Iwona Kraska-Szlenk

prof. Iwona Kraska-Szlenk, Ph.D.

e-mail: i.kraska@uw.edu.pl

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

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

International workshop International Workshop: Body Part Terms in Linguistic Usage: A Comparative and Typological Perspective, University of Warsaw, 8-9 December, 2017 (with Izabela Will and Ahmadu Shehu)

Africa Days 2017: Language and Culture Interface, University of Warsaw, May 23^rd, 2017 (with Izabela Will)

Current Research in African Studies (In Honour of Dr. Eugeniusz Rzewuski), University of Warsaw, May 16^th, 2014 (with Beata Wójtowicz)

Body in Language: Lexicon, Metaphor, Grammar, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, October 21-22, 2011 (with Matthias Brenzinger, University of Cologne)

International conference presentations (since 2011)

“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:

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:

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 90^e 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)