The subject of the article is the asymmetry of gender in the Polish language, especially as far as the names of the prestigious professions and functions are concerned (i.e. feminatives). It also considers the function of the feminatives in both language and culture, as well as their modern use especially in ideological disputes. Short history of feminatives in Polish shows, that their presence is a natural way of filling in the lexical gaps related to development of society and changes of civilisation.
Authority and Passion. Władysław Lubaś and School of Socioliguistics in KatowiceThe article shows the preliminary stage of a research work – pioneering at that time – on the city language as well as of the formation of sociolinguistic methods to describe the contemporary oral Polish; it gives the account of a group of linguists based in Katowice the leading figure of which was Władysław Lubaś – his intellectual passion and undisputed scholarly authority gave rise to the Katowice school of socioliguistics.Key words: Władysław Lubaś, socioliguistics, Katowice school of socioliguistics
The invention of writing entailed enormous consequences not only for human language but also for human mind. This can be seen, for instance, in the birth and development of the culture of literate thinking. Obviously, both (preliterate and literate) cognitive styles cannot be perceived in static terms, and therefore it is worth looking into the influence of modern technologies on the status of the literate cognitive style in language behaviours of the generation raised on new media. Research shows the process of reversing the vector of changes: from intellectualisation of syntax and punctuation (evolution in the 19th century) to their previous emotionalisation and orality related to the “here and now” of speaking. This “reversed vectors” principle concerns also reverse socialisation and reverse adaptation. Both social processes exert also a major infl uence on the formation of language behaviours.