Konstatacje przełomowe metodologicznie w językoznawstwie polskim drugiej połowy xx wieku i ich konsekwencje

This paper is a contribution to the history of theoretical linguistics in Poland. The starting point are statements made by four Polish scholars, Jerzy Kuryłowicz, Andrzej Bogusławski, Anna Wierzbicka, and Stanisław Karolak, which have been chosen subjectively (but not randomly) and which I consider to be methodologically groundbreaking. They resulted in significant changes in research tools and thus brought about changes in the language of linguistics. These changes concern the authors themselves as well as other linguists, both their contemporaries and representatives of the next generations. The order in which I list the four names is determined by the dates of the original publications that include the statements. The statements discussed in this article were made in the second half of the 20th century; an assessment of the relevance of theoretical statements appearing in the 21st century would be premature. I do not assess the originality of the selected statements from the point of view of world science (I consider such a task unfeasible), nor do I examine their sources. The aim of the article is to point to the evolution of research tools and to draw attention to the methodological progress in Polish linguistics over the last seventy years.