Media discourse – a research review

The article is a review of eight studies in which, with varying intensity and different purpose, the expression media discourse has been used. Furthermore, the article includes two important postulates. The first one being to exclude fiction texts, which are of a dominant autotelic function, from the media discourse analysis. The second one – to revise the opinion that the Internet discourse is a homogeneous structure. Hypertext discourse seems to be a crucial and instrumental category which overlaps with the media discourse, being, however, more precise in nature. The author concludes that media discourse is a type of a one-way communication through the mass media, where the sender is institutionalized, and the audience is the recipient. The message requires transceiver devices and is characterized by progressing iconisation. The objective of the sender is to direct social attention and model the views of his/her audience. The press discourse, the radio discourse, the television discourse and the hypertext discourse can be distinguished within the media discourse framework, in accordance with the type of data transmission. Semiotically, this type of communication is located in the mediasphere and displays a combination of three areas of signs: iconography, “sonophere” (sphere of sound) and logosphere, while eliminating the fourth area, the “galenosphere” (sphere of silence).

Key words: mediasphere, hypertext discourse, public discourse, directing social attention

Evolution of the term coming out in the context of the language-culture interrelations

The article traces the evolution of the term coming out: one of the constituent elements of the LGBT discourse. The evolution proceeds in the following phases described in the article: a communication event – a speech genre – an art (literature, film) genre, while maintaining the name coming out, also in the Polish language, yet with the parallel search for its Polish equivalents and synonyms.

Key words: coming out, speech genres, speech genres evolution, LGBT discourse

On the ideologization of aesthetic standpoints and attitudes (around the public dispute over the artistic installation “Tęcza” [“Rainbow”] located in Pl. Zbawiciela [Savior’s Square] in Warsaw)

The main issue of the article is the process of ideologization of the discourse on modern art. The author analyses media statements following the burning down of Julita Wójcik’s art installation “Tęcza” in Warsaw. The dispute mentioned did not focus on the aesthetic judgements, but on the symbolic value of the work. Built to symbolize the tolerance for homosexuals, the installation prompted intense aggression (both physical and verbal) among representatives of the extreme right. The author juxtaposes statements coming from both sides of the conflict. What merits particular attention here is the strategy of hybridization of discourses that are mutually exclusive (discourse of tolerance and discourse of exclusion). It aims at devaluing the discourse of tolerance and “softening” the negative image of the discourse of exclusion.

Key words: ideologization, discourse, art, exclusion, tolerance, hybridization of discourses

The status of a language vs. the will of the people and codification. Based on the example of Silesian

The article discusses various factors which are perceived as important in discerning linguistic phenomena recognized as languages or dialects. Among the said factors the author mentions the necessity of codification, commenting on the state thereof in relation to the Silesian ethno-language, as well as other linguistic factors. The author states that social issues cannot be omitted, even though establishing the status of a regional language is a legal and political matter. As a vital argument in this discussion, she points at the data collected in the national census from 2011, and particularly at the answer to the questions about one’s national/ethnic identity as well as one’s mother tongue and language used at home. The author also quotes the opinions of the supporters and the opponents of the idea of granting the Silesian ethno-language the status of a regional language.

Key words: Silesia, codification, language, dialect, regional language

On the limits of verbalization, that is “what” and “to what extent” can be expressed in language? An attempt to formulate the problem

The article is a type of reconnaissance. The author aims at providing a description of the limits of language, including the structure and meaning, focusing particularly on the issues relating to the limitations of speech. The author seeks the answer the following question: what and to what extent can be said? In close relationship with the analyzed problem author explicates selection features of the verbs of speaking. On this basis, the author creates a classification of sentences.

Key words: linguistics, epistemology, verbalization, limit

From the Polish words to the Polish phrases The quest for the key words to the Polish culture

The paper summarizes the ethno-linguistic research on the Polish words (understood as the names of Polish values, both positive and negative), and the Polish phrases (idioms and quotations seen as elements of Polish collective memory which are supposed to be explanatory instruments in the process of description of the Polish culture or, for instance, in creation of the self-portrait of a Pole). The main part of the paper is a presentation of the author’s research inspired by Anna Wierzbicka’s theory of the key words to the cultures and discussion on rules and methods of recognizing the key words and arranging them in a culturally motivated hierarchy. The author perceives the key words – in accordance with the principles of the cognitive semantics – as a linguistic expressions which constitute access sites to an entire network of culturally profiled notions. She claims that the important part of the network of Polish notions is, in the term of cognitive semantics, “profiled” and in other words “programmed” by democratic ideas of the old Polish society: the Polish noblemen (szlachta). By means of the analysis of a few texts, the author proves that there is a connection between the notions of democratic rights of liberty (wolność) and equality (równość) and terms and notions repeatedly used in Polish self-description: willfulness (swawola), anarchy (anarchia), rebelions (bunty), envy (zazdrość, zawiść). Another link is found between the democratic institution of Polish sejm/sejmik (parliament) which is well established in culture and in language and characterized by speeches delivered from different points of view, and the notions of Polish quarrels (kłótnie), strifes (swary) and disputes (spory).

Key words: key words to cultures, democratic ideas in Polish culture, network of cultural concepts