Alojza Halina Satkiewicz was born on 22 July 1928 in Grodno where she lived until August 1945. This is when her family, just like millions of other Poles from the country's then Eastern Borderlands, were ordered to move – in their case, to Szczecinek in Western Pomerania where she passed her high school exit exam in 1949. She undertook Polish Studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Warsaw in the autumn of the same year.
Since then, the city of Warsaw and Warsaw University became central to her life. She completed her master's thesis on the Warmian-Masurian vocabulary of food preparation under the supervision of professor Witold Doroszewski. The subject of her thesis was linked with the field work carried out between 1950 and 1953 on the Ostróda, Warmia and Masuria territories, also under the supervision of professor Doroszewski, by a group of students and academic staff of Warsaw University*. She did not continue her dialect research, however, and her Ph.D. thesis, supervised again by W. Doroszewski, was in the field of word formation – Halina Satkiewicz was awarded a doctoral degree in 1964 for her dissertation entitled Produktywne typy słowotwórcze współczesnego języka polskiego (Productive Word Formation Types of Contemporary Polish), published in 1969. In 1981, she was awarded the habilitation degree for her contribution to a classic, often reprinted monograph in the area of normative linguistics. She was the author of its three extensive sections: Słowotwórstwo (Word Formation) and Odmiana wyrazów (Inflection) in vol. I, as well as Zagadnienia poprawności słowotwórczo-semantycznej (Aspects of Accuracy: Semantics and Word Formation) in vol. II of Kultura języka polskiego (The Culture of the Polish Language)*.
In 1991, she became full professor, and it is also then that she was made editor-in-chief of Poradnik Językowy (The Linguistic Guide).
She first started working at Warsaw University in 1953 as an assistant at the Section of Stylistics and Language Culture (in the Faculty of Journalism), led by Halina Kurkowska. In 1959, the Section became part of the Polish Studies Department in the Faculty of Philology of Warsaw University, and was employed at Polish Studies.
In 1967, she went to Lille where she stayed for three years. She taught Polish, gave lectures and seminars, and organised translation workshops at the local university, as well as gave Polish lessons to the children of the employees of the Polish consulate. This experience rekindled her interest in glottodidactics (earlier, between 1957 and 1965, she had given Polish classes to the employees of the USSR's Trade Promotion Office in Warsaw). Having returned to Poland, she participated, as lecturer and language teacher, in courses for foreign Slavists (organised by the Polonicum) and for teachers, as well as wrote internal reviews of pedagogical materials.
In 1978, she started working again at the Faculty of Journalism of Warsaw University where she established the Stylistics and Language Culture Department (later known as the Department of Language of Mass Media), of which she remained director for 20 years to come. Between 1978 and 1981 she was vice director of the Faculty of Journalism.
She was member of the Warsaw Scientific Society, the Phraseology Commission and the Commission of Language Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Linguistics Committee (since the year it was established until 2010). In 2006, she was made an honorary member of the Polish Linguistic Society. She was also an honorary member of the Society of Language Culture (she had been instrumental in establishing its Warsaw branch in 1960s).
She was conferred the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Gold Cross of Merit, the Silver Cross of Merit, the Bronze Cross of Merit, and the Medal of the National Education Commission. In 1988, she received the individual Prof. Witold Doroszewski Award for her research, as well as her teaching and her public outreach efforts.
She died in Warsaw on 22 November 2012. She is buried in Warsaw's North Municipal Cemetery.
In her professional interests, Halina Satkiewicz was greatly influenced by W. Doroszewski, the supervisor of her master’s and PhD. theses. She always considered herself to be his student and follower. Of all the areas W. Doroszewski worked in, closest to her heart was the culture of language*.
In her research, she focused mostly on two aspects of language description: the systematic and the normative ones, with the latter dominating in her work. Her primary area of research was the morphological subsystem of contemporary standard Polish (both inflectional and derivational). Her main achievement within the realm of word formation is undoubtedly the monograph Produktywne typy słowotwórcze współczesnego języka polskiego (1969). According to Hanna Jadacka, “every monograph in the area of Polish post-war word formation was bound to draw on that work”*. The following dissertations have also become standard Polish sources of reference on morphology: Kryterium ilościowe jako wskaźnik produktywności struktur słowotwórczych (The Criterion of Quantity as an Indicator of Productivity of Word-Formation Structures) (1969), Wskaźniki słowotwórcze przynależności wyrazów do stylu potocznego (Word-Formation Determinants of Colloquial Style) (1973), O innowacjach słowotwórczych w polszczyźnie XX w. (On Word-Formation Innovations in Polish in the 20th Century) (1976), Innowacje słowotwórcze w powojennym trzydziestoleciu (Word-Formation Innovations in the Three Post-War Decades) (1981), Tendencja do ekonomiczności we fleksji współczesnego języka polskiego (The Trend to Economise in the Inflection of Modern Polish) (1981), O roli czynników formalnych i semantycznych w dystrybucji polskich form deklinacyjnych (On the Role of Formal and Semantic Factors in the Distribution of Polish Declension Forms) (1981); Procesy wyrównawcze we współczesnej fleksji polskiej (The Unifying Processes in Modern Polish Inflection) (1981); Produktywność modeli słowotwórczych a zróżnicowanie stylowe języka polskiego (The Productivity of Word-Formation Models in Relation to the Stylistic Diversity of Polish) (1984); Rozwój fleksji w polszczyźnie XX w. (The Development of Inflection in Polish in the 20th c.) (2001)*.
The morphology of contemporary Polish is also at the centre of Halina Satkiewicz's normative studies, although it is by no means the only aspect of language culture she was interested in. The most prominent book in this field is considered to be Kultura języka polskiego (The Culture of the Polish Language) which she co-authored with Danuta Buttler and Halina Kurkowska. According to Stanisław Dubisz, “[t]his work is both an excellent academic textbook and an exquisite monograph, which is rare. It is indeed an exposition of the structuralist theory of language culture and a description of Polish based on this theory. Kultura języka polskiego by the three Authors has aptly replaced the earlier theory by Witold Doroszewski”*. This is in line with the following view expressed by H. Jadacka: “a textbook that existed initially in utter didactic void and had to serve both as a compendium of descriptive grammar and a language guidebook”*.
Apart from this fundamental work, professor Satkiewicz also published a number of “lighter” normative studies: Norma polskiego języka literackiego a innowacje fleksyjne (The Norms of Polish Literary Language and Inflection Innovations) (1982); Kilka uwag o języku tekstów technicznych (Some Reflections on the Language of Technical Texts) (1979); O zmianach w normie fleksyjnej współczesnego języka polskiego (On the Changes in the Inflection Standard of Contemporary Polish) (1986); O zasadach współczesnej polityki językowej (On the Principles of the Contemporary Language Policy) (1990); Dynamizm zmienności współczesnej polszczyzny a polityka kodyfikacyjna (The Dynamics of Change of Contemporary Polish and the Codification Policy) (1990); O kulturę słowa w Polsce (For the Language Culture in Poland) (1992); Kultura języka w programie studiów dziennikarskich na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (The Language Culture as Part of the Journalism Course at Warsaw University) (1992); Norma polszczyzny ogólnej a języki subkultur (The Standard Polish and the Languages of Subcultures) (1994); Typy zmian w zasobie językowym współczesnej polszczyzny (The Varieties of Changes in the Linguistic Stock of Contemporary Polish) (1994); Między oficjalnością a potocznością (Between the Official and the Colloquial) (1994); Norma współczesnego języka polskiego w odbiorze społecznym (The Public Reception of the Contemporary Standard Polish) (1995); Zakres przydatności kryterium funkcjonalnego w ocenie zjawisk językowych (The Usefulness of the Functional Criterion for Analysing Language Phenomena) (1995); Normatywna problematyka tekstów pisanych (The Normative Aspects of Written Texts) (1999); Zmiany wartości stylistycznej i ekspresywnej słownictwa współczesnej polszczyzny (The Changes in the Stylistic and Expressive Value of Contemporary Polish Vocabulary) (2000).
She would remind of the legacy of her predecessors in the area of normative linguistics: of W. Doroszewski* and of H. Kurkowska*.
Since the very beginning of her academic career, she was keenly interested in the language of the press*. She first published an article about the language of Trybuna Mazowiecka (The Mazovian Tribune). Soon after came (co-written with D. Buttler i H. Kurkowska) Wykaz błędów najczęściej spotykanych w prasie (A Register of the Most Common Linguistic Errors in the Press) (1963). As time went by, she devoted ever more time and attention to the issues of the language of the mass media. She also became ever more aware of the social significance of linguistic phenomena and the resulting responsibility resting with the media: Środki masowego przekazu w kształtowaniu wzorców językowych współczesnej polszczyzny (The Role of the Mass Media in Shaping Patterns of Contemporary Polish) (1981); O wpływie prasy na język współczesnych Polaków (On the Current Impact of the Press on Poles' Language) (1984); Język polskich mediów w okresie przekształceń ustrojowych – główne tendencje (The Language of the Polish Media during the Political Transformation – Key Tendencies) (1996); Językowe przejawy agresji w mediach (Linguistic Aggression in the Media) (2000); O zmianach w strukturze językowej wiadomości prasowej (On Changes in the Linguistic Structure of Press News) (2000); Zmiany w języku informacji prasowych (The Changes in the Language of Press Information) (2000); Z badań nad uzusem językowym dziennikarzy (From Studies on the Language Usus of Journalists) (2001).
Another important category in Halina Satkiewicz's work comprises short articles on issues of accuracy published in Poradnik Językowy in the section Objaśnienia wyrazów i zwrotów (Explanations of Words and Expressions).
For Halina Satkiewicz, teaching was a part and parcel of her professional career. She did it with passion, and she was clearly successful in this area of her work too:
She had the greatest gift of a good teacher. Having met her, her pupils acquired increased confidence in their abilities. Her students, her colleagues from the Faculty of Polish Studies or the Faculty of Journalism were under the spell of her authenticity, her subtle sense of humour, her manners in which she excelled, and her ability to hold a leisurely but deep conversation, be it about language or life. Her MA seminars are a place for exchanging thoughts on the contemporary Polish language, culture and the media; she teaches the rules of academic debate and the respect of language, as well as offers support that can only be given by a true supervisor.
In this line of work, she did not limit herself to university, though. She is the author of a number of entries in Słownik podstawowy języka polskiego dla cudzoziemców (A Basic Dictionary of the Polish Language for Foreigners). Together with Barbara Bartnicka, she wrote an acclaimed, often reprinted Gramatyka języka polskiego dla cudzoziemców (A Grammar of the Polish Language for Foreigners). She supervised the work on Wybór tekstów do nauki o języku polskim dla studentów dziennikarstwa (A Selection of Texts for the Study of the Polish Language for Students of Journalism), along with a workbook. She co-wrote a high school textbook. She wrote the entries on stylistics in Słownik gramatyki języka polskiego (A Dictionary of the Polish Language Grammar). She made teaching one of the subjects of academic debate. In a telling coincidence, the last text she published in Poradnik Językowy was "Sprawozdanie z konferencji Stylistyka na lekcjach języka polskiego w liceum ogólnokształcącym” ("An Account of the Conference Stylistics in a Class of Polish Language in High School”) (Warsaw 9.06.2005).
She was keen to share the knowledge she had, and she did it generously. She gave talks, papers and lectures, mostly for journalists, editors and teachers. She was a member of the jury of various journalism contests. For many years, she worked with the Polish Radio – she featured in broadcasts on the Polish language, for example the Radio Language Guide.
III. Poradnik Językowy
Halina Satkiewicz started contributing to Poradnik in 1960 at the outset of her academic career, when Witold Doroszewski was its editor-in-chief. In the first issue of the journal that year, she published, together with D. Buttler, an article about the types of lexical errors. In 1970s, the journal's readers knew her mostly as the secretary, and later as a member of the board of the Society of Language Culture, as well as the author of the Society's consecutive reports. She started to be associated with Poradnik more closely still when, in 1985, Danuta Buttler became its editor-in-chief. This is when the first Objaśnienia wyrazów i zwrotów, signed with the initials H.S., were published, as well as articles on scholars close to her heart and their research: "Teoretyczne problemy kultury języka w ujęciu Profesor Haliny Kurkowskiej" ("Theoretical Issues of Language Culture According to Professor Halina Kurkowska") (1985), "Myśl teoretyczna Profesora Witolda Doroszewskiego we współczesnej kulturze języka" ("Theoretical Studies of Professor Witold Doroszewski in the Contemporary Language Culture") (1986) or "Synonimia w ujęciu Profesora Stanisława Skorupki" ("Synonymia According to Professor Stanisław Skorupka") (1986). At that time, she also published two texts on language policy: O zasadach współczesnej polityki językowej (On the Principles of Contemporary Language Policy) (1990) and Dynamizm zmienności współczesnej polszczyzny a polityka kodyfikacyjna (The Dynamics of Change of Contemporary Polish and the Codification Policy) (1990).
Wanda Decyk-Zięba recalls that “when after the death of prof. D. Buttler in 1991 prof. H. Satkiewicz was nominated, by the Minister of Science and Higher Education, the editor-in-chief and the president of the Editorial Committee of Poradnik Językowy, she saw it both as an honour and an obligation to the late colleague. Prof. H. Satkiewicz intended to edit the magazine until her 80th birthday”*. She did it until 2008.
She took over Poradnik at a time when the administrative tasks related to editing it were performed by Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, and its consecutive directors sought subsidies for the magazine. This changed when the publishing house could no longer count on such financial help. Prof. Satkiewicz's attempts to find sponsors were unsuccessful. The needed support finally came from the Faculty of Polish Studies, and the responsibility for financing Poradnik fell on the Society for Language Culture.
The new conditions entailed a change in the structure of the journal which happened in 1999: the Editorial Board was appointed, and the Editorial Committee became the Editorial Council, headed by prof. Halina Satkiewicz. One thing did not change, however: every text sent to Poradnik was carefully read and discussed by its editor-in-chief . A number of articles was indeed written at the suggestion of prof. Satkiewicz. She “edited many articles in a way that made their authors proud when they later saw them in print”*.
Becoming editor-in-chief did not come in the way of her continuing to write Objaśnienia wyrazów i zwrotów of which she wrote over thirty. She would dispel readers' doubts, for example by explaining what ubogacić meant (1994), discussing the declination of the word Rzeczpospolita (1994), helping those unsure as to the pronunciation of foreign proper names (1994). Many Objaśnienia concerned confusing word pairs, such as prawny – prawniczy, normalizować – normować, obiektywizm – obiektywność, liczebny – liczbowy, przeciwśnieżny – przeciwśniegowy, obcojęzyczny – obcojęzykowy or społeczny and socjalny. Others were about difficult discourse words, such as co najmniej, przynajmniej, bynajmniej. Others still tackled loanwords. New and fashionable expressions were often discussed, both formal (e.g. opcja populistyczna, priorytet, resentyment, refundacja) and colloquial ones (for example budżetówka, Krajówka, zbrojeniówka); formality and colloquiality are in fact ever-present categories in her writing. In 1992, she published articles about the words Europa, europejski, Europejczyk, in 1995 – “a few words about etos”, and in 1999 she pointed to the differences in meaning between the words emigrant and uciekinier, wychodźca and uchodźca. She often discussed phraseology where she raised the issues of contamination and synonymia. She did not shy away from writing about grammar ("Znów o kłopotach z odmianą czasowników na -ywać"; ("On Problems with Conjugating Verbs which End with -ywać Again") 1996), albeit more frequently in direct relation to the usus and standard ("Nowe tendencje w używaniu imiesłowów biernych" ("New Tendencies in the Use of Past Participles"), 1996) or "Ach te liczebniki… Zakres użycia, składnia i odmiana liczebników zbiorowych" ("Oh, the Numerals... The Scope of Use, Syntax and Inflection of Collective Numerals") and other texts from the numeral series published in 1997.
Poradnik Językowy celebrated its centenary with prof. Satkiewicz as its editor-in-chief. She made a personal selection of the articles to be published in the anniversary issue of the journal. At a special anniversary conference entitled Język narzędziem myślenia i działania (Language as a Tool for Thought and Action), she delivered a paper "Rola Poradnika Językowego w polskim życiu naukowym" ("The Role of Poradnik Językowy in the Polish Scientific Life"). There, she outlined the evolution of Poradnik “from a language guidebook to an academic journal”*. She emphasises that, at a time when W. Doroszewski was its editor-in-chief, Poradnik Językowy was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a new linguistic discipline – the language culture”*, and still today it is a place for debating the scope and understanding of its concepts. She stressed that the journal did not present exclusively the perspective of normative linguistics: “In the five post-war decades, Poradnik Językowy became indeed a mirror reflecting research interests of subsequent generations of Polish linguists”*.
Wanda Decyk-Zięba, who worked with prof. Satkiewicz for many years as the editorial secretary of the journal, wrote aptly of her colleague's attitude to her job: “She saw being the editor-in-chief of “Poradnik Językowy” as a service for science and for language”{W. Decyk-Zięba, "Wspomnienie…", op. cit., p. 130..
Bibliography of work of H. Satkiewicz, see: "Wykaz prac docent Haliny Satkiewicz (opublikowanych i przygotowanych do druku)" ("A Register of Work by Halina Satkiewicz, both Published and in Preparation for Publication"), Poradnik Językowy 1989, Issue no. 5, pp. 273-275.
Textbooks and course materials:
Lexicography:
Author: Jolanta Chojak
Translation: Anna Karpowicz