Over the past 50 years, Slovak stylistics, has undergone a process of pragmatisation, aligning with broader developments in the social sciences, while maintaining continuity or continuity of structuralist methodology. This evolution is reflected in its adaptation to the communication-pragmatic turn in linguistics. Traditional functional Slovak stylistics (particularly between 1970 and 1990) is grounded in the notion that (standard) language functions as a predefined tool, independent of its users, situational context, cultural-historical anchorage or media. In stylistic research, this manifests itself in an orientation towards a purposeful way of expression and deliberate handling of language (Mistrík, 3rd edition 1997). An essential aspect of this approach is the overestimation of repeatability and regularity in relation to style and the abstraction of profiling styles as model structures (Findra 2013). However, F. Miko acknowledges a certain degree of variability in the texts produced, in opposition to the theoretical framework of the expression theory of styles. His definition of styles as a “unique or standardized dynamic configuration of expressive properties in text” (Miko 1970) underscores an understanding of stylistic variability and processuality, challenging the rigid schematization associated with reductionist deductive invariants (static models) of style. Between 1990 and 2010, Slovak stylistics undergoes a shift toward sociolinguistic research, marking a departure from the study of language as a systemic phenomenon in favour of examining its communicative functions. J. Bosák advocates for focusing on the typification of communicative practices based on special sublinguals within the entire national language emphasizing the characteristic expressive material used to facilitate flexible and contextually appropriate speech behaviour (Bosák 1995). Similarly, D. Slančová conceptualizes style as a distinctive mode of verbal interaction, wherein communicative participants engage with established registers which represent socially conventionalized patterns. (most recently Slančová 2019). In the digital era of the 21st century, Slovak stylistics has emerged as a highly interdisciplinary and dynamic field that investigates human-mediated interactive speech communications. Under this framework, style is culturally embedded and discursively fluid, lacking prescriptive formulations and existing as a set of recommendations. Contemporary stylistic inquiry is conducted inductively, aiming to identify and analyse communication styles within prototypical spheres of communication. The neofunctionalist approach (Gajda 2006) within this paradigm seeks to observe and interpret the meaning of participant interactions in communicative acts as well as the effects produced by such interactions (Dolník 2013) This conceptualisation of stylism is reflected in the works of V. Patráš, O. Orgoňová or A. Bohunická (cf. Patráš 2019; Orgoňová - Bohunická 2018).
After the Second Vatican Council, the role of the laity in the Catholic Church increased significantly. Some of the laity began engaging more actively in their local congregations by affiliating with various Catholic organizations and communities, whose social influence continues to grow. This article aims to describe and interpret two constructs of femininity through a textual-discursive analysis of online portals run by male and female Catholic lay communities in Poland, with the goal of identifying differences and their social causes. The study analyzed approximately 40 websites of communities whose members are either male or female, along with materials from the Catholic press. It focused on textual references to women, specific female figures, and discursive representations of femininity, drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of the order of discourse and Norman Fairclough’s theory of discursive mechanisms. The comparison reveals significant differences. In texts produced by male communities, femininity is correlated in different ways with stereotypical traits of dominant masculinity. This model is conservative and traditional; femininity is either invisible, generalized, or idealized (through images of Mary). By contrast, texts from women’s communities tend to challenge and reinterpret traditional models, portraying femininity as reflective, evolving and increasingly autonomous.
This article presents the main directions and achievements of Polish linguistic research on religious style from 1970 to 2024. The author outlines the institutional background of this research including academic centres, conferences, publishing series, journals, and the Religious Language Team at the Polish Academy of Sciences and then lists the various terms used to define the subject of study. In describing the methodological perspectives, the article highlights the significance of the shift from structuralism to an anthropological-semiotic conception of style. This shift enabled the inclusion of extra-linguistic features reflected in the language of texts as stylistic properties. The next section discusses the main issues addressed by researchers: the functions of religious style; its genres (prayers, hymns, sermons, etc.); the nature of its various substyles (including liturgical, preaching, catechetical, mystical, theological, biblical, media, and artistic); religious lexis; linguistic images of selected elements of the sacred world and religious concepts; axiological and emotional characterisation of texts; the personal styles of religious figures (such as preachers, including John Paul II, and poets); the transformation of religious style; and general characteristics of the style. The review reveals strong scholarly interest in religious style in Poland, with particular attention given to its contemporary state, though its historical development has also been explored. The genres through which this style is expressed, especially liturgical genres, have been thoroughly analysed, primarily due to the work of Maria Wojtak. As for the features of religious style, research shows that a certain traditional and characteristic set of features is associated with genres performed during liturgy, whereas outside the liturgy, religious style tends to approach contemporary colloquial language.
The paper gives an overview of the scientific activities of the eminent Czech linguist Jana Hoffmannová, researcher at the Institute for the Czech Language of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Since the end of the 1970s Jana Hoffmannová has been mainly engaged in text linguistics and the study of verbal communication. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the spoken Czech, the style of spoken texts and the structure of dialogue have become one of the main subjects of her interest. She has published numerous papers on, for example, intertextuality in spoken communication or on the stylization of speech in literary works. Stylistic issues have been dealt with by Jana Hoffmannová in many works. She is the author of the handbook Stylistika a… (Stylistics and..., 1997), in which she describes the relationships between stylistics and other disciplines focused on text and communication. She analyzed the heterogeneity of style in contemporary literature or stylistic tendencies in academic discourse. Electronic communication is another important subject of her research.
In this study, we respond to the fact that the context of the scientific interpretation of the stylistic differentiation in communication is formed by the framework conditions of contemporary communication, characterized by tendencies such as mediatization, digitalization, and the gradual democratization of social processes. Functional styles are transformed under the influence of new media, which expand communication possibilities and, at the same time, relativize classic style-forming factors, especially objective ones such as author, environment, addressee, function. The expansion of the communication space of each style into the digital space significantly affects the functions it fulfills, the dynamics of genres (the transformation of traditional genres, the emergence of new genres and the disappearance of some traditional genres) and the qualitative transformation of styles (the form and stylistic values characteristic of expressions realized in individual spheres of communication change). The present study aims to clarify the shift in the division and reflection of the communication continuum in the stylistics of the last 50 years. This is achieved using the support of traditionally divided communication spheres: the sphere of ordinary communication, the sphere of professional communication, the sphere of institutional contact, the sphere of mass media communication, the commercial sphere, and the sphere of artistic creation. Furthermore, the study specifically addresses the spheres of rhetoric, which affect the entire communication continuum.
The colloquial style of Polish is not monolithic; rather, it is characterised by a complex communicative structure and a range of pragmatic conditions, which account for its internal differentiation. As one of the variants of the national language, colloquial Polish is primarily spoken and marked by situationality, interactivity and visuality. Polish stylistics distinguishes between two conceptions of colloquialism rooted in different approaches to style: the functional-communicative and the anthropological- -cultural. The former treats colloquial style as a set of functionally motivated stylistic and linguistic means, and the variety is considered to serve all domains of everyday life. The latter, by contrast, views colloquial style as a way of conceptualising the world, which involves a specific linguistic worldview, experiential framing and a cultural attitude. The colloquial style is positioned as the stylistic core of the Polish language, from which other functional styles evolve. One of the major issues explored in the 21st century is a shift of colloquial forms into official communication, linked to the transformation of modern culture. Numerous extralinguistic and intralinguistic factors contributing to the shift have been identified. Reactions to the spread of colloquialism vary widely, but it is usually regarded either as a process of refreshing modernization of the language or a sign of its degradation, particularly in digital and media contexts.
