Prof. Iwona Kraska-Szlenk
e-mail: i.kraska@uw.edu.pl
consultations for students: Monday 15.00-16.00 (please make an appointment in advance)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9673-3126
Research areas
Swahili language, culture and literature, cognitive linguistics, frequency, corpus studies, issues of language and culture, analogy.
Academic degrees
2008 Dr. Habil. in Linguistics (University of Warsaw). Book Analogy: The Relation between Lexicon and Grammar (published by LINCOM Europa, 2007)
1995 Ph.D. in Linguistics (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): Thesis The Phonology of Stress in Polish (the degree nostrified by the University of Warsaw in 1997)
1992 M.A. in Linguistics (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): Qualification Examinations
1987 M.A. in African Studies (University of Warsaw). Thesis: The Directive Form in Swahili. A Semanto-Syntactic Study
Academic work experience
2019-present Professor, Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw
1997-2019 Adiunkt, Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw
1991-1994 Teaching Assistant, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1989-1991 Research Assistant, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1988–1997 Assistant, Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw (1989-1996 on leave for doctoral studies in USA)
Academic functions
2017-2019 Head of the Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw
2012-present Head of Language Lab, Oriental Faculty, University of Warsaw
International scholarships and research stays
2016 Tanzania, Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, one-month research stay (NCN grant)
2015 Australia, James Cook University, one-month research stay (invitation of Language and Culture Research Centre of James Cook University at Cairns)
2012 Kenia, two-week research stay (own funding)
2008 Tanzania, three-week research stay (own funding)
1992 one-month FLEP scholarship (Shona language), Michigan State University
1989-1991 two-year fellowship, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1986/87 ten-month scholarship (Swahili language), University of Dar-es-Salaam
1982-84 two-year scholarship (Arabic language), L’Institut Bourgiba des Langues Vivantes
Grants
2016-2019 Multilingual Semantic Lexicon of Body Part Terms, NCN grant no 2015/19/B/HS2/01573 (Principal Investigator)
2011-2013 Lexicon-Metaphor-Culture: the Body and Conceptualization in Languages of Europe, Africa and Asia, Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant no N N104 387640 (Principal Investigator)
International conference organization
Language – Culture – Literature: East African Perspective II (Online), University of Warsaw, 23-24.09.21
Language – Culture – Literature: East African Perspective, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, 23-24 May, 2019
International Workshop: Body Part Terms in Linguistic Usage: A Comparative and Typological Perspective, University of Warsaw, 8-9 December, 2017
Africa Days 2017: Language and Culture Interface, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, May 23rd, 2017
Thematic session Embodiment in cross-linguistic studies: The body part term ‘head’ at 46th Poznan Linguistic Meeting, Poznan, 15-17 September 2016
Current Research in African Studies (In Honour of Dr. Eugeniusz Rzewuski), University of Warsaw, Warsaw, May 16th, 2014
Body in Language: Lexicon, Metaphor, Grammar, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, October 21-22, 2011 (with the partner institution of the University of Cologne)
International conference presentations (since 2011)
“Polysemy of body part terms: contrasting universal tendencies with culture-specific paths”, C&C 2021: Interlingual and Intercultural Contacts and Contrasts – Approaches and Practices, Konin, 18-20 October, 2021(plenary)
“Swahili cultural values and discursive strategies”, Language – Culture – Literature: East African Perspective II (Online), University of Warsaw, 23-24.09.21
“Embodiment and cultural conceptualizations in Swahili”, The Third Cultural Linguistics International Conference (Online), Budapest June 16-18, 2021
“Kiswahili in Cognitive Linguistics: Areas of research and advantages”, 33 Swahili Colloquium (Online), May 14-16, 2021 (invited)
“Cultural conceptualizations in Swahili grammar and language use”, Language – Culture – Literature: East African Perspective, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, 23-24 May, 2019
“Conceptualization of body part terms as tools in Swahili”, The Body as a Toolbox, Cologne, October 4-5, 2018
“Body part terms and conceptualization: A cross-linguistic perspective”, International Congress of Linguists 20, Cape Town, 2-6 July, 2018
“Swahili component of two dictionary projects” (with Beata Wójtowicz), Kongamano la CHAUKIDU, University of Dar es Salaam, 15-16 December, 2017
“Towards a semantic lexicon of body part terms”, International Workshop: Body Part Terms in Linguistic Usage: A Comparative and Typological Perspective, University of Warsaw, 8-9 December, 2017
“Metonymy in extending the body part ‘head’ in mental and social domains”, 46th Poznań Linguistic Meeting, September 15-17, 2016
“Derivation and semantic autonomy: A corpus study of Polish głowa ‘head’ and its diminutive główka” (with Beata Wójtowicz), 46th Poznań Linguistic Meeting, September 15-17, 2016
“Swahili kinship terms in the reversed use”, Swahili Colloquium, University of Bayreuth,31 May – 2 June, 2015
“Subtle racism in Polish discourse strategies”, New Developments in Linguistic Pragmatics, University of Łódź, 12-14 April, 2015
“The concept of location expressed by the suffix –ni and other spatial constructions in Swahili”, Concepts of Concept: Perspectives Across Languages and Disciplines, Zurich, September 10 -11, 2014
“The Somali language in research and communication” (with Elmi Abdi), Horn of Africa: Script – Identity – Development, Warsaw, November 30, 2011
“Semantic extensions of body part terms: a corpus-based approach”, Body in Language: Lexicon, Metaphor, Grammar, Warsaw, October 21–22, 2011
“Expressing positive emotions through ‘reversal’ strategies”, The Stockholm 2011 Metaphor Festival, Stockholm, September 8-10, 2011
Teaching experience
University of Warsaw:
Courses on general linguistics, language and culture interface, African linguistics, issues in cognitive linguistics, Swahili language, Swahili literature
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign:
Courses of the Swahili language of different levels, an intermediate course of Polish
Other activities
member of Polskie Towarzystwo Afrykanistyczne, member of Editorial Boards: Przegląd Orientalistyczny and Studies of the Department of African Languages and Cultures, regularly reviewing for international and Polish linguistic journals
Chosen publications
Books:
2021 (co-editor, with Melike Baş), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Eye’. Leiden: Brill.
2021 (co-editor, with Beata Wójtowicz), Język i literatura suahili: konteksty społeczno-kulturowe. Warszawa: Elipsa.
2020 (editor) Body Part Terms in Conceptualization and Language Usage. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 319+viii pp.
2019 (editor), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Head’. Leiden: Brill. 227 pp.
2016 (editor, translation, introduction). Opowieści na werandzie. Wybór z literatury suahili XIX wieku, Warszawa: Elipsa. 128 pp.
2015 (editor). Nipe kalamu: Odsłony dawnej literatury suahili. Warszawa: Elipsa. 158 pp.
2014 Semantics of Body Part Terms: General Trends and a Case Study of Swahili. LINCOM Studies in Semantics 6. München: LINCOM Europa. 236 pp. [Reviewed by Kelsie Pattillo on Linguist List, Nov 11, 2015]
2014 (co-editor, with Matthias Brenzinger). The Body in Language: Comparative Studies of Linguistic Embodiment. Brill Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 8. Leiden: Brill. 382 pp.
2014 (co-editor, with Beata Wójtowicz). Current Research in African Studies: Papers in Honour of Mwalimu Eugeniusz Rzewuski. Warszawa: Elipsa. 428 pp.
2007 Analogy: The Relation between Lexicon and Grammar. LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 38. München: LINCOM Europa. 215 pp.
2003 The phonology of stress in Polish. LINCOM Studies in Slavic Linguistics 23. München: Lincom Europa, 120 pp. [Reviewed by Mark J. Elson in Language 2005:780]
1998 (with R. Ohly and Z. Podobińska), Język suahili [The Swahili Language], Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie DIALOG, 165 pp.
Journal articles and book chapters:
2022 (with Beata Wójtowicz) Derivation and semantic autonomy: A corpus study of Polish głowa ‘head’ and its diminutive główka”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics.
2021 “Polish oko ‘eye’ and its (quasi) diminutive oczko: semantic extensions and usage patterns”. In: Melike Baş and Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (eds.), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Eye’. Leiden: Brill. 93-116.
2021 (with Melike Baş) “Introduction: The Overview of the Volume”. In: Melike Baş and Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (eds.), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Eye’. Leiden: Brill. 1-7.
2021 “Język suahili i kulturowe konceptualizacje: zarys problematyki”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk i Beata Wójtowicz (ed.), Język i literatura suahili: konteksty społeczno-kulturowe. Warszawa: Elipsa. 9-29.
2021 “Postacie kobiece w suahilijskich „opowieściach zmyślonych” z XIX wieku”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk i Beata Wójtowicz (ed.), Język i literatura suahili: konteksty społeczno-kulturowe. Warszawa: Elipsa. 142-162.
2020 “Introduction”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Body Part Terms in Conceptualization and Language Usage. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 1-8.
2020 “Towards a semantic lexicon of body part terms”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Body Part Terms in Conceptualization and Language Usage. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 77-98.
2018 Address inversion in Swahili: Usage patterns, cognitive motivation and cultural factors”. Cognitive Linguistics, Vol. 29/3: 545-584. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2017-0129
2018 Kinship metaphors in Swahili language and culture. Studies in African Languages and Cultures, Vol. 52: 49-71. Warsaw: University of Warsaw. https://doi.org/10.32690/SALC52.2
2018 “Metonymic extensions of the body part ‘head’ in mental and social domains”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Head’. Leiden: Brill. 136-154.
2018 “Embodied lexicon and the ‘head’”. In: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Head’. Leiden: Brill. 1-9.
2018 (with Marzena Żygis and Marek Jaskuła) “Acoustic study of ɫ-vocalisation in Polish”. In: Bartłomiej Czaplicki, Beata Łukaszewicz and Monika Opalińska (eds.), Phonology, Fieldwork and Generalisations. Berlin: Peter Lang. 239-257.
2015 „Nyumba ‘dom’ w języku i kulturze suahili” [Nyumba ‘house’ in Swahili language and culture]. In: Jerzy Bartmiński, Iwona Bielińska-Gardziel, Beata Żywicka (eds.), Leksykon aksjologiczny Słowian i ich sąsiadów, Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS. 433-447. [Reprinted with slight changes from Etnolingwistyka 22: 145-160]
2015 (with Michał Głowacki) „Poezja miłosna w tradycji Fumo Liongo”, in: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Nipe kalamu. Odsłony dawnej literatury suahili. Warszawa: Elipsa. 102-127.
2015 „Zarys historii literatury suahili do początków XX wieku”, in: Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (ed.), Nipe kalamu. Odsłony dawnej literatury suahili. Warszawa: Elipsa. 9-53.
2014 Semantic extensions of body part terms: Common patterns and their interpretation. Language Sciences 44: 15–39.
2014 Analogy in language use and change. In: Leszek Bednarczuk, Anna Bochnakowa i Stanisław Widłak (eds.), Linguistique romane et linguistique indo-européenne: Mélanges offerts à Witold Mańczak à l’occasion de son 90e anniversaire. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności i Instytut Filologii Romańskiej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. 309-317.
2014 Extending body-part terms in the domain of emotions”. In: M. Brenzinger i I. Kraska-Szlenk (eds.), The Body in Language: Comparative Studies of Linguistic Embodiment. Brill Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 8. Leiden: Brill. 52–70.
2014 Swahili embodied metaphors in the domain of family and community relations”. W: I. Kraska-Szlenk i B. Wójtowicz (eds.), Current Research in African Studies: Papers in Honour of Mwalimu Dr. Eugeniusz Rzewuski. Warszawa: Elipsa. 163–174.
2012 (with Marzena Żygis) Phonetic and lexical gradience in Polish prefixed words, Cognitive Linguistics 23/2: 317–366.
2011 Teoria ‘nieregularnego rozwoju fonetycznego spowodowanego frekwencją’ Witolda Mańczaka i jej znaczenie dla językoznawstwa [Witold Mańczak’s theory of ‘irregular sound change caused by frequency’ and its contribution to linguistics], Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego, z. LXVII: 320-329.
2010 Morphophonological reduction in Swahili: the pressure of frequency and lexical diffusion. Studies of the Department of African Languages and Cultures 44. Warszawa: Uniwersytet Warszawski. 83-102.
2009 Size vis-à-vis frequency: minimality and maximality constraints in Swahili. Language Sciences 31/2-3. Special issue: Michael J. Kenstowicz (ed.), Data and Theory: Papers in Phonology in Celebration of Charles W. Kisseberth. 271-284.
2009 Emotional aspects of inversion in Swahili address terms. In: Nina Pawlak (ed.), Codes and Rituals of Emotions in Asian and African Cultures, Warszawa: Elipsa. 110-127.
Publications (full report)