From the Editor

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<bold>Purpose.</bold> The purpose of the study is to compare those linguistic means expressing modality in Russian and Polish written business texts which may cause difficulties in the translation process due to the close origin of both languages. The object of our study is business letters as a type of business document. According to observations supported by teaching experience, they most effectively enable foreigners learning Russian or Polish to acquire the ability to use various types of modalities. The subject of the study is the identification of linguistic means expressing modality in the original and translated Russian and Polish business texts and typology of these means from the point of view of the sender’s intentions.
<bold>Background.</bold> The study of modality is a problematic issue for linguists due to the lack of consistency in the theoretical approaches to this phenomenon. Modality has been analyzed, among others, by Bellert (1971), Boguslawski (1971), Jodlowski (1971), Boniecka (1976), Rytel (1982), Holvoet (1989), Koseska-Toszewa (1996), Komendziński (1997, pp. 95–104), Ligara (1997), Korytkowska (1997) and from more recent works we should mention: Tutak (2003, pp. 51–69), Maldžieva (2003), Greszczuk (2006), Malinovsky (2006), Labocha (2019; 2020), Dudek-Waligóra (2017), Heliasz-Nowosielska (2023) and Paducheva (2023). Among the abovementioned studies, there is a lack of solutions for the study of modality in business texts. Broadly speaking, two positions can be distinguished regarding the definition of modality. The first approach treats modality as “expressing the attitude of the statement sender to the transmitted content”, while the second approach sees the essence of modality “in the relationship between the transmitted content and the objective state of affairs” (Labocha 2020, pp. 205–206). In this study, we understand modality as the sender’s expression of the relationship between the content transmitted by them and the objective state of affairs.
<bold>Methods.</bold> The methodology of the study is constructed of the following components: comparative analysis (V. Zmarzer. J. Wawrzyńczyk), functionalpragmatic analysis (O. Leszczak), observation method (B. Malinowski, M. Weber) and qualitative method, mainly discourse analysis (T. van Dijk, J. Labocha). The research material consists of authentic texts of business correspondence taken from Internet sources and own translations.
<bold>Results.</bold> The language of business communication, mainly business correspondence, relies on a specific discursive modality, manifested in standard phrases and word combinations. It should be emphasized that the predominant type of modality in this type of communication is the informative, volitional, imperative and obligatory modality. Modality in business letters is verbalized with the help of template constructions, which in the linguistic image of the users’ worldview are associated with official professional discursive activity.
<bold>Discussion.</bold> Modality as a necessary component of every sentence in business letters is a universal speech category in both Polish and Russian. However, when translating, it is necessary to take into account the discursive peculiarities of each language.
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associate Professor, Head of the Department of Synchronic and Diachronic Linguistics

Institute of Linguistics and Literature Studies, Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce

Difficulties in Translating Modality Categories in Business Correspondence (based on Polish and Russian materials)

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Greenpeace Australia Pacific is an “independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems” (Greenpeace Australia Pacific, 2023), such as the issues of climate change and environmental sustainability. The aforementioned problems are often communicated by Greenpeace Australia Pacific to its stakeholders and the general public via online means, for instance, Facebook. Given that currently there is insufficient research that investigates Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s online discourse on Facebook, this article presents a mixed-methods study that aims to explore how metonymy is used in disseminating environmental and climate changerelated issues by Greenpeace Australia Pacific. In order to do so, the study involves a corpus of status updates that are found on Greenpeace Australia Pacific’ official Facebook page. The corpus is searched manually for the presence of metonymy and the types of metonymic mappings. The results of the qualitative analysis indicate that there are the following metonymic mappings in the corpus: “from a fossil fuel corporation to a polluter”, “from the name of the corporation to its actions”, “from the name of the country to the country’s government”, “from the name of the environmental organisation to its actions”, and “from the name of the vessel to its actions”. Thereafter, a quantitative analysis of the corpus is carried out in order to calculate the most frequent types of metonymic mappings. The results indicate that the metonymic mapping “from the name of the corporation to its actions” is the most frequent in the corpus, whose occurrence is concomitant with multimodality. These findings and their discussion are further presented in the article.
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Metonymy in Online Discourse on Facebook by Greenpeace Australia Pacific

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The paper deals with response particles in Lithuanian conversation. The results of the analysis provide evidence that sequential environments response particles are used in turn out to be central. Thus, the distinctive usages and functions of the particles are investigated in the following sequences: questionsanswers, assertions-reactions and directives-reactions. The paper considers similarities and contrasts among the Lithuanian affirmative as well as negative particles. The results of the analysis show that the particles mainly appear in positive responses, thus the inventory of the affirmative particles is much more abundant than that of negative particles. The primary functions of the particles encompass responding to a previous turn: they occur as positive or negative answers to polar (yes-no) questions, as responses to assertions or directives, and as so-called feedback (or back-channel) elements. Affirmative particles firstly operate as confirmation and agreement markers, while negative particles, on their turn, primarily operate as disagreement markers, though at times they have also a capacity of functioning as agreement devices. Sequential contexts appear to have an impact on the emergence of discursive (resp. interactional) meanings of response particles that have not been discussed in Lithuanian grammars.
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Response Particles in Lithuanian Conversation and Turn Design

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Since English is primarily the medium of communication for international business and trade. In addition to being the official language of many international organizations (such as the UN, WHO, etc.), it has become a lingua franca in the modern world. English language lessons are delivered and required in many secondary schools globally. English is taught by many public schools as a compulsory subject, sometimes at the expense of other languages. Taking into account the rapid global spread of the English language, the article examines the main advantages and disadvantages of English being a global language providing an example of Ukrainians living abroad and in their home country. Postcolonial and globalization theories are analyzed to demonstrate that the spread of English is a result of the British Empire and the rise of the United States as a global actor in international relations thereafter. On the contrary, the linguistic human capital theory and theory of cultural capital underline that language proficiency may serve either as a limitation or a getaway in socioeconomic situations. The article deploys a qualitative research method, namely, online surveys of Ukrainians in Poland, Estonia, Germany, Spain, and Ukraine. The results indicate that English as a global language provokes inequalities for Ukrainians whose English skills are even below pre-intermediate level, both within Ukraine and outside their home country. The driving motivation for both groups to learn English is better job opportunities.
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PhD student, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce

Postgraduate student and teacher of the Department of Philosophical and Political Sciences

Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization of the English Language for Ukrainian People

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 2 (2023): Issue 9 (December 2023)

Volume 1 (2023): Issue 8 (July 2023)

Volume 1-2 (2022): Issue 6-7 (January 2022)

LANGUAGE: Codification, Competence, Communication

Language: Codification, Competence, Communication is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal that publishes articles on linguistic issues and related disciplines, such as language teaching methods and language didactics. Reviews, announcements, essays, and biographical articles of prominent academics in the field of linguistics are included into each issue.  The programmatic goal of the publication is to satisfy the scientific and informational demand of the society for scientific and research knowledge, disseminate latest results of the scientific and research endeavours by Ukrainian and foreign linguists across the national and international scientific and educational environment, and exchange scientific information. We strive to create an active platform for genuine scientific dialogue; provide a motivational space for new ideas and reflections; initiate discussion of traditional linguistic topics from a new methodological perspective; and at the same time quickly respond to the problematic challenges of the time, unknown to the previous generations of researchers.  Invitation for publication in Language: Codification, Competence, Communication is extended to practitioners and theoreticians, supporters of various linguistic paradigms and scientific schools, representatives across generations of scientists and specialists in cognate scientific fields, who share an unbridled interest in the problems of language existence and unrestrained desire to approach understanding the essence of the language as a phenomenon.  The topics covered therein embrace issues of building language competence; raise problems concerning the modern structure and codification of language norms; provide insights into history, development, social and state status, interaction and functioning of world languages. One of the aims of the journal is to inform the scientific and general public of the latest techniques and methods of learning a language both as a native and foreign one.  The journal’s topics are addressed to a wide circle of readers, including post-graduate and doctoral students, lecturers and researchers. Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 