Changes in contemporary Polish language and their cultural determinants
The relations between language and a particular communicative community, especially its culture, have been always strong and bilateral. On the one hand a language is the foundation of each culture and its essential element, but on the other hand each culture, by its tendencies, system of values, and current trends, has a strong influence on a language. According to many linguists, at present we are the witnesses of the biggest and most rapid changes in the whole history of the Polish language. The new state of the Polish language is the result of political, economic and social changes which have taken place in our country since 1989. Furthermore, a lot of linguistic changes are the consequence of huge modern cultural tendencies of the West, like consumerism, mediacy, the computer revolution, Americanization, and postmodernism ideas. The article discusses their impact on the Polish language in recent years.