Posts tagged w/ book review

Concise Polish Grammar – A Handbook for Foreigners - book review

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jun
12
2009

I finally managed to get my hands on “Concise Polish Grammar – A Handbook for Foreigners” by Magdalena Foland-Kugler (ISBN 978-83-89913-51-7) published by Exlibris.

I haven’t read this book from cover to cover yet, just briefly paged through the sections that interested me the most. What immediately jumped out at me is the fact that the examples in this book are not translated into English.

Yes, I get it, if someone is reading a Polish grammar book, he/she should have some sort of basic vocabulary already mastered. But on the other hand, if you’re preparing a Polish grammar book for English speakers, why do you treat the examples as if they were written for Poles?

The book was written by a native Polish speaker in Polish, and then translated into English. As such, it has a point view of a native Pole, as well. And unfortunately, because of that and despite its best intentions, it is barely adequate for a non-native speaker. However, it’s a very good reference for a Polish person who wants to learn Polish grammar in English. Though I’m sure this is not what the author had in mind.

The book is not totally useless, though. The grammatical tables are simple and concise, to the point of being too simple at times.
I have a feeling that the author was given a certain number of pages for this project and desperately tried to cram as much information onto them as possible. Unfortunately, our wonderful Polish grammar doesn’t take too kindly to cramming and the book is simply too short (142 pages and that includes the preface and index!) and too basic.

As most grammar books the world over, this one is also written in grammaticalese, and woe upon those who attempt to read it not knowing what analytical gradability is, for example.

I find this book to be an easy read, and the explanations – clear and adequate. But then again, I don’t have to translate the examples to understand what is being said, and I know a lot about Polish grammar already.

However, my resident non-Polish speaker hated it and even though I had ordered him to read it, he only got as far as chapter seven before demanding “that Bielec book.”

 
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“A Grammar of Contemporary Polish” by Oscar E Swan

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Jan
28
2009

A couple of weeks ago Ron asked about my thoughts regarding “A Grammar of Contemporary Polish” and to tell you the truth, I’ve been struggling how to honestly evaluate this book.

There are so few Polish grammar books out there so I feel that just for existing alone I should give it a high rating. But… there’s always a “but.” So, here we go:

  • 1. The language.

The author, Oscar E. Swan is a professor of Slavic Languages at the University of Pittsburgh. And unfortunately, it shows. (explanation - it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with Prof. Swan’s command of Polish, heck his Polish is better than most native Polish speakers I know, but that he talks like a specialist in his field forgetting that the little people are not.)

Even though the book claims to “be accessible to the non-specialist,” I get the feeling that Professor Swan and I have a vastly different understanding of this phrase. True, he does make an effort to explain stuff for those who don’t have advanced degrees in linguistics, and it may have worked even if it had been any other language, like Swedish. But unfortunately, we’re talking Polish here.

Take this sentence, for example:
“With natural accomplishment and logical-result verbs, the structurally and semantically basic form of the verb is almost always the perfective, whether prefixed or not, and the imperfective form will be derived from it by suffixation.”

Yeah, right. Like non-specialists will get that. Totally. But if you can put up with and understand that sort of stuff, then this is an excellent book. It does have a glossary of grammatical terms at the very end, where you can look up all those fancy words you don’t know. But that glossary brings us to:

  • 2. Poor organization.

This is indeed a very comprehensive grammar book, but why is it so poorly organized? Wouldn’t it be more convenient for the dummies among us to stick the definitions right in the chapters that actually cover that stuff?

  • 3. Tables and examples.

Excellent all around. That alone makes this book worth looking for. And most likely, if you want to buy it, you will have to dig around on-line, because it’s out of print. I found it in a second-hand book shop in Washington state.

What could make it better?
Simplifying the language in which stuff is explained – ideally by assuming that the reader knows nothing, or very little about grammar, in any language. But until someone comes up with “Polish Grammar for Dummies” this is what we have to work with. And as far as grammar books go, it could be worse.

ISBN: 0-89357-296-9
Publisher: Slavica, Indiana University

 
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