Wpływ dwujęzyczności na kształtowanie się urzędowej odmiany języka – na przykładzie średniowiecznych wielkopolskich rot sądowych

The article discusses Polish-Latin bilingualism of Polish medieval legal texts and its impact on the shaping of the official language variant. The article presents construc­tions that, in their own structure of court oath, include a form of set and often repeated formulas. These are: the formula of initial oath (Tako mi pomoży Bog i święty krzyż [so help me God and the holy cross]) and the comparative construction indicating the mem­bership of a social class of the participants of the events (tako dobry jako sam [as good as himself]) or the material value (tako dobry jako [as good as]). These constructions would appear in the Polish text in Latin, both in full or shortened form, or they would be part in Polish, part in Latin. The stable form of constructions that appeared in Latin as calques due to the influence of Polish indicates that they became, as a result of the domination of the Latin template, vivid markers of the official style in medieval Polish.

Okno na świat, okno na przekład

A Window on the World, a Window to Translation The core of the paper is an analysis of Olga Tokarczuk’s column “Okno” (“The window”), originally commissioned by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, first published in a German translation, and subsequently rendered into English and French. Carried out within the framework of cognitive linguistics, the analysis focuses upon the role of verbs of perception in the original (Polish) text and its three translations (English, German and French). In agreement with linguists of cognitive persuasion, it is claimed that the meaning of a text resides both in the semantic content of words and in particular grammatical structures, selected and arranged in the process of construal. It is argued that the message of “Okno” is rendered through a particular sequencing of a series of verbs of perception, which taken together constitute an extended metaphor based upon the fundamental conceptual metaphor TO KNOW IS TO SEE. Therefore, an adequate translation of the text would require recognition of the structural axis and finding in the target language(s) optimum counterparts of the original verbs. As the analysis of the three translations demonstrates, this goal may be difficult to achieve for either subjective or systemic reasons.

Dworstwo obyczajów Sebastiana Fabiana Klonowica. Przekład Civilitas morum Erazma z Rotterdamu w spuściźnie poety oraz wydawnicze losy książeczki w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej

Sebastian Fabian Klonowic’s Translation of Civilitas morum by Erasmus of Rotterdam: Its Place in the Poet’s Legacy and Its Publishing History in Poland-Lithuania The article focuses on the Polish rendition of De civilitate morum puerilium – that is, a translation from Reinhard Lorich’s (Hadamarius’) catechismal version of Erasmus’ of Rotterdam treatise. The main goals of the text are: first, to understand the presence of the text (the Polish title: Dworstwo obyczajów) among works of such a talented author as Sebastian Fabian Klonowic; second, to reconstruct the publishing history of the Polish De civilitate; third to argue that forgotten bestsellers, such as Dworstwo, can help to better understand both early modern literature and book market in the first centuries of printing. The article summarises current knowledge about Sebastian Fabian Klonowic (ca. 1545–1602), a prolific poet, but also an author of textbooks and handbooks used to teach Latin and morals, as De civilitate was used as well. It analyses Klonowic’s translation practices and discusses his enthusiasm for Erasmus’ output. It also suggests that the Polish text was written with school usage in mind, probably for students of the newly opened academy established by Polish Brethrens in Raków. Next, the text moves on to describe the publishing history of De civilitate – Erasmus’ manual, its adaptations and translations. The author concentrates on the Polish translation, but the scarce evidence available for this title and its editions in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania is interpreted in the wider context of the Latin and vernacular editions of De civilitate printed in other European lands. The survey combines information offered by the unique copies preserved in the library collections and the evidence found in archival sources to reconstruct the reasons for the success of the handbook, and to explain why the majority of copies multiplying the text once enormously popular with printers and readers alike were bound to perish. Edition of Dworstwo obyczajów presents the Polish text of Klonowic. It is based on a printed unique copy of about 1603 (held at Ossolineum Library in Wrocław).

Co z tym Niemaszem, czyli fraza nie masz w funkcji egzystencjalnej jako problem transkrypcji tekstów staropolskich Słowa

Niemasz that is the phrase nie masz in the existential function as a problem of Old Polish text transcription Summary The present author while working on the final edition of Jan Kochanowski’s Dzieła wszystkie became interested in the problem of Old Polish transcription of the phrase nie masz and in its placement in word indexes. On the basis of Polish lexicons, dictionaries of Old Polish and Old Polish texts the author contrary to some editors’ practice who write niemasz or nie ma-ż concludes that the spelling nie masz is justified. Following the semantics of the quoted forms she shows that they are synonymous and follows a history of their occurrence in Polish. She also claims that despite the fact that in both forms the present tense expresses timelessness and they are generalized in the 2nd and 3rd person singular, formally they are predicates and they should be treated as other verbs in indexes.

O kwestii oryginału, przekładu autorskiego i adaptacji. Wokół polskiej i angielskiej wersji Antygony w Nowym Jorku Janusza Głowackiego

Janusz Głowacki’s internationally acclaimed tragicomedy inspired by Sophocles’ Antigone has been the subject of intense debate and misinterpretations. The article aims to demonstrate that the play was primarily written in Polish, and that the English version is an adaptation/rewriting made by the author in collaboration with the American screenwriter Joan Torres. Furthermore, it shows that the English version was created while the writing of the Polish text was still in progress, so that the former influenced and left clear traces in the latter, questioning the traditional hierarchy between the original and the translated or adapted text.

Odstępstwa od normy w kategorii gramatycznej liczby w powieści Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną i ich odzwierciedlenie w przekładzie na język rosyjski

Dorota Masłowska’s Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną employs various types of linguistic innovations. One of them is a mistaken selection of the number of nouns. This stylistic means results in linguistic humour. In the Russian translation of the novel reflecting this phenomenon should not pose any problems. However, neither of the instances of the stylistic means analysed in the paper was reflected in the Russian target text. It is difficult to determine why the translator did not attempt to show Russian readers a reconstruction of the language of the Polish text. As a result, Irina Lappo’s translation lacks the poetic qualities and refreshing touches of Masłowska’s language.

Formuła wyrażania szacunku w strukturze osiemnastowiecznego listu polskiego

The Honorificative Formula in 18th c. Polish Letters The paper discusses, from the formal, semantic, pragma- and sociolinguistic point of view, the honorificative formula that constituted one of the components of the final part of an epistolary Polish text of the 18th century. Most commonly, it took the shape of a conventionalized phrase which consisted of the preposition z (‘with’), an adjective, and a noun; e.g. z prawdziwym szacunkiem ‘with true respect’. The formula was syntactically dependent, as it was part of a larger whole – nearly always the subscription, i.e. the broadly understood signature of the author of the letter. The lexical composition of the formula showed considerable diversity. The nouns that constituted it include estymacja ‘esteem’, poważenie ‘reverence’, szacunek ‘respect’, weneracja ‘veneration’, and others. The attributes that described the main stem of the formula were also characterized by notable semantic diversity. Moreover, the honorificative formula could also appear in the form of a Latin quotation, e.g. profundo cultu. The usage of the formula depended on social and situational factors, namely it was used in letters to people of equal or higher social status (e.g. to members of princely families), as well as in highly official situations.

Elementy kultury trzeciej oraz realia wojny afgańskiej w rosyjskim w przekładzie utworu Żmija Andrzeja Sapkowskiego

This text focuses on the issue of war in Afghanistan from 1979–1989 and its realities. The lexicon associated with the everyday life of Afghanistan civilians and Soviet soldiers was analysed. The observations indicate that additional information appears more often in the translated text, which makes it much more transparent for the final recipient. This fact was confirmed by the statistical data, only one footnote can be found in the Polish text and 173 in the Russian text.

„Ближайшая станция европейской культуры…”: полонофилия 60-х годов

The article attempts to trace the sources of “polonophilia” in the Soviet culture of the sixties and to consider the strategies of the representation of the Polish text in Russian literature after the Khrushchev Thaw on the material of Stanislav Kunyaev, Boris Dubrovin and Emil Janvarev’s poetry. The special influence on the formation of the geo-cultural image of the Polish People’s Republic in this period is discussed in the context of Polish cinema (in particular Andrzej Wajda’s film Ashes and Diamonds).