The present paper analyses a few of the characteristics of one of the minority languages of the
Iberian Peninsula. From the linguistic, historic, social and political point of view the Mirandese
language is remarkably interesting due to the fact that, belonging to the Astur – Leonese group of dialects,
it attained the recognition of being another national language of Portugal. The first part of the
paper enumerates various classifications and some of the linguistic research dedicated to Mirandese
language. The following fragment compares the characteristics of the Mirandese language observed in
the quoted texts to Portuguese and Castilian. Finally, the last part of the paper describes the present
exceptional condition of the Mirandese language as compared to the other dialects spoken in the
 

The article intends to present briefly the history of dialectological studies in Portugal from their
beginnings in the latter half of the 19th century, enumerating linguists who have contributed considerably
to the development of research in this field. It also includes some divisions of the Portuguese
territory on lexical areas, as well as a classification of the geographical varieties of Portuguese
language and other dialects spoken in continental Portugal with their principal caracteristics, based on
still actual works of Luís F. Lindley Cintra. Moreover, there are mentioned some important
bibliographical references relative to the issue.

The paper presents the situation of non-romance minoritary languages which has lived for centuries
in countries, where the official language is a romance language. Consecutively are described:
Basque in Spain and France, Breton in France, Flemish in France and Belgium, Alsatian and Lotaringian
in France, German in Italy, France and Luxemburg, Hungarian with its dialects in Romania,
Slavic languages in Romania, Moldova and Italy.
The most endangered are languages without their own state, such as: Basque, Breton, Alsatian
and Lorraine Franconian, because they can defend their legacy only in conditions of the domination
of the big official language, often in lack of the common linguistic norms. However, the survival of
languages depends, after all, on the ethnic consciousness and determination of a given community.

The langue d’oc is a language with a very long history. Its strong dialectal differentiation and a
lack of common norm, as well as a diglossia over the years, make its situation quite complicated. This
language is not much present in everyday life, however there is a lot of opportunities to have contact
with it through the culture and education. The situation of diglossia created also the phenomenon of
francitan.

The French language and the langue d’oc, over the centuries of contacts, have entered into a substrat
relation, on which has grown so called francitan – variety of French, with strong influences of
the langue d’oc. These influences are visible not only in the phonetic and lexical side, but also in the
morphosyntax.

A large number of verbal periphrasis in Spanish, not much present in practical dictionaries made
us concentrate here on these cases of periphrasis, in which the auxiliary verb is subjected to a major
lexicalization, which makes, in consequence, a significant contrast with the Italian language. In our
analyses of structures which, the most approximatively, reflect the aspectual characteristic features,
such as: obligation, reiteration, approximation, inchoativity, perfectiveness, hipoteticity and modality,
our point of reference was to find corresponding equivalents in Italian.
We also emphasised the importance of the situational context, as the point of reference to the time
of finding the most adequate translation in the target language, which, in this instance, Italian is, language not so rich in verbal periphrasis.

Since the prehistoric times animals have lived close to people. They have become a model to follow.
People domesticated them and today the animals are an inspiration in many fields.
The animals have also influenced the language, which in turn not only adopted their physical features,
but also behaviour characteristics. Some streaks of domestic animals imposed the erotic aspect
of expressions. The exception are affective terms.
The objective of the paper is to establish motivation of the positive and negative evaluation of the
names of domestic animals taking into consideration the erotic metaphors in Italian, French and Spanish
languages. The exception are affective terms.
The evolution of these expressions was influenced by many factors. Some of them have etymological,
historical background, cultural and even some geographical aspects; in many cases, they regard
an instinctive character of animals.
The comparative research proves the existence of a resemblance, as well as some differences
among Roman Languages. It is important to emphasize that distinguishing clear borders among above
origins is not always possible, very often the origin of the metaphors derives from resemblances between people and animals.
We observe that in comparison to French and Italian Spanish is far less abundant in erotic metaphors.
This fact confirms the differences in the vocabulary of Galloromania and Italoromania versus Iberoromania.
In the erotic language of today, the names of domestic animals in three Roman Languages have
proved close relations of the European community.

In the paper we deal with the development of Latin possessive suus and with changes in use of the
possessive from Latin to Italian. Citing examples from the Latin classical literature we demonstrate
the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the grammar system that led to incoherent use of the linguistic
forms and to consequent changes in the system itself.
By analyzing sentences chosen mostly Caesar’s works we reached the conclusion that in Latin
had not existed specialized pronominal forms employed exclusively in the oratio obliqua structures.
Suus, se, sibi were used in order to establish referential identity of different elements which resulted
in co-occurrence of identical forms that pointed to completely different referents. The evolution of the
language in the 6th century abolished the difference between reflexive and pronominal form (classical
Latin suus and eius). Such shift was a result of the incoherent employment of those forms in the oratio
obliqua. At first, that usage was context-depending, then it was extended to become general and
normative, which led to disappearing of the diversification between reflexive and pronominal forms.

The article presents my reflections on the editorial, an opinion-shaping type of text, seen from the
axiological perspective. It deals with the characteristic features of this kind of text, its special place in
journalism and the question of moral responsibility of editorial staff for evaluative views expressed
therein.
In my article, I discuss evaluation on the textual and paratextual level. My analysis of an editorial
on cloning from a French daily L’Humanité helps to show a range of linguistic tools that can be used
to convey ethical standpoints. The focus in the article on bio-ethical issues reflects the general interest
in subjects like abortion, cloning or the status of human embryos which give rise to many conflicts
of values, and these manifest themselves in language.

The article analyses a series of topói which are characteristic for the mystic literature and which
are present in the similes of the Divine Commedy. The research takes into consideration the structure
of the whole poem – understood as a journey of the mind to God (itinerarium mentis in Deum). The
topói, analysed in the Italian poem, are then confronted with some Polish versions (in a few Polish
translations) with the aim of verifying if the structure observed in the original has been preserved also
in the translations.

The present paper centers around the discovery – in the Archives of Sciences PAN and PAU of
Kraków – of a document of unique significance authored by Stanisław Łukasik, a Polish researcher in
the field of Romanian culture. The manuscript, written in Romanian, contains a history of Romanian
literature from its origins to the end of the interwar period, namely, 1938.
The paper brings into relief St. Łukasik’s personality and reveals his interest in the Romanian
culture expressed in his representative works in this domain. Moreover, it includes a description of
the manuscript itself, delineating its structure, body and the level of the information content relevant
to literary criticism and history. In addition to being highly valuable to literary studies through its
documentary import, this item of research bears upon the Romanian-Polish cultural relationships
against the backdrop of the general effervescence dominating both countries.
Last but not least, the present paper foregrounds the role the Academic teaching exchanges
are meant to play in the interaction between the two cultures.

The paper presents the significance of the dance and music in the life of gypsy main characters in
three French novels from 19th century: Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, Prosper Mérimée’s Carmen
and Edmond de Goncourt’s Les Frères Zemganno.

The author tries to investigate the changes occurring in the medieval epic heroes, concerning both
the conception of the personage and the characters’ particular features. In the case of Guillaume
d’Orange, the major differences between the epic poems devoted to him (in the 12th and 13th centuries)
and the prose adaptation (15th century) are related to a few very important issues. The hero’s activity
is less and less concentrated on the fight against the pagans and the protection of the royal power, thus enabling him to have a more personal motivation, especially love. His feelings are described
more directly, and he himself isn’t presented only as a rude warrior any more, but also as a courtly
lover, a strategist or a fine orator. The style of the scenes of which he is the protagonist becomes more
unified due to the omission of most of the comical fragments involving him. As for Huon, who already
in the 13th century poem hardly resembles a traditional epic hero, in the 15th century adaptation
he becomes more coherent than in the epic source, which is obtained mainly by his idealization and
sublimation. Although the evolution of both heroes reveals some similarities, there are some significant
changes as well observed in the literary world regardless of the chronology, which cannot be ignored.

The author poroposes the reading of C. Pavese’s diaries, as notes of his autodestruction. The interpretation is based mostly on the reference to psychology and psychoanalisis.

The paper analyses the subject of cruelty, following as an example the heroine of Rachilde’s novel
La Marquise de Sade, with reference to the personality of J.B. Troppmann, young killer, famous in
1869.