Abstract

PODHAJECKA, Miroslawa. Polish Americans in the History of Bilingual Lexicography: The State of the Art. Lexikos [online]. 2018, vol.28, pp.316-342. ISSN 2224-0039.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5788/28-1-1467.

This paper measures dictionaries made by Polish Americans against the development of the Polish-English and English-Polish lexicographic tradition. Of twenty nine monoscopal and biscopal glossaries and dictionaries published between 1788 and 1947, four may be treated as milestones: Erazm Rykaczewski's (1849-1851), Wladyslaw Kierst and Oskar Callier's (1895), Wladyslaw Kierst's (1926-1928), and Jan Stanislawski's (1929). Unsurprisingly, they came to be widely repub-lished in English-speaking countries, primarily the United States of America, for the sake of Polish-speaking immigrants. One might therefore wonder whether there was any pressing need for new dictionaries. There must have been, assuming that supply follows demand, because as many as eight Polish-English and English-Polish dictionaries were compiled by Polish Americans and published by the mid-twentieth century. The scant attention accorded this topic suggests a chronological approach to these dictionaries is in order, firstly, to blow the dust from the tomes; secondly, to establish their filial relationships; and, lastly, to evaluate their significance for the bilingual dictionary market.

Keywords : history; bilingual lexicography; bilingual dictionary; polish americans; source language (sl); target language (tl); equivalent; lexicographer; tradition.

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