Imperceptywność w języku macedońskim i polskim
Imperceptivity in Macedonian and Polish languages

Author(s): Magdalena Błaszak
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: imperceptivity; Macedonian language; Polish language
Summary/Abstract: Imperceptivity in Macedonian and Polish languages is the theme undertaken in mydissertation.“Imperceptivity” is a phenomenon manifested by communicating the speaker’s contentin such a way that the information is transmitted as a secondary one and not hisown one, but at the same time it expresses the speaker’s reservation to the veracity ofthe quoted information. In most Indo-European languages including Slavic it is expressedby lexical means, whereas Bulgarian and Macedonian is performed by the use of theappropriate forms of tenses [and possibly simultaneously supported by lexical means].Imperceptivity is highly grammaticized and described in Polish as a category of witness;Macedonian прекажаност. Among Indio-European languages this category occurs inLithuanian, Latvian and New-Armenian languages. The existence of this category amongnon Indo-European languages was also confirmed in Turkish, Mongolian, Caucasian andUrgo-Finnish.The purpose of this dissertation was the characteristic of Imperceptivity category inthe respect of semantics as well as a description of subsequent cases of grammaticalizationof this category and lexical ways of its expressing. Thanks to the realization of these goalsI wanted the nature of this category to become more accessible and make less difficultyboth in acquiring, teaching Macedonian and translation practice.Each language is organized on the basis of a system of categories which can put in orderthe language reality and the off-language world expressed in it. One of the features of languagecategory is that it can vary even within the same family as far as degree of clarityis concerned and therefore the possessed exponents. Such a situation is noticed in Macedonianlanguage which has developed the category unknown in most Slavic languages,including the Polish one. However, it does not mean to be completely absent in Polish language.The term “category of witness” and “category of Imperceptivity” described in Polishliterature indicates the receiver of the text that the speaker was not a witness of a describedevent, but he repeats the words of the original sender. This category is also used when theauthor of the text is amazed and surprised of the present situation.The dissertation consists of five parts.In first chapter I tried to present the conceptual range of semantic category of “Imperceptivity”.The second chapter was divided into three parts. I discuss consecutively the meansexpressing imperceptive significance in Macedonian and Polish languages: intonation,lexical and morphological exponents including primarily the construction of the verb “tohave” + infinitive. Its initial part contains the general characteristic of the dialect found inMacedonian. Then, I focused on the description of bitolsy and kicevsky dialects becauseof the importance they differ in terms of the category I am interested in. Chapter four includesanalysis of the imperceptive sentence structure. I described conditions needed forthe category of witness it creates with other modal sub-categories. Analysis concerns bothcompared languages. In the final section you can find the conclusions resulting from thecomparison. Chapter five presents the way of showing the category of witness in variousstyles and genres of language occurring within journalistic style. Performing the analysisof Macedonian daily press texts I tried to show how much the difference between the directand indirect transmission is present in the Macedonians’ language consciousness.I also brought closer particular cases of the adequate application of grammar tenses sothat this category has become more accessible and comprehensible both in practical andtheoretical terms. In other words to be well interpreted by non-native speakers. In the finalpart of this chapter the way of expressing the category of witness in the process of translationMacedonian prose is presented. The ways of transferring the category “прекажаност”by translators in Polish language have been discussed as well.The contrastive Macedonian-Polish approach revealed more clearly the nature of thiscategory. Category of Imperceptivity is likely to be in more languages and in some Europeanlanguages has been examined accurately e.g. Lithuanian, Bulgarian and on somebasic level in Macedonian. It is not associated with one family, but on contrary, it occursin grammaticized form in distant languages. The image of the category on a different levelof grammaticalization in languages is used unequally consciously by the language speakers.As an example of such weaker awareness of its existence is Polish language. Confrontationwith Macedonian literary language shows clearly that this category in comparisonto Polish is much more grammaticized. In Polish it is mostly expressed by lexicalexponents or quasi-morphological structure “to have” + infinitive. This latter structure,however, cannot be classified as strong exponents of this category due to its ambiquity andmultifunctionality.In Macedonian the category of Imperceptivity is an “alive” one, noticeable in less rigorousstyles – colloquial, journalistic and artistic. It is a consistent way applied by Macedonianswith an average efficiency of language and language culture regardless of age, backgroundor education; seldom used in scientific and official styles that is associated with lessflexibility of stylistic and grammatical means. The category of witness is much more clearlyand frequently visible in Macedonian daily press. The authors of articles apart from theirgenre select efficiently forms of the verbs, it means that according to the grammatical rulesthey use the category. Imperceptivity is visible in informative articles, sport information,topics in the field of culture. With the presence of this category journalists inform theirreceivers about the circumstances they participated or not and at the same time expressingtheir attitude towards transmitted contents.This category carries a full range in prose and allows the writer to use all possibilitiesfor its transmission. In the case of translation Macedonian prose into languages whichpossess it in non-grammaticized or poorly grammaticized form. The process of translation can be a serious challange for a translator [e.g. in Polish translations]. ComparingMacedonian-Polish literary translations, a translator not always translates accurately theimperceptive meaning of the text. The difference between direct and indirect transmissionis strongly present in the Macedonians’ language consciousness. In the case of Macedonianliterary texts, translation does not differ significantly from the origin. The proper amountof verbs form verba decenti group indicating the category of witness is preserved. Thelexical means are rarely used in translation to express imperceptive concepts of the origin.Because of the lack of proper tested category in Macedonian-Polish translations, the translatorsbattled against the difficulties in selecting appropriate means of language –lexical.

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