are active in a different manner and to a different degree. The paper aims first at establishing the ‘players’ – the prototypical segments and their nonprototypical variants. The relevant inventories seem to be comparable, however, the contextually and non-contextually dependent realizations vary considerably in the two systems. Polish nasal consonants do not appear to have terribly complex phonology, their occurrence and phonotactics seems to be dictated through use (Bybee, 2001). Nasal segments in Welsh, on the other hand, are actively involved in the alternation of Initial Consonant Mutation, where they occur as strengthened equivalents of plosives through (possibly) assimilation (Buczek, 1995). It remains to be discovered whether nasals in general (and the so-called voiceless nasals in particular) are independent categories or rather, additionally they feature as nonprototypical variants of plosives. There is, indeed, substantial overlap here. Secondly, the paper looks at certain instances of what appears to be sonorant lenition in Welsh, where nasals [m] and [n] are broken into complex consonantal diphthongs [mh] and [nh] respectively (Pilch, 1975). In its entirety, this paper examines the two systems, hinting at the similarities and exploring the points of difference, especially in cases where the similar phonetic realizations possibly result from different categorical membership.
The paper discusses combinations consisting of classifying adjectives and nouns in Polish and English, as exemplified by the Polish expressions bomba atomowa ‘atomic bomb’, dział finansowy ‘financial department’ and their English equivalents. Apart from examining evidence indicating the phrasal status of such expressions, it presents arguments which can be employed to argue for the lexical (compound-like) nature of N+A or A+N combinations. It shows that they are at the border of the syntax and the lexicon.
The focus of the paper is the recapitulation of the results originating from the research based on Old English deverbal nouns derived by means of overtly expressed suffixes. In the process of research thirteen suffi xes were classified and analysed: -d and its variants -ed, -oþ/-aþ, -þ, and -t, -el and its variants -l, -ol, and -ele, -els/-else, -en, -end, -ere, -estre, -et(t), -icge, -ing (F)/-ung, -ing (M, N), -ling, -nes(s). The research included a presentation of each suffix, a description of the derivational process along with additional processes as well as an analysis of nominal derivatives. The origin, spelling variants and other characteristic features were analysed for all thirteen suffixes. The study of the research corpus comprised examination of the derivational base, including its type and class as well as its transitivity and the derived lexeme, its membership within grammatical gender and declension as well as its structure and semantic features. The main purpose of the present article is to expound the final findings and comments on the subject concerning deverbal nouns in Old English.
The semantics of temporal distributiveness comes into the fore in two cases: a) either when a habitual activity is correlated with the recurrent periods of time; b) or when the recurrent periods of time are accompanied by an activity. The present paper is yet another contribution to a series of papers exploring Polish temporal constructions with distributive meaning. It focuses on constructions with the pronoun każdy, such as (spotykamy się) w każdą sobotę (każdą sobotę).
The present paper looks at the question of Information Structure (IS) conflicts, especially in the case of Figure and Ground assignment. It is observed that in typical uses in unmarked sentences, Figure-Ground assignment runs counter to the traditional notion of Information Structure. One of the main proposals of this study is that many cases of apparently problematic IS patterns are in fact the reflection of a two-level IS organization of sentences, where an element can bear two opposite IS values. An attempt is made to point out an experiential grounding of this double-layer organization of IS. Finally, the case of possession is examined, whose interpretation is argued to derive from the reciprocal referencing of the possessor and possessum, possible thanks to the double-layer IS and Figure-Ground assignment reversal.
The paper challenges the analysis of proverbs as particular cases of Genericis Specific metaphor suggested by Lakof and Turner (1989). I argue that their metaphoric account of proverbs should be considerably revised and extended. Proverbs are usually not used in order to make “generic statements”, but, rather, in order to comment on specific construals of current situations. Therefore, I suggest that proverbs should be analyzed in terms of the theory of conceptual integration networks (Turner & Fauconnier 1995). Accordingly, the specific content of the proverbs and the construal of the current “target” situation should be considered as input spaces, the generic level schema as the generic space and the particular emergent meaning of the proverb in the current situation as the blend. Whether the mapping between the two spaces is more metonymic or metaphoric depends on the relation between the two input spaces.
Today’s discussions concerning metonymy abound in distinctions that may be far from obvious for those who would like to get acquainted with the major achievements and directions of research in this field. That is why the article aims to trace the path that metonymy has covered within Cognitive Linguistics from its initial characterisation in the publication by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) to the present day. The article attempts to provide a general historical perspective on the phenomenon trying to indicate and discuss both the major trends as well as the consecutive stages in the development of the cognitive thought on metonymy. The author identifies different directions of expansion of the phenomenon, enumerates different types of metonymy, and its most frequently discussed dimensions. The article is concluded with an attempt to summarize the key elements of progress that has been made in understanding metonymy since 1980.
Cognitive Linguistics provides theoretical and methodological framework for a description of conceptual structure of signed languages. Articulation parameters of individual signs, such as hand-shape, location, motion, and orientation, all contribute to the creation of complex non-literal meanings. Being based on metaphors, metonymies, or metonymies-in-metaphor, the signs reflect various degrees of visual motivation or iconicity. American Sign Language (henceforth ASL) and British Sign Language (henceforth BSL), two unrelated languages, employ diverse strategies of conceptualisation to express the same concepts. These strategies range from identical, e.g. metaphor vs. metaphor, to different, e.g. metaphor vs. metonymy, with many intermediate configurations possible. The paper compares selected ASL and BSL signs related to various areas of experience. Some of the signs are also contrasted with their counterparts in other signed languages.
The aim of the paper is to compare and contrast the metonymic mappings which motivate the construction of meaning behind denominal verbs in English and Polish. The word-formation processes that create denominal verbs involve affixation, conversion and back-formation in English and paradigmatic derivation in Polish. The conceptual metonymies underlying the meaning of denominal verbs are treated as instances of the EVENT-schema metonymies in which concepts that belong to a particular EVENT schema are used to access other concepts within the same EVENT schema. The analysis has shown that the same set of metonymies can motivate meanings of denominal verbs in various ways, giving rise to different kinds of verbs that express the same meaning in English and Polish.
Research on automatic translation has recently become a very popular field of study for linguists. The process of adjusting data collected from language to meet the machine’s potential and efficiency requires the knowledge and use of an accurate and effective methodology. The linguist’s task is not only to feed data collected from traditional language dictionaries into the computer’s memory, but it is also necessary to take into consideration all the relations that hold among the elements being described, as the aim of automatic translation is to enable the system to carry out an accurate and effective translation of texts. The paper is also an attempt to show how the object oriented approach proposed by W. Banyś resolves the problem of polysemy of words in a natural language which is one of the major problems in computer assisted translation. For the computer assisted translation to be exhaustive and effective, a process of disambiguation of a polysemous word should be carried out thus enabling a correct generation of its equivalents in a target language, which is presented on the basis of the English causative verb open.
The present paper descriptively analyzes how the diminutive meaning of the adjectives belonging to the semantic field of SIZE in Polish and Russian, specifically mały and маленький respectively, has changed differently in each language, although both words come from the PS word *malъ. The aim of this article is to show, through dictionary entries and translation equivalents, that because the Russian standard adjective is effectively a diminutive with an -еньк- diminutive suffix (< малый), it typically conveys a stronger sense of ‘littleness’ than the Polish adjective mały, which typically conveys the meaning of ‘smallness’ than emotive meaning. Because of this, the semantic-pragmatic meanings of the derived/underived diminutive forms diverge. The differences between these adjectives plays an important role in the process of understanding the relationship between diminutive constructions in East and West Slavic languages, which is especially relevant to translators.
Grounded in the cognitive approach to speech act theory, whereby the boundaries between speech act categories are perceived as fuzzy, resulting in their directness/ indirectness being viewed as a matter of degree, the paper investigates the ambiguity of indirect speech acts found in the discourse of customer testimonials. The analysis is based on a corpus of 150 customer testimonials published on the home pages of 7 retailing companies offering their products online. The study reveals some interesting patterns in the persuasive/promotional use of (often ambiguous) micro speech acts contributing to the realisation of the macro-act of praising. It then attempts to rationalise customer testimonials as acts of boasting performed by organisations using customer quotes as word-of-mouth tools.
There seems to be considerable confusion and conceptual ambiguity in the discourse on English in the global context caused by a plethora of various names referring to English and its role and functioning in the present day world. The emergence of nomenclatural richness may be indicative not only of the maturity of a given field and the development of comprehensive conceptual frameworks, but it may also point to inconsiderate (often causing disarray) search for style variants or a lack of uniformity among scholars as to a given subject matter. In the discourse on the English language, further ambiguity, especially for students, may be caused by disparate understandings of the same concepts on the part of various language scholars. What follows is a brief overview and discussion of the most popular terms used in the literature on the subject of English in the world.
The article examines the different ways in which various types of shortened forms are employed in Polish-English translation of a corpus of medical articles found in the Case Report section of Acta Angiologica, a bilingual quarterly for vascular specialists. A comparative analysis of the source and target texts is conducted to determine the reasons for the use and non-use of abridged forms in medical translation. On the one hand, attention is devoted to how the source text abbreviations are handled in translation. On the other hand, the focus is on those cases in which an abbreviated form is used in the target text regardless of its absence in the source language version.
The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the great power of film translation. This aim is accomplished by presenting the major modes of film translation, mainly in Italy and in Poland – as an example of completely different traditions in movie translation – which are then followed by an analysis of dubbing, voice over and subtitling from the perspective of domestication and foreignisation.
The aim of this paper is to suggest a framework for research on non-native bilingualism (NNB) in Poland (www.nnbproject.eu). The term non-native bilingualism refers to a situation where, in a Polish family residing in Poland, one or both parents resolve to permanently use a non-native language when communicating with their child or children. The research problems of the “NNB in Poland” project are discussed briefly; the author explains the origins of the term „non-native bilingualism”, defines other terms used in the research, presents the case for and against NNB and collates the common beliefs with the results of contemporary research on bilingualism, including non-native bilingualism.
This paper refers to face and face-work to account for the ways in which academic authors strive to satisfy the need to establish their credibility as experts in the field, to present their research as a valuable addition to the existing knowledge, and to confirm their status as insiders – experienced members of the academic discourse community – in introductions to English-language linguistics articles. It relates the concern for face to the revised Create-a-Research-Space (CARS) model [John Swales, Genre Analysis, Cambridge: CUP, 1990] of rhetorical moves to better understand the choices the authors make in order to indicate a gap in the existing knowledge, to announce how their research intends to fill it in, and, in effect, to produce a publishable text. In particular, it examines references to other scholars and their research and explicit comments on the author’s own work and experience in 50 journal article introductions. The presented strategies are evidence of a dialogue the writing scholar undertakes with the discourse community by laying emphasis on contextualization of the research among other texts, by placing his/ her findings in relation to other fi ndings, by seeking acceptance for his/ her claims, and by attending to the social needs of others.
The paper offers a critical scrutiny of Leonard Talmy’s comparison of linguistically coded Force Dynamics and modern physics (Talmy 2000 : 456-459). It is argued that six out of seven ‘differences’ mentioned by Talmy are in fact similarities between the naive (linguistic) and the scientific conceptualization of forceful interaction. We have also found that one of the notions of Talmy’s Force Dynamics- the intrinsic force tendency- has no counterpart in either pre-Newtonian theories of force (Aristotle, Philoponus) or intuitive (folk) physics, richly accounted for in numerous empirical studies (e.g., Champagne et al. (1980), Larkin et al. (1980), McCloskey (1983), Halloun et al. (1985), Hammer (1995), diSessa (1988, 1993, 1996).
This article discusses the research of the linguistic landscape in the first decade of the 21. century. The author concentrates on research of written texts in the public space. He pays attention to the complexity of the discussed problems. This complexity results from the processes of globalization and migration that contribute to create social structures with great variety of languages used and with a heterogeneous ethnic composition. These dynamic social and national groups will be an interesting object of research also in the next years. This claim refers as well to the German speaking countries where speakers of many mother tongues live.
Developing learners’ speaking skills in the language classroom is one of the most demanding tasks that foreign language teachers are confronted with. The difficulty results mainly from the fact that the target language functions here as both the medium and the goal of teaching. Research shows that active involvement in communication in the learning process helps in improving language skills. The article discusses the role of classroom communication in learning both the first and the foreign language in the light of selected literature and offers a number of teaching guidelines for effective classroom practice.
The academic language has certain features that do not occur in typical informal interaction about everyday things. The texts studied and produced in academic disciplines have different functions, and are structured in different ways. The linguistic features play an important role in the realization of different types of meanings. Some are important for their role in the expression of content (e.g. types of lexis, prepositional phrases or markers of logical relations between clauses). Others are involved in the role of the writer (e.g. informing, questioning or evaluating) or the organization of the content in the text.
The following paper provides an outline of the research on Academic Key Words studied in the texts of university students taken from the written corpora: the International Corpus of Learner English (the Polish and Turkish component of ICLE). Starting with a brief insight into the features of academic language, the article focuses on the analysis of chosen academic nouns, nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as some basic clauses used by the Turkish and Polish university students of English as a Foreign language.
This paper explores the relationship of self-efficacy to the individual’s academic and social abilities in the process of foreign language learning, analyzing the construct of self-efficacy and its domains (academic, self-regulatory and emotional), and providing insight into the issue of language anxiety, which is specific to foreign language acquisition. The empirical part the research on the relationship between self-efficacy domains and language anxiety, meanwhile, ultimately shows that the modern language cannot be viewed or assessed like any other school subject due to its serious impact on the self of the student.
The article reports the results of a study investigating the influence of gender on foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA) of a group of second year university students. The research revealed no gender differences in the level of anxiety measured with the foreign language speaking anxiety scale (FLSAS) developed for the purpose of this study. Moreover, no statistically significant interaction was observed between gender and a) perceived difficulty of speaking skills, b) self-assessment of one’s speaking skills, c) self-efficacy level, d) general speaking anxiety, and the level of speaking-in-class anxiety. Some gender differences in the apprehension level were observed in the case of speaking activities and patterns of interaction: females were found to be more anxious while speaking in front of the class, in small groups and during presentations and role-plays. However, in the majority of investigated speaking tasks gender differences did not reach the level of significance.
en
pl
