Inner speech and bilingual autobiographical memory: a Polish-Danish cross-cultural study.

Thirty years after fleeing from Poland to Denmark, 20 immigrants were enlisted in a study of bilingual autobiographical memory. Ten "early immigrators" averaged 24 years old at the time of immigration, and ten "late immigrators" averaged 34 years old at immigration. Although all 20 had spent 30 years in Denmark, early immigrators reported more current inner speech behaviours in Danish, whereas late immigrators showed more use of Polish. Both groups displayed proportionally more numerous autobiographical retrievals that were reported as coming to them internally in Polish (vs Danish) for the decades prior to immigration and more in Danish (vs Polish) after immigration. We propose a culture- and language-specific shaping of semantic and conceptual stores that underpins autobiographical and world knowledge.

Polish Violin Music in the 20th and 21st Century

The purpose of this dissertation is to promote Polish violin music written in the 20th and 21st Century. My recitals included many lesser-known compositions and composers which I strongly believe deserve to be better known and more often performed. The search and preparation of those pieces, for which recordings and music scores are not easily found, was a very exciting and stimulating process. Much Polish music written in the 20th and 21st Century is interesting, expressive, beautiful, and deserves to be more often performed. Performing 20th and 21st Century music opens new perspectives in two directions: musically and technically. Performer and listener are, in many cases, unbound from tonality. Composers are looking for new sonorities and exploring such performing techniques as varieties of harmonics, quarter tones, extreme dynamics, complex rhythms, and usage of a wide range of registers. An important part of Polish music is Polish folklore. The little town of Zakopane is known for Polish traditional clothing, food, architecture, dance and music. Also, most prominent Polish luthiers including Wojciech Topa, whose instrument I am playing, have been making their instruments in Zakopane. This little town in the Tatras Mountain has been an inspiration for many Polish artists including Iwaszkiewicz, Witkacy, Karłowicz, and Szymanowski. Those composers used such folklore elements as folk scales, popular tunes, and imitations of the sound of the folk band with characteristic folk dance rhythms. Other musical genres where folk elements are strongly present are the compositions dedicated to young musicians, with a specifically educational purpose. Among composers who wrote educational music were Grażyna Bacewicz, Witold Lutosławski, and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. This approach makes the works more easily understood by young performers and, at the same time, broadens their understanding of Polish culture and prepares them for the challenges of contemporary music. This has been an exciting project for me because, on the one hand, it allowed me the challenge of performing compositions that are lesser-known and often consist of musical language new to me while, on the other, it brought me back to my roots and the country of my mother tongue.

Polish metaphorical perceptions of the translator and translation

The paper offers a comprehensive overview of the Polish metaphorics of translation. It starts by examining the Polish linguistic image of translating, followed by a survey of metaphorical descriptions of the translator and translation from the 18th century, representing the pre-scientific era in reflection on translation. Most attention is devoted to metaphors found in contemporary Polish discourse on translation, centered around: (1) the nature of translation; (2) the relationship between the source and target text, and between the author and translator; and (3) the role of the translator. It is demonstrated that the Polish context offers a rich repertoire of metaphorical depictions of translating, which reflects its distinctive historical and cultural setup.

The Polish Competition Authority Submits a Draft Amendment to the Polish Competition Act: Revolution or Fine-Tuning?

This piece highlights and offers a brief analysis of the most important of the
proposed changes to Polish competition law. The draft proposal envisages introduction of, inter alia, financial penalties for individuals, two-stage merger review process, important changes to the leniency program (including introduction of leniency plus), as well as such new tools as remedies and settlements.

The Polish Competition Authority Publishes its Annual Report for 2012

In May 2013 the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the Polish Competition Authority, published its Annual Report for 2012. This piece provides an overview of the reported activities within the competition law & policy domain, and comments on some of them.

A World Drawn: An Introduction to the art of Julian Opie (for a Polish Audience)

Essay in a monograph associated with the exhibition Julian Opie: Sculptures, Paintings, Films at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland, 18 October 2014 to 25 January 2015. Slyce attempts to re-examine the lineaments of Opie's practice for a new and broader audience. During which, he calls attention in the writing to the processes of its commissioning and early request to do so for a 'Polish audience'. He attempts to bring to light some of these often invisible moves in the commissioning of catalogue essays, while also re-examining Julian Opie's practice in light of its established reception in Britain.

The construction of social reality in minority discourse : Polish immigrants in Montreal

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

Which Legal Standards Should Apply To Web-logs? The present legal position of Internet journals in the European iuris prudence in the light of the European Parliament Committee’s on Culture and Education report and Polish Supreme Court decision

The article discusses the present status of weblogs and examines whether legal standards applicable to traditional press and media should be applied to that specific forum. The analysis is based on two key documents: the Draft Report on the concentration and pluralism in the media in European Union (2007/2253(INI)) of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education presented in March 2008 and a landmark decision of the Polish Supreme Court from July 26, 2007 (IV KK 174/07) in the light of present judicial tendency in other European countries. The first of the mentioned documents calls for the “clarification of the legal status of different categories of weblog authors and publishers as well as disclosure of interests and voluntary labelling of weblogs”. It emphasizes that the “undetermined and unindicated status of authors and publishers of weblogs causes uncertainties regarding impartiality, reliability, source protection, applicability of ethical codes and the assignment of liability in the event of lawsuits”. The position of the European Parliament, expressed in the document, raises serious questions on the limits of freedom of thought and speech on the Internet and on the degree of acceptable state control. A recent Polish Supreme Court decision, which caused quite a stir in the Polish Internet community, seems to head in the very direction recommended by the EP Culture Committee. In a case of two editors of a web journal (“czasopismo internetowe”) called “Szyciepoprzemysku”, available on-line, accused of publishing a journal without the proper registration, the Polish Supreme Court stated that “journals and periodicals do not lose the character of a press release due solely to the fact that they appear in the form of an  Internet transmission”, and that ‘’the publishing of press in an electronic form, available on the Internet, requires  registration”. The decision was most surprising, as prior lower courts decisions declined the possibility to register Internet periodicals. The accused were acquitted in the name of the constitutional principle of the rule of law (art. 7 of the Polish Constitution) and the ensuing obligation to protect the trust of a citizen to the state (a conviction in this case would break the collateral estoppel rule), however the decision quickly awoke media frenzy and raised the fear of a need to register all websites that were regularly updated. The spokesman of the Polish Supreme Court later explained that the sentence of the Court was not intended to cause a mass registration of all Internet “periodicals” and that neither weblogs nor Internet sites, that were regularly updated, needed registration. Such an interpretation of the Polish press law did not appear clear based only on the original text of the judgment and the decision as such still raises serious practical questions. The article aims to examine the status of Internet logs as press and seeks the compromise between the concerns expressed by European authorities and the freedom of thought and speech exercised on the Internet.

Between “incidents of intolerance” and “massacre” : British interpretations of the early Modern Polish religious persecution

Este ensaio analisa o modo como as vias através das quais a razão humana, definida como um instrumento para eliminar os obstáculos da existência, na deriva da civilização resultaram frequentemente em “eliminações racionais” dos potenciais inimigos e de pessoas comuns.O autor realça esses processo desumanos com base em vários exemplos da história moderna. Começa com a Revolução Francesa até chegar ao século XX com a experiência devastadora dos totalitarismo, acabando por lembrar os massacres do Ruanda.

Made in “Polish village” – modern ethno-design vs. traditional culture of Polish countryside

Tradycyjna polska wieś – kolorowa, wesoła, zintegrowana z naturą i rządząca się swoimi prawami to zbiorowy mit, odległy w czasie. To klasyczny temat wielu poszukiwań etnografi cznych – terenowych, naukowych opracowań i porównań. We współczesnym świecie mamy do czynienia jedynie z wybranymi elementami – tradycjami jeszcze żywymi lub przetworzonymi i dostosowanymi do wymogów współczesnego odbiorcy – turysty, ale także artysty i projektanta. Obecne zainteresowanie polską sztuką ludową i rzemiosłem to kolejna fala mody folkowej. Ten ogólnoeuropejski trend, poszukujący w kulturze egalitarnej natchnienia i inspiracji swój początek bierze w I połowie XIX wieku. W polskiej sztuce dekoracyjnej (wzornictwie przemysłowym) także nastąpił powrót do źródeł, a w ludowości i wiejskości doszukiwano się narodowego ducha, inspiracją dla polskich artystów był angielski Ruch Arts and Craft, a w ich projektach widoczne były echa fi lozofi i Johna Ruskina oraz Williama Morrisa m. in. odrzucających masową produkcję, mającą wg nich zły wpływ na jakość produkowanych przedmiotów, jednocześnie na piedestał wynoszących umiejętności rękodzielnicze i rzemieślnicze. Po okresie PRLu utożsamianym głównie z funkcjonowaniem Cepelii i sprowadzeniem produktów inspirowanych ludowością do roli masowych dekoracji, stanowiących często synonim kiczu, powróciła moda na polskie rękodzieło, tradycyjną sztukę ludową oraz na inspiracje wypływające z obserwowania wiejskiego stylu życia. Współczesne poszukiwania polskich twórców w obszarze tworzących w ramach nurtu zwanego etnodizajnem przebiegają dwutorowo. Z jednej strony to inspiracja tylko przejawami ludowości, jej konkretnymi wytworami, które stanowią głównie dekorację dla współczesnych rozwiązań formalnych i technologicznych. Jednak coraz silniejszy jest drugi nurt,starający się wniknąć głębiej, którego celem jest zrozumienie istoty tradycyjnej kultury ludowej polskiej wsi. To inspiracja wiejskim stylem życia, wraz z jego zaletami i wadami, to wreszcie inspiracja zmieniającym się krajobrazem kulturowym i poszukiwanie nowych rozwiązań, dzięki którym odbiorca zbliży się do natury. Projekty zaliczane do nurtu etnodizajnu cechuje przede wszystkim różnorodność wykorzystanych materiałów (tradycyjnych i nowoczesnych), sposób ich przetworzenia, zachowanie pierwotnej funkcji lub nadanie nowej. Większość tych projektów sytuuje się też w nurcie eko-artu, sztuki nawiązującej do natury, z wykorzystaniem ekologicznych materiałów. Jest więc etnodizajn XXI kontynuacją ideologii stworzonej już w wieku XIX – przeciwstawieniem dla przemysłu, technicyzacji i umasowienia. A dla współczesnego człowieka – miejskiego – może być etnodizajn powrotem do źródeł.

The use of bootstrapped Malmquist indices to reassess productivity change findings: an application to a sample of Polish farms

This article assesses the extent to which sampling variation affects findings about Malmquist productivity change derived using data envelopment analysis (DEA), in the first stage by calculating productivity indices and in the second stage by investigating the farm-specific change in productivity. Confidence intervals for Malmquist indices are constructed using Simar and Wilson's (1999) bootstrapping procedure. The main contribution of this article is to account in the second stage for the information in the second stage provided by the first-stage bootstrap. The DEA SEs of the Malmquist indices given by bootstrapping are employed in an innovative heteroscedastic panel regression, using a maximum likelihood procedure. The application is to a sample of 250 Polish farms over the period 1996 to 2000. The confidence intervals' results suggest that the second half of 1990s for Polish farms was characterized not so much by productivity regress but rather by stagnation. As for the determinants of farm productivity change, we find that the integration of the DEA SEs in the second-stage regression is significant in explaining a proportion of the variance in the error term. Although our heteroscedastic regression results differ with those from the standard OLS, in terms of significance and sign, they are consistent with theory and previous research.