Old orthographies, grammars and handbooks of Polish language
Charakterystyka psychologiczna języka polskiego (= Psychological description of Polish) is one of 25 dissertations published in Volume II (Section III, Part I) of Encyklopedia polska (= Polish Encyclopaedia), titled Język polski i jego historya z uwzględnieniem innych języków na ziemiach polskich (= Polish and its history, including other languages in the Polish territory). Charakterystyka psychologiczna... begins with a lecture on fundamental theses and a specification of the objectives of the psychological concept of language. Baudouin de Courtenay believed in the absolute psychological nature of human language. The individually existing psychological and linguistic world (linguistic thinking) could be born only in a society and through human interactions, and human language makes sense only when it serves the purpose of communication. The central concept in the analysis of linguistic processes is an image, that is a mental unit. Images are three types of linguistic elements: phonetic, semasiological (semantic) and morphological. A phoneme – a mental element of language – is a combination of several kinema, acousma and kinakeme, associated with the image of the simultaneity of physiological works and their acoustic outcomes. Morphemes are uniform and indivisible morphological units associated with a certain meaning.
The changes occurring in language are conditioned on mental processes consisting in association of images. The result of association is phonetisation, semasiologisation and morphologisation of linguistic elements. The essence of semasiologisation and morphologisation of linguistic elements is illustrated by alternation relations. Assimilation – continuous processes of language changes, creation of morphological innovations, occurring in linguistic thinking, perceived after the changes become visible. The study is characterised by a range of properties untypical of phonic texts; graphisation consists in adding written and visual images to linguistic images.
A human being, when projecting his or her I onto the outside world, at the same time animates and substantivises the reality. The animated notions influence the way of thinking about oneself and the surrounding world. The phenomenon of stereotypisation of the reality involves extremely negative or positive evaluations and experiences. Polish linguistic thinking is tinged with sexual gender – sexualisation, masculinisation and virilisation are the most prominent effects of animation. Baudouin de Courtenay’s position as regards the linguistic worldview is similar to Humboldt’s standpoint.
Go to grammarGrammatica francuska i polska… (= French and Polish grammar, or the most effective method of learning French by a Pole and Polish by a French, printed for learners’ convenience) was released anonymously in 1759. Karol Estreicher attributed it to Stanisław Dąbrowski, a Piarist. The grammar book is a compilation, its contents were derived from other French grammar books: Klucz do języka francuskiego… (= A key to French…) (1700) by Bartłomiej Kazimierz Malicki and Nouvelle methode… (= A new method…) by F.D. Duchênebillot (1699). Published first in 1740. The author of the study describes mainly the French language: its phonetics, orthography and syntax, with Polish as a point of reference, in four treaties divided into chapters. Dąbrowski’s grammar book was used for teaching French in the School of Chivalry.
Go to grammarJan Nepomucen Deszkiewicz was an amateur grammarian. Published in 1846, Gramatyka języka polskiego (= Grammar of Polish) consists of introductory parts and fourteen chapters dedicated to speech classification, its individual parts (interjections, pronouns, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, words), syntax, vowel length, spelling, rhyming, and word formation. The author devotes much space to explaining the origin of each of the eight parts of speech he distinguishes. He presents inflection patterns of inflected parts. He also touches upon proper language use by providing examples of errors and propositions of their correction. The grammar book is intended for teaching purposes and is addressed to the entire nation. Deszkiewicz considers the 16th-century language as the basis and a supreme example of Polish, and therefore the innovativeness of the grammar book is to consist, among others, in restoring the dual or preserving the narrowed e with a diacritic. There was only one edition of the grammar book but it aroused the contemporaries’ interest, which is proved by its reviews. It was criticised e.g. for backwardness and linguistic purism.
Go to grammarNouvelle méthode… (= A new method of learning how to read, write and talk in French easily and quickly, to be used by Lay Maids staying in the Royal Monastery for Nuns of Adoration of the Most Holy SACRAMENT. With various words and popular discourse collected at the end) is the first textbook of French written in Polish (some of its sections are bilingual: French and Polish). It is composed of three basic parts: a) grammar of French, b) a French-Polish dictionary, and c) a French-Polish phrasebook. The work is closed with a phonetic supplement dedicated to pronunciation of Polish letters titled Petite instruction pour la prononciation des lettres polonoises (= A short method of learning how to pronounce Polish letters), written only in French. The supplement was addressed to the French and the fact that it was included in the discussed publication permits the inference that the textbook was supposed to be used not only by Poles learning French but also by the French staying in Poland at that time and wishing to learn Polish. F.D. Duchênebillot’s textbook was reissued 13 times throughout the 18th century, which might imply its great popularity in those days.
The grammar presented in Nouvelle méthode… consists of three parts, the first of which is devoted to French phonetics and orthography and the second – to morphology with elements of syntax. The third one, in turn, which is essentially unrelated to grammar, as it concerns French equivoques (lexical homonyms), can be regarded as a supplement to the two earlier parts. Duchênebillot’s grammar is an object of B.K. Malicki’s (not always legitimate) polemics in Klucz do języka francuskiego… (A key to French…), which was published a year later.
Go to grammarPublished in 1776, Zbiór rzeczy…(= A collection of what is most necessary to achieve excellence in the mother tongue) is difficult to classify into a specific genre: a grammar book or, due to the extent of the guidance on proper language use (good – bad), a linguistic guide. When substantiating his judgments, as was proved by a critical analysis of the work, the author referred to Grzegorz Cnapius’s dictionary (1643-1644), Sebastian Petrycy’s paraphrase of Horace’s poems (1609), and contemporary writers: Adam Naruszewicz and Dawid Pilchowski. Zbiór rzeczy… is composed of 21 chapters, some of which are supplemented with more or less extensive sets of words with the largest one to be found in the final chapter. Dudziński begins his deliberations with spelling and punctuation issues, continues with a discussion on phonetic, inflectional and syntactic aspects (government), and devotes most attention to vocabulary. As can be inferred from the content layout, he assumes word forms, stylistic values, time of appearance in the language, etymology, classification into a given thematic area, and ambiguity as the basis for segmenting vocabulary. Since Dudziński had a contact with a regional variant of Polish (he came from Mazovia, received his education in Polack and Vilnius, was a teacher in Minsk), regionalisms also became an object of his evaluation in terms of correctness, which makes Zbiór rzeczy… a valuable source of knowledge of the north borderland Polish language.
Go to grammarСравнительная грамматика польскаго языка с русским, составленная учителем гимназии Михаилом Грубецким (= Comparative grammar of Polish and Russian by a gymnasium teacher, Michał Grubecki) was reprinted seven times in the period 1872-1895. It is one of the first attempts to compare grammars of Polish and Russian for school purposes.
M. Grubecki’s work is based on a Russian grammar book (Русская грамматика (Russian Grammar), Ed. 1 1834) by Ardalion Ivanov. He replaced Russian examples with Polish ones, supplemented the textbook with Polish terms, discussed the characteristic features of Polish, provided information about Russian. When formulating theoretical rules, he relied also on Antoni Małecki’s and Józef Muczkowski’s textbooks.
The book is divided into the introduction and three sections: Словопроизведение (Morphology), Словосочинение (Syntax), Правописание (Spelling). Starting from the 5th edition [1887], the author adds a practical part titled Пример диктовки из древних авторов (Examples for dictation derived from old authors).
Grubecki’s textbook was released in a period of intensifying Russification and was used for teaching Polish in gymnasiums. In accordance with the regulations of authorities, all subjects, apart from Religious Education, were taught in Russian in the period 1869–1899.
Go to grammarGrammatyka języka polskiego przez Maxymiliana Jakubowicza ułożona (= Grammar of Polish by Maxymilian Jakubowicz) is a two-volume study published in Vilnius in 1823, recognised as one of the best 19th-century philosophical grammar books covering all fundamental fields of language description: from phonetics and orthography, to inflection, which was analysed in greatest detail, to syntax and spelling. The terminological apparatus applied in the work is explained and consistent with the philosophical concept of language, and the study itself combines a description of the basic branches of language with the process of human thinking and perception of the world. For instance, the author very rarely uses the term zdanie (a sentence) in syntax, replacing it with the term myśl (a thought), and points to względy (relations), that is the role of individual cases in syntax, in expressing thoughts rather than to formal exponents of cases in nominal inflection. The description of verb inflection is complex as the author distinguishes a range of categories, such as the system of tenses, which is expanded and inadequate to the linguistic reality. Morphonological alternations, in turn, are identified correctly although their description is characterised by errors typical of the state of knowledge of that time. Some comments on Polish syntax are still topical, e.g. ones regarding syntactic requirements of participle clauses.
Go to grammarPraktyczny wykład nauki języka polskiego… (= A practical lecture on the Polish language, including etymology, syntax and spelling) by Józefa Kamocka (1st edition: 1870) is one of the first Polish grammar books written by a woman. The book covers the material to be learnt by the youngest school children. The textbook itself is, however, addressed mainly to their mothers, who, according to the author, were supposed to teach them the knowledge contained there. This assumption, as well as the teaching qualifications of the author, who was a student of Stanisław Jachowicz, an advocate of new educational ideas, and an active teacher, determined the content presentation method. The convention of questions and answers was adopted, numerous subheadings were introduced, and the reasoning was illustrated with inflection tables, supported with examples, and supplemented with test exercises (with a key). The divisions (being part of grammar as defined at that time) discussed in the textbook are as follows: O grammatyce (On grammar) (a lecture on morphology), Nauka o składni (The science of syntax), O użyciu znaków przestankowych (On using punctuation marks), O pisowni (On spelling).
The work by J. Kamocka enjoyed high popularity, which is proved by the number of its editions, i.e. as many as eight.
Go to grammarPublished in 1767, the book O początku, dawności, odmianach… (= On the beginning, antiquity, variants and improvement of the Polish language. Sentences) is composed of 16 parts (called Zdania (Sentences) by the author). Sentences 1-7 are dedicated to the genealogy of Slavonic languages and Polish. Making references to the rich literature on the subject and etymology, Kleczewski argues that Slavonic was used by the Scythians (Scyths), followed by the Sarmatians and the Slavs. In Sentences 8-11, he takes up important issues in the field of Polish language culture, pays particular attention to borrowings, scientific and professional terminology, macaronicisms, neologisms (he formulates criteria for their evaluation), appropriate word choice, and correct pronunciation. As regards borrowings, he represents a purist approach, offers propositions of their replacement with native neologisms, old words or words borrowed from other Slavonic languages. He criticises the dismissive attitude to the mother tongue and negligence in language education and points to the absence of grammar and a codified standard. He appreciates the initiatives for language improvement taken by the environment of king Stanisław Poniatowski. Sentence 12 is dedicated to the issue of upbringing, 13 – to benefits from reading books and mastering memorisation skills, while Sentences 14-16 – to translating and writing books in Polish. Through his work, Kleczewski joined the group of Enlightenment activists (Franciszek Bohomolec, Ignacy Krasicki, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski), who engaged in the battle for the rebirth of their native language in the 18th c.
Go to grammarOnufry Kopczyński is known mainly as the author of the so-called school grammar book, written and published by the order of the Commission of National Education in the 1780s. Developed at the turn of the 19th century, Grammatyka języka polskiego (=Polish grammar by Piarist X. Onufry Kopczyński. A posthumous work), was released a year after the author’s death and is to a large extent an outcome of the revision of Grammatyka dla szkół narodowych (= Grammar for national schools) and the evolution of the author’s grammatical concepts. The study has 267 pages and consists of three parts divided into shorter chapters. This arrangement is subordinate to the classical triad and reflects Onufry Kopczyński’s theory on the nature of language, which, in his opinion, is composed of “speech” (the phonetic layer), “meaning”, and “painting of speech” (the graphic layer). The posthumous Polish grammar book offers a highly detailed analysis of these elements, as a result of which the reader is provided with a description of all language subsystems. Unlike school grammar, the description is made in isolation from the Latin one, which is a starting point for the discussion on Polish grammar in Onufry Kopczyński’s first work. Although the author had proposed a Polish-language grammatical terminology in his earlier study, he consolidated and (in some cases) revised it in the so-called posthumous grammar book. From the viewpoint of the 19th-century grammatical thought, Grammatyka języka polskiego of 1817 did not bring any revolutionary solutions and many of the theories its proposed originated from the Enlightenment concepts, which were criticised later, for instance by Józef Mroziński. It does not change the fact, however, that the work’s contribution to the development of not only the Polish thought but also (and foremost) the grammatical terminology cannot be overestimated.
Go to grammarSystematyczna składnia języka polskiego (= Systematic syntax of Polish) is one of the first Polish grammar books dedicated entirely to syntactic issues. Its author was Antoni Krasnowolski, a linguist, teacher and translator born in 1855. The author’s aim was to describe Polish syntax and its rules in detail.
His work is composed of Wstęp (Introduction), where he explains the basic syntactic terms, and two essential parts. The first one, dedicated to simple sentences, describes primary (subject and predicate) and secondary (nominal and adjectival attributes and adverbial modifiers as well as complements) elements of a sentence, and the second one discusses syntax of compound sentences, which the author divided by three criteria: the replaced part of speech, the discussed part of a sentence, and coordinate clause conjunctions into: 1) nominal, verbal, adjectival and adverbial, 2) subjective, predicative, attributive, and complement, 3) conjunctive, interrogative and relative clauses. The author did not disregard correctness issues and pointed to various syntactic barbarisms.
A. Krasnowolski’s grammar book was positively received by critics and users, which is evidenced by the number of editions and preparation of an abridged version for schools. A. Krasnowolski was the first linguist to describe so many syntactic aspects of Polish, standardise the syntactic terminology and introduce new definitions of popular terms. The 20th-century linguists also appreciated the author’s contribution to the development of the knowledge of Polish syntax: the use of formal and logical criteria in classification of terms, separation of subjectless sentences from one-element ones, identification of a nominal attribute, a preliminary description of an apposition as a separate part of a sentence, a more in-depth description of various parts of a sentence. Polish linguistics owes, among others, the distinction of the adverbial of comparison, the adverbial of regard, and the adverbial of accompanying circumstances to the author.
Go to grammarGramatyka języka polskiego (= Polish Grammar Book: A School Textbook with 19 Drawings, a Table and Map of Dialects) by Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and Roman Kubiński, originally intended for students, was first published in 1927 by the Ossoliński National Institute Publishing House. It had seven editions with the fifth one released twice. The authors of the work describe Polish grammar in three main unnumbered chapters divided into shorter subchapters and paragraphs. Chapter one is dedicated to phonetics and phonology, chapter two – to morphology, and chapter three – to syntax. Morphology is discussed in the greatest detail. It is worth noting that although it is not a study characterised by high innovativeness overall, Lehr-Spławiński and Kubiński express there some original thoughts and use peculiar grammatical terms (e.g. orzeczenie domyślne (an implied predicate), przydawka ilościowa przydawki (a quantitative attribute of an attribute)).
Go to grammarKlucz do języka francuskiego... (= A key to French, that is Polish-French grammar compiled by Bartłomiej Kazimierz Malicki, a Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, a Secretary of His Majesty, to help the Poles eager to learn French) is the second Polish-language French grammar book published in Poland (the first was F.D. Duchênebillot’s Nouvelle méthode..., published in 1699). Malicki decided to release it, as can be inferred from the preface, as a study clearly competitive and critical against Duchênebillot’s grammar book, which was published a year earlier. Klucz…, written with the Poles learning the language of Moliere in mind, was to be the first reliable lecture dedicated to French relying on grammatical publications recognised in France (the basic source used by Malicki was the bilingual Latin-French grammar by M. Mauconduit titled Nouvelle Grammaire Françoise..., released in Paris in 1678). On the other hand, Klucz… was supposed to serve, as an accessible aid in learning French grammar, practical teaching purposes.
Klucz... is composed of three treaties dedicated to: a) phonetics and orthography (“orthography”), b) morphology of the inflected parts of speech (“etymology”), c) morphology of the uninflected parts of speech and syntax (“syntax or structures, in Polish: term agreement”). The discussed grammar book was not officially reissued (yet its fragments were illegally reprinted a few times in the 18th century). Published in 1701, Lexykon francusko-polski (French-Polish Lexicon) is an intended continuation of and supplementation to Klucz… by Malicki.
Go to grammarAntoni Małecki used the output of comparative linguistics and included the historical development of the Polish language in his description presented in Gramatyka języka polskiego większa (= Greater grammar of Polish) published in Lviv in 1863, which made his study stand out from earlier textbooks in terms of scientific level. The historical approach left its mark on nearly all branches of grammar (in the traditional sense of this discipline). The textbook contains not only a description of the language contemporary to Małecki but also, which is a novelty against the earlier Polish studies, extensive commentaries on the history of Polish, the information about its development, transformations, system and unit language changes, and reconstructions of entire words, individual inflectional endings, suffixes, word-formative affixes, etc. The relevant literature emphasises the prominent role of Małecki’s study in inspiring new methodological ideas as it is owed to this textbook that a new stream of research on language, i.e. the historical-comparative method, was there to stay in Poland and prevailed in the Polish linguistics until as late as the early 20th century. What is also noted in Gramatyka... is a completely novel definition of the category of voice, important observations about aspectual pairs, separating word-formation and inflection issues (which had been described jointly by earlier grammarians) as well as a specification of the object and scope of the description of these branches, and a new approach to some declension issues, consistent with Western scientific grammar books.
Go to grammarThe 276-page long Neu-erörterte Polnische Grammatica… (= Polish grammar explained anew. Based on dependable authors, own exercises and experience, for the glory of God, for the benefit of school youth), the author of which was the rector of the Municipal School in Kluczbork in the period 1711-1745, is an extensive and thorough study discussing four branches of grammar: orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody. As declared by the author himself, the textbook was written to facilitate and improve the process of teaching and learning Polish. The author prepared the textbook relying on his own experiences as a teacher of Polish. Being an advocate of learning by memorising, who puts emphasis on remembering words, he wrote a typical grammatical textbook which discusses individual branches of grammar, provides rules and examples rather than teaches words. The author recommends that words be learnt from lexicons, which perfectly supplement his grammatical compendium, which is intended to be used in schools. He addresses his work to the German youth learning Polish at the Kluczbork school, and later also at the Byczyna school. The grammar book by Jan Ernst Müllenheim must have enjoyed high popularity in Silesia given that there were three editions of it (1717, 1726, 1755). It should be noted, however, that it is not an easy read as the author applies Latin grammatical terminology, the grammatical commentary is skimpy at times and does not always suffice to comprehend the numerous inflectional paradigms presented.
Go to grammarZasady... (= Rules of Polish grammar prepared exclusively for the purposes of the Polish School (Batignolles in Paris)) by R. Piotrowski was published with students of the Polish School in Paris (commonly known as the School at Batignolles) in mind. The work consists of two separately published parts, the first of which is dedicated chiefly to morphology, while the second, complementary, one – to syntax. Piotrowski clearly specified the source he used when writing the syntactic part: it was “gramatyka Józefa Muczkowskiego” (“Józef Muczkowski’s grammar”). Both parts were arranged according to the question and answer method (grammarians of that time called such a layout a catechismal one). Phonetic information was outlined briefly in the introduction to part one, whereas Polish spelling was addressed in separate chapters (one in part one and the other one in part two), as well as in three Dodatki do pierwszej części tej Gramatyki (Supplements to part one of this Grammar Book). For instance, the last of the supplements, by Feliks Wrotnowski, contains, as indicated in the title, information O znaczeniu i używaniu głosek: i, j, y (On the meaning and usage of sounds: i, j, y). Zasady..., which encompasses issues in the field of morphology and syntax as well as phonetics and orthography, can be regarded as a complete pedagogical grammar (based, however, on “scientific” grammars of that time).
Go to grammarJacek Idzi Przybylski, a classical philologist, polyglot, translator, poet, professor of the university in Cracow and librarian, expounded his thought regarding the Polish language when working on commentaries to his translations of Greek literature. His work is a mere “dorywczy roztrzęs Narodowego Języka” (a lengthy discussion on the National Language), which was written in the form of a dictionary entry, namely Język polski (Polish language), with the mentioned explanations entitled Klucz staroświatniczy do sześciudziesiąt dwu śpiewów Homera i Kwinta (An ancient key to sixty-two songs by Homer and Quintus) (Cracow, 1816).
The dissertation is a lecture on how Przybylski perceived and described language. The main reason for writing it was his wish to explain his translation procedures, which were characterised by originality and freedom in selecting linguistic means. The author did not intend to create a new and, what is more, common grammar book as he appreciated Onufry Kopczyński’s work and found it exhaustive. Hence, his study is not addressed to a wide range of recipients. The erudite reasoning is targeted at “prawoświatli Rodacy” (enlightened Compatriots), “Taynioznawcy” (Insiders).
This and the author’s strong stamp locate Przybylski’s grammar book within the amateur, non-scientific, stream of grammar writing typical of the 1st half of the 19th c. Each of the five sections: Przystęp (introduction), Pismownia (where he describes spelling rules), Wywodnia (a description of etymology and morphology, including in particular word formation), Szykownia (syntax) and Wyśpiewnia (prosody), which constitute the main description of the system, contains numerous digressions where the author substantiates, among others, his views on proper word usage (their copestone is wyrazar – an extensive etymological and prescriptive dictionary). What is particularly attention-grabbing is the peculiar grammatical terminology being a consequence of the views (e.g. istotnik – a noun, przedzak – a preposition, uczęstniak – a participle, okoliczniak – an adverb, natrącak – an interjection). Although it is not revolutionary and free from errors, Przybylski’s work covers some modern approaches to grammatical problems, such as the postulate to resign from slanting vowels or the distinction of the y – i – j series, and interesting classifications resulting from the author’s independent, and specific, look at language.
Go to grammarThe 111-page-long Polish grammar book (= A guide to Polish / That is a thorough training of Polish captured in short and clear rules), the author of which was a teacher of Polish and Italian at Leipzig University, is a study discussing three branches of grammar: orthography, etymology, and syntax. It is an outline of Polish grammar rather than an extensive or detailed work. The author describes the individual issues in brief and illustrates them with some examples. However, he often refers to studies by other authors (e.g. of Latin grammar books), pointing to them as a source of knowledge of Polish grammar. He uses Latin terminology in the description. Hence, he expects the user of his grammar book to be familiar with Latin grammar. This is evidenced also by the fact that the author shortens the grammatical commentary or omits it altogether claiming that it is redundant as the discussed phenomenon can be found also in Latin.
The textbook is addressed to the German recipient, for whom a command of Polish became not only useful but also indispensible on August II of the Saxon Wettin dynasty ascending the Polish throne. As the author states in the preface, both countries thus became an economic and social community. He justifies the need to publish his study with the outdatedness of the older textbooks for learning Polish available on the market, since Polish, like all other languages, becomes increasingly more perfect and subtle year by year. The textbook he offers the readers teaches the contemporary language.
Go to grammarE. Rykaczewski edited his Grammaire... (= Grammar of Polish with rules followed by examples derived from the best Polish authors, intended mainly for Polish schools in Paris) for the Polish schools in Paris established during the Great Emigration. He wrote his entire work in French (with the exception of Polish examples) and used Polish (apart from French) grammatical terminology only sometimes. Grammaire... is made of two parts, the first of which (untitled) is dedicated to Polish morphology, and the second, as the title indicates, to syntax. A brief phonetic opening was edited as Wstęp (Introduction) to part one. Rykaczewski, describing individual language rules in the grammar book, always illustrates them with his own examples and longer quotations from the Polish literature. The discussed work could be considered today as a complete (save the phonetic part) and hence an extensive scientific grammar book (it is a detailed theoretical and content-based prescriptive grammar rather than pedagogical grammar). As the analysis showed, Grammaire... is a grammar book of the mother tongue (although written in French) rather than of a foreign and second language.
Go to grammarThe textbook (= Polish stylistics and rhythmicity: a textbook for schools and the self-taught) by Kazimierz Wóycicki is dedicated to Polish stylistics and rhythmicity. The scope of the notion of stylistics is extensive and diversified, among others, by including the issues of versification based on the custom of that time, as well as of lexis, stylistic aspects of grammar, dialectology, stylisation, the use of metaphors, and the so-called oratory expressions in this study. According to the author, the objective of stylistics is to examine the linguistic means serving the purpose of expressing human thoughts and feelings. The content of the book is highly varied as it covers the issues related to everyday use of language: vocabulary and grammar, figures occurring in texts, and analysis of prose and poetry. What is particularly conspicuous within the broad range of subjects gathered here is the chapter dedicated to variants of Polish: spoken and written language; literary, that is the standard Polish language, and its special and territorial variants, as well as word life: archaisms and neologisms.
The theory presented in the textbook is limited as much as possible since its aim is to collect many exercises facilitating teachers’ work with students on literary texts. The purpose of the exercises is to ask questions to prompt discussion among students, seek answers and improve language and analytical skills needed when working on a text.
Go to grammarThe primary objective of the study was to seek the truth about Polish. As an insightful observer of the language, the author distinguishes a few types of communication and, consequently, language variants. The division into written and oral Polish as well as the language of higher social classes and commoners is clearly outlined here. Żochowski imposes high requirements of truthfulness, logicality, and consistent reasoning on grammarians.
Części mowy… (=Parts of speech inflected for case) was written for teachers of Polish as a foreign language and for foreigners. The author’s long-term teaching practice in a Jewish school contributed to the development of a reflection on the grammar of Polish and enforced the preparation of a relevant grammatical compendium.
The author specified the basis of the presented theoretical assumptions admitting that he did not devise all solutions incorporated in the study but adopted them chiefly after Józef Mroziński. Mroziński was a role model for the author of Części mowy… in terms of not only thinking about language but also building an argument. What should be considered common for them is the rejection of the a priori description patterns of Polish built on grammatical descriptions of other languages; formulation of conclusions exclusively based on in-depth analyses; a polemic character of the reasoning and reference to historical texts.
The content of Części mowy… was divided into 325 paragraphs, which filled up thirteen chapters of the book. Chapter one was dedicated to phonetics, chapter two – to enumeration of the parts of speech inflected for case. The author devoted five chapters to nouns (III–VII), three chapters to adjectives (VIII–X), one chapter to numerals (XII) and pronouns (XIII). Chapter XI discusses the so-called imiona nieforemne (irregular names) and imiona ułomne (imperfect names).
The grammarian presents his original approach to the issues and proposes his own terms in several cases. Some of the judgments stand the test of time.
Żochowski’s text is highly diversified in terms of style.
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