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s - Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu

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186<br />

Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska<br />

Ho<strong>we</strong>ver, there are some unnecessary English intrusions, which are hard to<br />

account for (2006: 219, 221, 278):<br />

[21] Mr. Bystry za każdym razem wali się na deski nokautowany przez Mr. Fajnego (219); 21<br />

[22] British Parliament produkuje nie mniejszą liczbę przepisów niż inne parlamenty (278). 22<br />

The conclusion is that the examples of code-mixing of this type are most<br />

likely to be indicative of the author’s self-styling.<br />

4.4. Misuses<br />

The fourth group of examples (16 out of 102) is a collection of cases that in<br />

most circumstances would be interpreted as misuses resulting from crosslinguistic<br />

and cross-cultural interference. One sub-type of code-mixing here is<br />

false cognates, which are words that have similar form, but different or only<br />

partly overlapping meanings in both languages, see Ostrowski (2006: 169, 170,<br />

176, 182, 187, 249).<br />

[23] Zdumiewające jak mistycznych i sensualnych pojęć używa Pimlott (169); 23<br />

[24] Opisuje rozmaite przekręty finanso<strong>we</strong> tak detalicznie (249). 24<br />

By examining the co-texts of the above words, one may conclude that what<br />

the author means when he uses sensualny (from “sensual”) is zmysłowy, and<br />

detaliczny (from “detailed”) is in fact szczegółowy. It seems that in the Polish<br />

lexicon there are somewhat better alternatives to the cognates chosen by the<br />

author, which add difficulty to extracting the appropriate meaning.<br />

Another problem is Ostrowski’s (2006: 162, 283) manner of translating<br />

English idioms and cultural references. Idiomatic phrases are not usually translated<br />

into the target language, as they do not carry the same connotations, evaluations<br />

and symbolic associations as the source language, as is the case with the<br />

noun phrase porządek dziobania [“pecking order”] (283). What can also be<br />

confusing is the fact that Ostrowski (2006: 221, 226) uses the same word agenda,<br />

once in accordance with its Polish sense – as a synonym to agencja<br />

[“agency”], and some other time in its English usage – “an item to be discussed<br />

in an official meeting”. One more identifiable type of code-mixing is<br />

represented by transpositions of historical references (e.g., the Founding Fathers,<br />

the battle of Gettysburg, the Great Communicator) that are likely to be<br />

generally known in the Anglo-American world, but which mean little to Polish<br />

21<br />

22<br />

23<br />

24<br />

Mr. Clever is always knocked out by Mr. Cute.<br />

British Parliament produces no less legislation than other parliaments.<br />

It is astounding to see what mystical and sensual concepts are used by Pimlott.<br />

He describes financial tricks in such a detailed way.

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