Abstract

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.