Czego bronimy, broniąc języka? O możliwych przyczynach niechęci do wyrazów zapożyczonych
What are we defending when defending language? On potential causes of aversion to loanwords

Summary/Abstract: Loanwords are an object of dislike for many people. It is important to understand the causes of this aversion: it can help shape proper attitudes towards language and even increase social acceptance for changes in the extra-linguistic reality. This paper presents a hypothesis that the actual cause of aversion to loanwords is not the officially declared factors, e.g. patriotic, theoretical linguistic, teaching, or stylistic ones, as these motives can only result from rationalization of the attitudes represented by people who are unaware of the causes of their behaviors. The actual cause of aversion to loanwords, at least in the case of certain people, can be their unreadiness to open to changes in language and, in broader terms, in the social environement, which results from sociological and psychological factors. Arguments for the thesis, which are presented in this paper, are derived from research conducted by sociologists, psychologists and linguists.

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