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1.4TeEnglishandthePoles—Twodiferentculturesł
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emotionsingeneral”.Polesareveryemotional,interestedintheinterlocutor’s
life,direct,andspontaneous.Lewandowski(2008:123)referstothemasanuin-
fantilenation”.Tehighlydevelopedsystemofdiminutiveformationreflects
thistheoryinthelanguage(Wierzbicka1985;Bogdanowska-Jakubowska2010:
184-185).InPolishculture,theneedforacceptanceandappreciationismore
importantthantheneedforautonomy.Tus,Poleshaveanorientationtowards
positivepoliteness(Jakubowska1999:33).
However,itmustbestatedthatPolescannottreatthemselvesassuperiorto
theEnglish.Beingmoreemotionalthanothersdoesnotnecessarilyhavetobe
perceivedasavirtue(Gawroński1928:217).FromEnglishpointofview,Polish
culturemayseemtobeexaggerated,toodirect,andimpolite(Duszak1998:272).
WhenitcomestothelanguageofPoles,incomparisonwithEnglishwhichis
consideredtobeupositivelyandexpresslymasculine”(Jespersen1972:2),itmay
beperceivedaschildishorfeminine.Everycultureisdiferentandhasitsown
normsandpatternswhichshouldberespected.
1.4.2.1TeexaggerateduseofdiminutivesinPolish—
Itsreasonsandconsequences
WhilelisteningtoeverydayconversationsofPoles,itcouldbeassumedthat
diminutivesaremorefrequentlyusedtoexpressspeaker’semotionalattitudeto-
wardstheworldhelshelivesinratherthantodenotethesmallnessofaphysi-
calentity(whichisconsideredbymostscholarsastheprototypicalmeaningof
diminutives,seealsoChapter3.1).Itwasobservedforthefirsttimein1928by
Gawroński(1928:199,208),whowritesthatdiminutivemeaningsconcerning
emotionsareprevalentinlanguagesrichinexpressiveforms.Asanexamplehe
givestheexpressionanigrosikaCnotevenasinglepenny’herethediminutive
formdoesnotexpresssmallnessbutratherintensificationofthespeaker’semo-
tions.Onaccountofsignificantemotionalvalueofdiminutives,Gawroński(1928:
209-211)listssomesituationsinwhichtheuseofthemismostcommon:
a)conversationswithchildren;
b)men’sattitudetowardswomen;
c)mutualrelationsbetweenlovers;
d)people’severydayconversations.
Polishbelongstothegroupoflanguageswhichareveryproductiveasfar
astheformationanduseofdiminutivesisconcerned(LiselingNilsson2012:
122),asitisoneofSlavoniclanguages,which,asGawroński(1928:202)writes,
containnumerousdiminutives(seealsoWędkiewicz1929).AccordingtoAnna
Wierzbicka(1999:164),thereasonforthisisthatPolishcultureisveryemotion-
al(seealsoLubecka2000:47;Bogdanowska-Jakubowska2010:184-185).Using