Archiwum

The use of the complex term ‘the Old Polish Literature’, though traditional, does not have a rationale, as it harms the image of this literature, perceived en bloc in contrast to the period of Enlightenment and its modernity.

The article presents reciprocal relations between Latin, Czech and Polish texts, shows the mechanisms of mistakes emerging in Polish translation, and formulates a surprising (!) conclusion drawn from the analysis.

Having defined the term ‘lexical semantic area’ and after the presentation (as a model) of the work by R. Tokarski entitled “The meaning of word and its modifications in a text” a detailed description of present elaborations covering the seventeenth century lexis is presented. In the elaborations Polish researchers have used different anthropocentric methods, e.g. theories of communication, culture, sociology and language picture of the world.

The issue of cohesion (linear and syntactic) in journalistic texts is discussed. It covers the period of the first half of the eighteenth century. Repetition, as a formal linkage manifestation, is strongly emphasised.
It can be proved that repetitions are of different superficial origin (e.g. lexical or synonymic repetitions) and are a substantial element in the creation of a coherent journalistic text.
Eighteenth-century old prints are a source material here, among which there are anonymous brochures and books by Fr. Radzewski (Poklatecki), X.W. Bystrzanowski, S. Garczyński and others.

The article is dedicated to the history of Polish printing from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The analysis in the article is based on the information in dedicatory letters preceding printed literary works. An important aspect of adjusting printing fonts (gained from Germany) to the peculiarities of Polish pronunciation is deliberated.
In addition, the article outlines the printing vocabulary used by Old and Middle Polish authors of dedicatory letters.

The article attempts to characterise the Old Polish Dictionary from the macro and micro structural perspectives. It takes into account a detailed description of a dictionary entry structure as a separate text. The description is based on the analysis of particular verb entries considered by the author as evaluative and chosen from the Dictionary.
The main part of the paper revolves around a comprehensive analysis of particular elements constituting a dictionary entry, i.e. entry word, its grammatical forms as well as its meaning or meanings.

The analysis of acts of request contained in the oldest polish prose version of the hours is aimed at establishing their text structure, identification of some pragmatic parameters of their accomplishment (with the use of verbal means comprised in the standard language of prayer) such as: the fruit of request, the speaker, performative verbs and phrases to the addresse that introduce the act of asking.
In the article one pays attention to illocutionary value of supplications that are measured in terms of the effectivenes and unlike usual request (whit possibility of appearing numeros conversational strategies) carry out just one strategy determined by the speaker`s confidence (verging on certainty) that she or he will be heard out.

The author provides a communicative analysis of the texts available in Polish old legal codices. The analysis is based on the theory of speech acts and speech genres. The methodology adopted to reconstruct the genre pattern of the Old Polish act of skarga or żałoba (Old Polish for ‘complaint’, ‘lament’), originates from the method of elementary semantic units proposed by Anna Wierzbicka. The identified speech acts have been decomposed to research their fundamental units, namely the sender, his/her intentions, the receiver, the message, and the communication goal.
As the result of the research the author proves that the two secondary (legal) speech acts (skarga, oskarżenie) were not distinguished in a noticeably distinct manner in the Polish old legal system and codices. Performative verbs used in the old codices and the correspondence between the basic distinctive elements of the characteristics of speech acts (intention, goal, sender etc.) – are pertaining to the idea of one universal secondary speech act, namely żałoba being realized in each case as a distinctive speech act of żałowanie (complaining, lamenting).

The article presents the problem of understanding the expressions referring to psychic experience in the Old Polish texts. The basis for the analysis are passion fragments of the Old Polish bible-apocryphal narrations that contain the description of Holy Mary’s feelings. The starting point for the interpretation is not the name of the feeling (thus the lexeme definition quoted from lexicographic sources) but distinguishing semantic constituents. Semantic constituents are demonstrated in the utterance structure differently, they describe experiencing a feeling. They are determined by the use of further contexts, where the meaning of the whole text constitutes the background. The terms (feelings) being defined in such a manner are assigned to their lexical manifestations.

The paper deals with the analysis and interpretation polite speech acts found in the sixteenth-century Barbara Radziwiłłówna`s letters to King Sigismund II. The letter understood herein as a written and therefore recorded discourse between people. An utterance of this type consists of a complex of speech acts. In the description and linguistic interpretation of a letter what is interesting in actual usages and communication strategies determined not only by the characteristics of the type of utterance but also by both the sender`s aims and addressee`s expectations. The paper discusses, in edition to requests and thanks, the beginnings and endings of the letters as well as all phrases within the main body directed to the addresse. From the point view of layout they all play a principal role in the structure and style. Moreover, in terms of content, they express the sender`s profound respect, love and total devotion to the king and husband. The interpretation also covers a broader linguistic, cultural, social and situational context for the analyzed polite speech acts.

When considering different ways of performing utterances/texts, modern as well as Old Polish, we can discriminate at least three phenomena: oral performance (not knowing writing), spoken performance (in spontaneous communication), mouthing performance (as a specified choice of transmission).
In the present perception of the old Polish texts (e.g. in didactics) an expressive spoken form performed by a teacher or an actor is preferred. In order to understand the gist, it is helpful to use a deliberate prosodic performance (of stress, intonation, pauses, rhythm or volume) or the usage of stipulated signs or logical and vocal structure schemata (e.g. topic-rhematic). Even with silent-reading (in your thoughts), rendering prosody features is necessary/useful for a better understanding of the gist.

The article written five years ago should be considered a historical one, in the science evolution sense likewise. Were it written today, in 2010, especially after the Polish Linguistics Society Congress in Wroclaw, the article would look differently. Therefore, it is vital to save fragments referring to the Language Picture of the World – especially the cognitive approach - but also the eclectic approach intentionally recognised by the author.
The article contains remarks about the Language Picture of the World of the pre-Christian (Judaic) culture as well as our ancestors’ culture after adopting Christianity (e.g. judicial rotas). It appears that the suggestions from pp. 4 to 8 about a man’s standing or animal metaphors as well as axiology (Decalogue) are the least anachronistic.