Artykuł prezentuje główne osiągnięcia polskiego językoznawstwa w zakresie badań historycznojęzykowych w latach 1989–2014. Autorka omawia krótko najważniejsze prace, zarówno o charakterze syntetycznym, jak i szczegółowym. Zwraca uwagę na kontynuację strukturalnych badań nad systemem językowym oraz regionalnymi odmianami polszczyzny, a także wskazuje nowe kierunki badawcze, związane z komunikacją językową, ze zróżnicowaniem funkcjonalnym polszczyzny oraz z genologią lingwistyczną.
EN
The article presents the main achievements of Polish linguistics within the scope of diachronic linguistic research between 1989 and 2014. The author discusses briefly the most important studies, including both synthetic treatises and more detailed papers. Paying attention to the continuity of the structural method used in exploring the linguistic system and Polish dialects, the author also points out the new research areas connected with language communication, with functional diversity of the Polish language and with linguistics-oriented genre studies.
The text is a brief description of the history of the Irena Bajerowa Institute of the Polish Language that existed between 1977 and 2019. The beginnings of linguistics in Katowice date back to the 1960s and were connected with the research activity of the most prominent representatives of linguistics in Poland (Witold Mańczak, Maria Honowska, Irena Bajerowa, Kazimierz Polański, Walery Pisarek) who had been educated at the Jagiellonian University. The research work of the Department of the Polish Language, which existed back then, concentrated mainly on diachronic issues and the problems of contemporary word formation and syntax.The foundation of the University of Silesia in 1968 expedited the academic development of the aforementioned linguistic society, which contributed to a philological community of a great potential. In the 70s, the Faculty of Philology was created, whereas the Institute of the Polish Language was established in its structure. This institution gathered many outstanding researchers, often including the precursors of new trends in the Polish academia, such as generative grammar, sociolinguistics, linguistic stylistics. Numerous groundbreaking studies and journals, Socjolingwistyka and Język Artystyczny, were published there as well. The activity of the remarkable linguists and their students contributed to the formation of the research approaches well-known in Poland and abroad, including historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and stylistics. In 2016, the Institute of the Polish Language was given the name of Irena Bajerowa, that is, the researcher who was closely connected with Silesian linguistic community, who inspired this community to think comprehensively about language and linguistics, and who took care of its academic development.
The article presents excerpts from Polish-language court records made from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century in Upper Silesia. Emerging from these books is an image of life in small communities as seen through the lens of financial transactions, inheritance processes, financial claims within families, cases of disorderly behaviourand violations of social order. The quoted fragments show how the society and the officials representing it managed establishing legal rules for the community and how legal texts were constructed. Although they reflect the schematic manner typical of official regulations, many of the phrases they include allow us to recreate the method used for the construction of the text or even their author’s thought process (writing it or commissioning its writing to a qualified official). These texts provide an opportunity to reconstruct the system of values that served as a basis for the functioning of a given community and the internal hierarchy that guaranteed social order.
Autorka podejmuje ciągle aktualny problem klasyfikacji zjawisk językowych niezgodnych z obowiązującą normą. Wydawnictwa poprawnościowe najczęściej zaliczają wszelkie wykroczenia przeciwko normie do błędów językowych, wartościowanych negatywnie. Wprowadzają też drugą istotną kategorię – innowacji językowej, która bywa waloryzowana pozytywnie. Rozgraniczenie między błędem a innowacją nie jest proste i jednoznaczne, a sami autorzy podręczników z zakresu kultury języka nie zajmują w tej kwestii jasno określonego stanowiska. Z perspektywy diachronicznej opis omawianych zjawisk jest bardziej zobiektywizowany, gdyż za innowację uznajemy takie zjawisko, które na trwałe weszło do języka. Nie zmienia to faktu, że każda innowacja była na pewnym etapie rozwoju polszczyzny błędem językowym. Doskonale obrazują to przykłady z XIX-wiecznych opracowań, w których jako rażące błędy piętnowano wiele form, które po latach weszły na stałe do zasobu polszczyzny i są ze współczesnego punktu widzenia oceniane jako zmiany korzystne.
EN
The author discusses the still current issue of classifying linguistic phenomena inconsistent with the established norm. Most frequently, publications dealing with correctness include all offences against the norm into the category of language errors, which are always valued negatively. However, they also introduce another significant category, that is, language innovation; this phenomenon is at times valued positively. Differentiating between error and innovation is neither simple nor unequivocal, and the authors of textbooks about the culture of language themselves do not take a unified stance on the problem. From a diachronic perspective, the discussion of the aforementioned phenomena is more objectified, for what we treat as innovation is any phenomenon that has permanently entered language. It does not, on the other hand, change the fact that at some point in the development of the Polish language each innovation is a language error. This is perfectly exemplified by 19th-century publications, which marked many forms as glaring mistakes that with time became an integral part of the Polish language and that from a contemporary standpoint are viewed as positive changes.
The article examines the process of shaping of the Polish patriotic discourse, which was determined by such events of the 18th century as the Bar Confederation, the Great Sejm proceedings, and the Kościuszko Uprising. In a situation in which Poland was threatened with the invasion of surrounding world powers and in the face of impending armed struggle for sovereignty, the then most important values uniting the Polish nation were formulated. The first entity to define them were the Bar confederates, who fought against the Russian army in defence of their fatherland, religion, freedom, and independence. In the 1790s the patriotic discourse shifted to the press covering the proceedings of the Great Sejm, and later to newspaper coverage of the Kościuszko Uprising. During these events, the freedom demands were altered because the conservative Sarmatian republicanism had been replaced with ‚new’ republicanism – characterised by social radicalism and supporting the separation of church and state. Despite some semantic shifts, for more than 200 years the most significant values constituting the Polish patriotic discourse have been: fatherland, freedom, and independence.
The article deals with the relationship between language changes and the processes of standardisation and codification. Standardisation is understood here as a natural process, taking place as a result of transformations in linguistic usage (usus), in which one of the competing language variants gains advantage and usually replaces the older one. On the other hand, codification is an external phenomenon, controlled by specialists-linguists, who arbitrarily determine the standard binding in the language. As codification is usually carried out in conjunction with changes in linguistic usage, it then becomes a confirmation of the process of standardisation. However, in some instances linguists prefer certain forms despite common use being different, or they do not keep pace with changes. Consequently, the codified official standard may in some aspects differ significantly from linguistic usage. In the history of Polish culture, the XIX century is a clear caesura. Before this period, standardisation proceeded in a natural way, without the interference of linguists, so the changes in the language system were significant at that time. Since the XIX century, because every change has been evaluated by specialists, certain natural language processes have been slowed down. As a result of the development of linguistics and the increased role of linguists in social life in the XX century, the role of codification factors increased significantly, although many linguists maintain a cautious attitude towards the observed changes.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy relacji zachodzących między zmianami językowymi a procesami normalizacji i kodyfikacji. Normalizacja jest tutaj rozumiana jako proces naturalny, przebiegający na skutek przeobrażeń w uzusie, w którym jeden z rywalizujących wariantów językowych zdobywa przewagę i wypiera zazwyczaj wariant starszy. Natomiast kodyfikacja jest zjawiskiem zewnętrznym, sterowanym przez specjalistów - językoznawców, którzy arbitralnie wyznaczają obowiązującą w języku normę. Kodyfikacja przeprowadzana jest zazwyczaj w powiązaniu ze zmianami w uzusie, staje się wówczas potwierdzeniem procesu normalizacji. Zdarza się jednak, że językoznawcy preferują pewne formy wbrew powszechnym użyciom bądź też nie nadążają za zmianami, w związku z czym skodyfikowana norma wzorcowa w pewnych aspektach odbiega znacznie od uzusu. W historii polszczyzny wyraźną cezurę stanowi XIX w. Przed tym okresem normalizacja przebiegała w sposób naturalny, bez ingerencji lingwistów, dlatego przeobrażenia systemu językowego były w tym czasie znaczące. Od XIX w. każda zmiana podlegała już ocenie specjalistów, w związku z czym pewne naturalne procesy językowe zostały wyhamowane. Na skutek rozwoju językoznawstwa i zwiększenia roli lingwistów w życiu społecznym w XX w. rola czynników kodyfikacyjnych znacznie wzrosła, chociaż wielu lingwistów przyjęło i zachowuje po dziś dzień postawę asekuracyjną wobec obserwowanych zmian.
The article embarks on a critical analysis of the issue, recently reverberating across the country, of granting a status of a regional language to the Silesian ethnolect. Within the relevant public space, the problem interlocks the three following types of discourse: legal, political and scientific. Onto thus formulated discourse superimposesthe common perception of the unresolved tension of the augmented efforts for revival of the self-identity and political positioning in the Silesian society. These efforts are, in turn, related to a very strong feeling of ethnic identity of the Silesians, who like to emphasize their cultural distinctiveness in everyday communicative situations. The notion of the regional language is a special legal category in EU legislation and has been introduced to Polish legislative discourse after this particular language status has been granted to Kashubian. Currently, a number of political and social initiatives are being undertaken in Upper Silesia that are aimed at the administrative recognition and the application of the same legal category to the Silesian ethnolect. As these actions are mainly undertaken by organizations that demand political autonomy for Silesia and put forward demands for the recognition of the Silesian nationality, academic circles are in the main wary, if not apprehensive. As a result, the role of the elite seeking to work out grammatical standards and spelling convention for the Silesian language in the making, being created in a top-down fashion, has been largely taken over by local associations of people wishing to revive the Silesian regional dialect, with a little support of professional and academic staff. Future fortunes of the would-be Silesian language depend on many factors: on whether the legal status of a regional language will be granted or not, on the quality of work of those who have embarked on attempts to carry out agenda that includes works on the standard spelling convention for the language, and on the Silesians themselves and their acceptance of the solutions that are to be imposed in a top-down fashion. Another contributing factor will undoubtedly be the elevation of the Silesian language status through a creation of the language corpus (literature, dictionaries, course books) and broadening of its functional scope.
The article contributes to the discussion on the interpretation of processes taking place in the contemporary Polish language from two perspectives: diachronic and synchronic (ahistorical, to be precise). The author draws attention to the problem of not accounting for the achievements of diachronic linguistics, which is visible in the studies devoted to the analysis of the language used by the contemporary Poles. This leads to a situation in which the same research questions are not infrequently examined and interpreted in completely different ways in synchronic studies and those dealing with the history of language. Sometimes the differences are so vast that coherent scientific discourse becomes disabled. Enriching the investigation of the processes occurring in the contemporary Polish language with conclusions drawn from analysing historical sources is thus an important claim. Considering the diachronic perspective could be particularly beneficial for discussing the issue of the norm. Since a number of problems with language correctness result from tendencies and processes which have been happening in language for centuries, only becoming acutely aware of them can bring a change in understanding codification and the linguistic norm.
The article describes the issue of historical and cultural conditions under which the national awareness of Silesians have developed. Being severed from the Polish state and direct interaction with the Polish culture for nearly six hundred years, Silesians have consolidated as a regional group whose identity, to a large extent, have been established in opposition to the German culture being imposed on them. In defense against germanization that intensified in the 19th century, a Polish patriotic movement was born in Upper Silesia region referring to values cherished particularly in traditional Silesian families. Catholicism played a crucial role there since it guaranteed a spiritual contact with Poland. Moreover, apart from its pastoral function, the Church also played a role of one and only public place where you could hear a mother tongue and Polish songs and prayers. A sense of a bond with Poland ensuing from common history was a vital fundament of Silesians’ national identification which was maintained by reference to the Piast reign, thus mythologizing that period as a time of common happiness and national unity. What is more, a native dialect the Silesians were using on daily basis played a very significant role. Despite German borrowings, which were quite widespread already in the 19th century, the Silesian dialect was treated as a mother tongue. Although it differed slightly from the standard Polish, it still had a lot in common with it. Currently, all the above-mentioned three vital elements of the Silesian identity are still functioning. Nevertheless, it seems that the most essential role is now being attributed to the dialect, which is being attempted to be awarded the status of a regional language.