Abstract Alexander A. Sigorskiy. Evolution of ergativity in the Western Hindi. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences, PL ISSN 0079-4740, pp. 41-58 The early stage of the Western Hindi vernaculars demonstrates two types of typology competing with each other - Nominative typology and Split Ergative typology. Ergative typology includes a number of ergative strategies existing in different vernaculars and in the one and the same vernacular as well. In the course of standardization of Modern Standard Hindi (MSH) Split Ergative Typology wins. The main features of Old Hindi case system are: 1) Old Hindi demonstrates the same, dative case marking both for Subject (Agent) and Object (Patient), whereas MSH has differentiated these case markers, 2) Old Hindi has two types of agreement - (a) only with unmarked S/O and (b) both with unmarked and marked S/O, while MSH allows only the first one.

Abstract The diaphonic aspect of phonotactics as a necessary counterpart of the isophonic aspect is being subjected to investigation. A ll assumptions and definitions are exemplified with P olish language material. Having recollected and relatively precisely explained phonological terms, indispensible for the subsequent inquiry, the distinction between diacrisis and diaphony is discussed, and several useful concepts such as the diaphonotacteme, diaphonic pair, diaphonic range, diaphonotactemic length etc. are introduced. N ext some fundamental phonotactological terms are defined to which, among others, the following belong: diaphonic load, diacritic range, the diatactophoneme, diaphonic dispersion, diacritic dispersion, types of diaphony and diacrisis. A lso some problems of diaphonic paradigm and diaphonic coding are considered. Finally, a phonotactological typology within the framework of comparative phnotactology of languages is postulated

Abstract The increased prevalence of discourse concerning the expected end of the world was observed in various countries and manifested in various genres especially in the years 2000 and 2012. Some of the discourse was conducted in a serious manner, whereas other instances included humorous motifs and were used for commercial purposes. The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at the typical motifs prevailing in the discourse concerning the end of the world, with special emphasis on the humorous aspect - both universal and culture-specific. Texts found on Polish, German, English and Russian websites were analyzed. In the studied material, the end of the world was understood literally and broadly - in terms of extermination of the human race, eschatology - or narrowly, in terms of statistical data concerning the death of a given number of people, or even individually, referring to the imminent ending of each person’s particular world. T he metaphorical meaning of the end of the world was also used in the sense of “a commotion”, “the pressure of business”, “a mess, confusion”, and “accumulation of problems”, referring mostly to the functioning of particular institutions or lack of access to the Internet, or reviving common stereotypes.

Abstract Starting with the Transitivity Requirement hypothesis [the direct object counterpart of Extended Projection P rinciple (EPP)], we examine the development of cognate objects and cognate subjects in English. We show that English extended the range of both cognate objects - which are now also possible with activity/event nouns - and cognate subjects - cognate subjects became an option for impersonal verbs. However, we argue that a correlation between the development of cognate arguments and the changes in null arguments should be excluded, whereas the development of the cognate arguments appears to be related to aspectual changes.

Abstract Evidentiality in a broad sense, including reported evidentials, inferentials, miratives, quotatives and delocutives in Hindi is represented by evidential strategies or non-grammaticalized modes of expression of evidential semantics merged with some other grammatical categories. Hindi evidentials are represented morphologically (inferentials marked by moods), syntactically (mirativity) and lexically (delocutives).

Abstract As Kātyāyana emphasizes while commenting on the ekaśeṣa-rules, words apply per object. Consequently, no word should be capable of conveying more than one object. By contrast not only does paronomasia, the so-called śleṣa, break the one-to-one relation between the śabda- and artha-levels of language; there are also grammatical rules which look like deviations from the naturally expected cause-effect relation between word forms and their meanings. The ekaśeṣa-rule represents one of these exceptions, since some parts of the artha are comprehensible, even without employing the word-form denoting them, such as mātṛ in the dual noun pitarau, meaning ‘mother and father’ rather than ‘the two fathers’. P atañjali already mentions an intriguing option in the use of śabdas, when he notes that a word form can merely convey its primary denotation, such as candra denoting the ‘moon’, or can express something that is ‘like something else’, such as candra conveying the sense of a ‘face like a moon’. These exceptions are reconsidered here within the framework of the “yugapad-expression”, which is how Bhartṛhari defines one of the two language options (the other one being kramaḥ ‘sequence’), an option realised when a single word simultaneously conveys more than one meaning, but an option whose use is discouraged. Technical (ritual and grammatical) speculations on simultaneity as an exception to the bi-unique relationship between a cause and its effect date back to the 2nd to 3rd centuries BC. Nonetheless, grammarians insist on excluding these extreme applications of meaning extension; only the late kāvyālaṃkāraśāstra- authors extol the virtues of the phenomenon. The paper focuses on the trajectory that might have been followed in the intervening changes.

Abstract Marcin Lewandowski. The Language of Online Sports Commentary in a Comparative Perspective. Lingua Posnaniensis, vol. L IV (1)/2012. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences. PL ISSN 0079-4740, ISBN 978-83-7654-103-7, pp. 65-76. This paper attempts to describe a relatively new media genre (or as the author prefers to see it, an electronic register), i.e., online sports commentary (OSC). The analysis concerns English-language online live soccer match reports, and is based on a methodological framework proposed by D. Biber and S. Conrad (2009), who in register studies emphasize the correlation between the situational characteristics and lexico-grammatical features of a particular language variety. The paper also aims to compare the register in question with other related varieties, i.e., written sports commentary (WSC) and sports announcer talk (SAT ) in order to corroborate the hypothesis that the register of online commentary is a hybrid of spoken and written language.

Phrygian Glosses in Pseudo-Plutarch's Work De Fluviis The aim of my study is to discuss three Phrygian glosses attested in Pseudo-Plutarch's work Περιπoταμων and explain them from the etymological and historical-comparative point of view. It is concluded finally that all the glosses should be regarded as a real and valuable part of the Phrygian language.

The Hierarchical System of Speech ActsThe author discusses the problem of speech acts classification on the basis of the pragmatic function. The relevant elements of context, on the example control of the announcement directly to target addressee or to third parties, are also taken into account. The classification of speech acts proposed by the author has a dichotomous as well as a hierarchical character. The author distinguishes and describes the following types of speech acts: inventional vs. conventional; communicative vs. uncommunicative; polite vs. customary; representative vs. performative; expositive vs. verdictive; causative vs. deliberative; descriptive vs. declarative; directive vs. commissive; initiative vs. reactive; extentional vs. intentional; appellative vs. creative; cooperative vs. magic.