Die Welt der Slaven: Internationale Halbjahresschrift für Slavistik
Die Welt der Slaven: Internationale Halbjahresschrift für Slavistik Herausgegeben von Daniel Bunčić (Köln), Susanne Frank (HU Berlin), Schamma Schahadat (Tübingen), Katrin Schlund (Halle), Monika Wingender (Gießen) Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden ISSN 0043-2520 · eISSN 2193-5472 Beirat: Natalia Bernitskaïa (Paris), Gesine Drews-Sylla (Würzburg), Mina Đurić (Belgrad), Raoul Eshelman (München), Rainer Grübel (Oldenburg), Sabine Häusler (Halle), Sebastian Kempgen (Bamberg), Aleksandr Lavrov (IRLI RAN, St. Petersburg), Marek Łaziński (Warschau), Volkmar Lehmann (Hamburg), Peter Rehder (München), Wolf Schmid (Hamburg), Ulrich Schweier (München), Igor Smirnov (Konstanz), Michael Wachtel (Princeton), Anna Zalizniak (IJa RAN, Moskau) Wir trauern um unser langjähriges Beiratsmitglied Klaus Steinke (* 27.01.1942, † 02.04.2025). → Aktuelles Heft → Archiv ab 2019 → Archiv bis 2018 indiziert von
Grammaticalization of (in)definiteness markers in Polish monolinguals and bilinguals
Polish is considered to be in an initial stage of grammaticalization towards an article language. While previous research has claimed this to be true for monolingual and bilingual speakers, it can be expected that in Polish-German bilinguals the grammaticalization process is further advanced due to contact with an article language (German). In their case, however, the use of lexical (in)definiteness markers may merely be the result of contact with German and does not necessarily indicate the development of an article-like system in Polish. In order to determine the actual degree of grammaticalization of (in)definiteness markers in Polish and to distinguish it from mere contact-related interference from German, this study presents a fine-grained quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of the Polish demonstrative ten ‘this’/‘the’ and the numeral jeden ‘one’/‘a’ in different contexts by German-Polish bilinguals and Polish monolinguals. A mixed logistic regression model revealed no significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in this respect. While ten was used only as a demonstrative, our data show that jeden has reached the stage of an optional indefinite article.
Copyright (c) 2025 Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden
Rez.: Dopart, Bogusław. 2023. Poemat romantyczny, epopeja, summa poetica: O Panu Tadeuszu Adama Mickiewicza
Wczoraj byliśmy oglądać rowery…: On the so-called absentive in Polish Linguistic research has shown that a new construction, referred to as the absentive, has emerged in many languages. It is commonly understood as a grammatical category that expresses the subject referent’s presence in a different location. On a syntactic level, it often involves a combination of the verb to be with an infinitive. Polish also exhibits a structurally similar pattern, which, despite its prevalence, has largely been overlooked in Polish linguistics. The present study addresses this research gap and proposes an interpretation of the construction as a purpose clause.
The Old Church Slavonic eucharistic term въсѫдъ
The Old Church Slavonic eucharistic term vъsǫdъ is an original Slavic word derived from the verb *vъsǫditi (vъ + sǫd-) ‘to judge; to condemn; to determine’. The Slavic lexeme attests a semantic calque of Old High German wiz(z)ōd ‘law, commandment; (Old / New) Testament; communion’ (the second stage of the semantic shift is not attested in Slavic). Among the cognates of the Old Church Slavonic vъsǫdъ are modern Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian usud and Slovenian usoda ‘fatum’, while the reflexes of *vъsǫditi are present in Middle Russian, Middle Belarusian as well as in modern Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and in modern Russian dialects.
This article discusses Věra Linhartová and Stefan Themerson’s literary translingualism from the perspective of French sociology of literature. It works with the premises of field theory (Pierre Bourdieu) and its followers (Pascale Casanova’s world republic of letters and Jérôme Meizoz’s literary posture). It traces how the exophonic experience (the experience of authors writing in their second or third language) and the reflection of this experience are incorporated into the formation of Linhartová’s and Themerson’s literary postures. The proclamation of personal postmonolingual liberation from their first languages that both authors declare is then read in a social context. In this context, the authors’ postures: (1) position them at the autonomous poles of the literary fields of the receiving cultures, and (2) contribute to the autonomization of the potential field of literary translingualism.
Rez.: Sauerland, Karl & Krell, Detlef (Hg.). 2022. Mariupol: Reflexionen zur russischen Invasion gegen die Ukraine
The aim of the article is to present the work of a hitherto unknown writer from Lviv, Elżbieta Glaize (ca. 1772–1840). In 1801, Glaize published a collection of poems, Pierwiastki mojej muzy, most of which were devoted to female friendship. As I will argue this poetry owes much to the Sapphic literary tradition and inspiration from Sappho herself (through the poetry of the German poet Gabriele Baumberg and French Enlightenment editions). At the same time, I will identify those elements of Sappho’s poetry that became attractive to female writers of the late Enlightenment.
Urtext, Überlieferungs- und Wirkungsgeschichte im russischen Donat
Original, history of transmission and impact in the Russian Donat: How and whether contrasts can be analysed text-critically The manuscript tradition of the Russian Donatus poses a significant challenge for philologists. The recensio codicum has unveiled an intriguing textual transmission, which can be broadly categorized into two primary branches: 1) Some manuscripts, albeit defective (with two of them preserving a bilingual interlinear format), exhibit a rather mechanical copying process of the text; 2) Another branch consists of a single manuscript, which presents a seemingly better text. However, this version is a clearly augmented and interpolated version, reflecting changes made in a later period. A critical comparison between these two recensions not only permits but also necessitates a new editorial approach. This approach should prioritize the legitimate goal of textual restitution while also considering the subsequent history of the text, including its indirect tradition. It is therefore advisable to blend the “classical” method of identifying errors, wherever applicable, with a thorough examination of the text’s evolution as evidenced by the interpolated version.
Rez.: Mickiewicz, Adam. 2023. Pariser Vorlesungen über die slavische Literatur und ihre Kontexte: Teile I–IV in drei Bänden
Mickiewicz, Adam. 2023. Pariser Vorlesungen über die slavische Literatur und ihre Kontexte: Teile I–IV in drei Bänden. (Neue Redaktion der deutschen Übersetzung von Gustav Siegfried, herausgegeben, kommentiert und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Walter Kroll.) Paderborn: Brill, Schöningh.
Copyright (c) 2024 Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden
Representation of “Absolute Beauty” in F. Dostoevskij’s The Idiot and W. Faulkner’s Light in August
This article is dedicated to the comparative study of the embodiment of positive characters (Prince Myškin and Lena Grove) in the novels of Dostoevskij and Faulkner. The American writer felt great affinity to Dostoevskij’s works, and it was he who (among others) had a strong influence on Faulkner’s writing. When creating a positive character (representing, in Dostoevskij’s words, “Absolute Beauty”), the Russian did not lose sight of the parallel with the traits of his Underground Man (Notes from Underground); admittedly, the archetypal creation, whose pattern of thinking and behaving found its embodiment in many of Dostoevskij’s characters (including, to some extent, Lëv Myškin); and so did Faulkner — without the associated character of Joe Christmas, who fully followed the “underground” pattern, Lena’s “Absolute Beauty” could not be described.
Acquisition and use of Macedonian as L2 by Albanian native speakers
This article investigates the ways the Macedonian language is acquired and used by Albanians in a situation of bilingualism in the multilingual municipality of Struga (North Macedonia). The goal is to discover sociolinguistic factors triggering the use of Macedonian by Albanians in Struga and nearby villages as well as the patterns between types of contact situations and interlocutors on the one hand, and choice of the language on the other. The main source of the material analyzed consists of questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and narratives elicited by means of the picture tasks collected during field work in 2020–2022, which made it possible to use qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The article, whose title makes an ironic reference to a contemporary Internet phenomenon, is a case study of the marginalization of women writers in the literary history of Slavic modernisms. Detailing the reception of Polish volume Poezje (1876) by Maria Bartusówna, Czech Immortelly (1879) by Irma Geisslová, and Slovak Z vesny života (1895) by Ľudmila Podjavorinská, I describe the mechanism of downplaying the precursory modernist poetry on account of the age and gender of its authors. Although the volumes, published well before the emergence of modernist movements in the respective literary fields, show all the characteristics of the later Decadence and Symbolism, they were labeled merely as outpourings of excessively sad girls. Instead of being recognized as decadent, they were discredited as naïve, immature, and pretentious. As a result, none of the poets has been acknowledged as a precursor of modernism, neither by the succeeding modernists themselves nor by literary historians.
Carinthian Slovene authors on the German-language book market
This article deals with Slovene literature in Austrian Carinthia, where the Slovene ethnic group lives. As a case study, the translations and reception of the Carinthian Slovene Florjan Lipuš on the German-language book market are discussed. The research shows that Lipuš, unlike other Slovene writers from Carinthia, managed to attract not only Austrian but also renowned German publishers. Moreover, his works were also translated into French and Italian and were well received by the target audiences. A look at the broader context suggests that not only the excellent style and poetics of the Slovene author’s language played an important role in this success, but also the enthusiasm and positive criticism of Lipuš’s works by Peter Handke, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2019). This underlines the thesis of the importance of transnational intermediaries when it comes to selecting works to be translated from Slovene into a foreign language/culture.
Interactive reportages in Central and Eastern Europe
Most of the research on interactive documentaries is based on Western productions, while there is a lack of studies devoted to projects from Central and Eastern Europe. To fill this gap, the output of the journalistic Outriders group, which was founded in Poland in 2017, is analyzed. The aim of the study is to isolate the basic compositional schemes according to which these projects are built and to characterize the interactive measures present in them. To achieve this, a combination of methods and techniques is used (elements of content analysis and multimodal analysis, constant comparison technique). Based on the conducted analyses, three main compositional schemes are distinguished: reportage in the linear version, reportage in the linear version plus, and a collection of several paths. Numerous solutions to make the message interactive are also observed, viz. hyperlinks, personalization, and optional materials.
„Nicht nur mit dem Gedanken, sondern mit dem ganzen Wesen“
“Not only with the thought but with the whole being”: Lev Tolstoj on knowledge, dead paper and living action The article discusses Lev Tolstoj’s involvement in the controversy between the Russian Westerners (Sergej Solovʹev, Boris Čičerin) and the Slavophiles (Konstantin Aksakov, Aleksej Xomjakov, Jurij Samarin) about the nature and character of historical knowledge. This controversy about “true” historical knowledge forms the ideological background for Tolstoj’s reflections on the problem of knowledge. This polemic revolves around the Russian reception of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, whose works and idea of “living science” also find great support with Tolstoj. In his correspondence with Boris Čičerin and later in literary texts (especially in the novel Anna Karenina), Tolstoj develops a peculiar theory of intuitive knowledge that places “living” experience and action above “dead paper”, i.e. above academic knowledge.
A corpus-based study on the inventory and grammaticalisation of compound indefinite pronouns in Croatian
The class of series-forming indefinite pronouns in Croatian is, like in other Slavonic languages, affected by ongoing grammaticalisation processes. In addition to the indefinite pronouns recorded in grammar manuals and in studies on indefiniteness, it can be extended to include a number of elements whose degree of grammaticalisation varies considerably. Based on corpus material from the hrWaC (Croatian web corpus) and HNK (Croatian National Corpus), we were able to provide the most complete list of Croatian indefinite markers yet compiled, and to analyse the lexical sources of their grammaticalisation. Furthermore, we propose an approach for calculating the degree of grammaticalisation of indefinite pronouns. For this purpose, fifteen specific sub-criteria were developed on the basis of Lehmann’s theory of grammaticalisation, and a mixed method combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis of corpus material was used to evaluate the degree of grammaticalisation according to these sub-criteria.
Rez.: Kątny, Andrzej. 2021. Das Polnische im Spiegel des Deutschen: Studien zur kontrastiven Linguistik
Kątny, Andrzej. 2021. Das Polnische im Spiegel des Deutschen: Studien zur kontrastiven Linguistik. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego. 181 S.
The present paper examines the expression of caused motion in Polish and compares the findings with parallel data in English obtained in Hendriks et al.’s (2008) study. The aim of the analysis was twofold: i. to reveal differences between the two languages in the lexicalization of caused motion that may be assigned to their semantic and morpho-syntactic features, and ii. to find similarities between Polish and English that may be accounted for by their affinity to the same typological category. In accordance with our expectations, in Polish and English (which are both satellite-framed), the expressions of caused motion turned out to include information about the Manner of motion (above 90% in both languages) in the verb. Furthermore, we found that Polish utterances are denser in terms of the expression of both Path and Manner than English utterances. The study was based on an elicitation task involving 24 Polish-speaking participants responding to the same set of video stimuli as respondents in Hendriks et al.’s (2008) study.
Rez.: Dobrzyńska, Teresa & Raya Kuncheva (eds). 2021. Recycling in Literature and Culture
Dobrzyńska, Teresa & Raya Kuncheva (eds). 2021. Recycling in Literature and Culture. Sofia: Boyan Penev. 268 pages.
Zur Onomastik des Friedhofs in Bydgoszcz an der Kcyńska-Straße
The onomastics of the cemetery at Kcyńska Street in Bydgoszcz: Slavic surnames of adults who died between 1925 and 1935 – a structural and morphological analysis The cemetery at Kcyńska Street in Bydgoszcz was founded in 1892. Initially it was the final resting place for the homeless, the poor, criminals as well as suicide victims. This article deals with surnames of Slavic origin of adults buried on the cemetery between 1925 and 1935. The basis for the analysis is a list containing 502 anthroponyms. The main contribution of the article is a thorough structural-morphological and semantic analysis of the collected Slavic anthroponyms. The authors want to demonstrate how traditional qualitative methods can be combined with novel quantitative methods and thus contribute to the field of onomastics.
Persuasion in Adrian Bratkowic’s “Spiritual Conversation” (Kraków 1633)
The aim of this article is to discuss persuasion strategies in Rozmowa duchowna i nabożne uważanie o siedmi słowach Pana Jezusowych (Spiritual conversation and pious consideration of the seven words of the Lord Jesus) by Adrian Bratkowic (Kraków 1633). The starting point is the presentation of the devotion of the seven last sayings of Christ, the Fraternity of the Passion of the Lord in Kraków, and the profile of Adrian Bratkowic, who performed the duties of a prefect there. The matter under discussion is the structure of Rozmowa duchowna and its preceding address to Dorota Kątska, the abbess of the Norbertines in Zwierzyniec in Kraków. The article also focuses on the author’s rhetorical style and persuasive methods, as well as persuasive aspects of the communication between the writer and the reader. It becomes apparent that Rozmowa duchowna follows the patterns of seventeenth-century communication, and numerous quotations, biblical allusions, and rhetorical figures are important elements of the author’s persuasive strategy. Another matter under discussion is Bratkowic’s deep conviction in the meaningfulness of the sermons he preached and later published, his frequent emphasis on the value of teaching and benefits for the audience, and his personal attitude towards his listeners, whom he treats with respect. The research shows that the text does not lack exponents of the traditional religious style, and the rhetoric was already popularized in the Counter-Reformation era.
Der Mythos des Krieges im Roman „Das Salz der Erde“ von Józef Wittlin
The article explores Józef Wittlin’s novel “Salt of the Earth” in the light of the mythopoetics of 20th-century literature. It is established that the author refers to classical mythological plots, themes, motives and images, archaic as well as biblical. The main accent is placed on the analysis of the military myth. It is proved that the war is depicted in the novel through the perception of the main character, who is the bearer of mythological consciousness. Peter Niewiadomski’s reflections on the war are based on the main principles of mythological thinking; this concerns primarily his reception of time and space, which has a clearly defined mythological character. The author also creates a number of individual symbolic images (mythologemes), which structure the literary world of the novel, acting as constructs of a new, modern mythology of war. At the same time, the expressive means and stylistic devices of the text aim not only to mythologize the reality but also to demythologize the war, depriving it of its horrifying sacredness.
Temporal acoustic features of [r̝] and the phoneme /r̝/ in the Kashubian dialect of Bór and Jastarnia
This paper presents an acoustic analysis of the raised trill [r̝], a variant of the phoneme /r̝/, which can be optionally realised as plain fricatives [ʂ, ʐ] as well, as opposed to realisations of the clusters /rʃ, rʒ/ in the Kashubian dialect of Bór and Jastarnia. The included variables are the following: 1) length of the of the onset friction; 2) length of the closure(s), 3) length of the fricative segment(s); and 4) amplitude rise time of the (last) fricative segment. Four variants of [r̝] were established: single-closure trill-like and affricate-like, as well as multi-closure with and without a prominent friction. All variables are relevant for the discrimination of the analysed structures, with the friction and the overall length being the most reliable parameter for the contrast between all variants of [r̝] vs. realisations of /rʃ, rʒ/. The single-closure variants differ in onset friction, closure, and friction length and the multi-closure variants in the duration of the last fricative segment. All variants of [r̝] show the same overall duration, with the number and length of individual segments compensating each other. The results allow some general, distributive, and diachronic considerations.
Following in the tracks of the dwarves of Wrocław: An onomastic exploration This paper investigates the names attributed to tknhe dwarves of Wrocław as they have become some of the city’s most recognisable symbols. The dwarves are associated with the Orange Alternative (Pomarańczowa Alternatywa): the anti-communist anarchist happening movement that was initiated in Wrocław in the 1980s. The paper aims to examine the trends and the determining factors in naming the dwarf figurines. The onymic corpus examined encompasses 831 names; semantic analysis of the corpus is used as the primary tool for data analysis, taking precedence over formal analysis. Chrematonyms are the strongest determinants for the naming of the dwarves; especially institutionyms, as well as appellatives indicating a dwarf’s profession, characteristics, etc. Moreover, the names can also be motivated by their commemorative or symbolic functions. From the formal perspective, more than half of the names (67%) are linguistic-formal structures, frequently comprising affix-based derivations and compounds.
Deržavin and his marble bust This paper deals with Deržavin’s autobiographical poetry as exemplified by his poem “My Bust“. A marble bust which Deržavin had ordered for himself is a source of hope and self-doubt for his lyrical speaker. Does he actually deserve the honour represented by this sculpture and, if so, on which grounds? Accordingly, the lyrical monologue turns into a sequence of sharply contrasting moods of confidence and self-deprecation, which is unique in eighteenth-century Russian poetry. The dramatism of this monologue calms down at the end of the poem in a spirit of Horatian wisdom. The poem is remarkable for its self-critical and self-ironic character. The article closes with a reflection on Deržavin and his claim of eternal fame.
Kritisieren als Zugriffsobjekt auf mediale Diskurse
Criticising as a means of accessing media discourse: An analysis of German and Polish political discourse on the rule of law in Poland. This article, grounded in pragmalinguistics, aims to identify similarities and differences in the transfer of knowledge with regard to the prominent actors involved or presented in the national discourse on the rule of law in Poland, conducted in Germany and Poland. Its purpose is to draw conclusions on transnational discourse. The method proposed, defined as an extension of the previously applied discourse research methods, is based on the concept of criticising, construed as a complex language action whose communicative goal can be inferred mainly from the context, as well as on the basis of the recipients’ general knowledge of the world and their ability to make intertextual and discursive references. The analysis was designed to facilitate conclusions on the individual actors and their knowledge, the knowledge conveyed to the recipients, as well as general social knowledge.
knowledge created by media, linguistic discourse analysis, media discourse, Contrastive Discourse Analysis, complex linguistic activity – criticizing
Copyright (c) 2023 Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden
Pathos, shock, trauma: Psychological concepts in certain poetics of the avant-garde (Ėjzenštejn, Warburg, Benjamin) The present article aims at conceptualizing the relationship between availability and unavailability of poetic and aesthetic means of expression in the production of avant-garde art. This relationship will be introduced and analysed based on the three title terms: pathos, shock, trauma. As it seems, the avant-garde was characterized by a fundamental ambivalence: On the one hand, it was inscribed in the empowerment discourse of Modernity and believed that it could also control the conditions of its own art production. On the other hand, it was the avant-garde in particular that emphasized the independent potentiality of the material itself, which was removed from the artist’s control and could nonetheless make a decisive contribution to the creative process. This ambivalence between the total subjugation of the material to the artist’s will to form and the potentiality of the resisting material or the fundamental unavailability of art’s own conditions will be examined on the basis of three representatives of the avant-garde: Sergej Ėjzenštejn, Aby Warburg, and Walter Benjamin.
The role of noun termination in grammatical gender assignment in Polish
Previous research has shown that speakers of a variety of languages benefit from formal gender cues, e.g. word ending, when assigning grammatical gender to nouns. However, the extent to which Polish speakers compute gender based on such cues has not yet been examined. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the role of noun termination in gender assignment in Polish on psycholinguistic grounds. The paper reports on a timed Gender Decision Task which was carried out with 24 adult native speakers of Polish. Participants responded significantly faster to gender-transparent than to gender-opaque feminine nouns. However, no effect of noun termination was observed for masculine and neuter nouns. The results provide psycholinguistic evidence that the ending -a constitutes the strongest gender cue that Polish speakers can depend on when assigning gender to nouns, arguably because it is the only noun ending that shows high availability and reliability in parallel.
Dative possessors with lack-type verbs in Polish
This paper examines the syntax of dative possessors found with existential unaccusative verbs in Polish, called lack-type verbs. These verbs cannot be viewed as dyadic unaccusatives in Polish, since the dative possessor they contain behaves like an external argument, because it can bind subject-oriented anaphors. The dative possessor differs from items introduced in the specifier of a high or low ApplP, which can never bind anaphors in Polish. The unaccusativity of lack-type verbs and the external argument status of the dative possessor are reconciled by merging the dative possessor in the specifier of VoiceP, the position typical of external arguments, which is nonetheless non-thematic (expletive). Adopting Myler’s (2016; 2018) predicative possession, we argue that the possessor role of the dative DP does not come from the lack-type verb itself but is mediated by the possessed DP, denoting the relation between the possessor and the possessee. The dative does not merge within the possessed DP, but it saturates the possessor theta role once it is merged in the specifier of expletive VoiceP via Delayed Gratification.
Rez.: Miklas, Heinz et al. 2021. Psalterium Demetrii Sinaitici et Folia medicinalia (Monasterii sanctae Catharinae codex slavicus NF 3): Editio critica