Language and social change. Public communication, nation, and identity

Abstract

Dramatic transformations in Poland after the fall of communism and the country's thorny path to democracy provide fascinating material for reflection and study of language in its relations to politics and social change. A review of communist newspeak, followed by the breakdown of monopoly on public speaking, the beginning of the language of the opposition, finally developing into various styles of Solidarity, serve as a backdrop for an analysis of the post-communist speech developing in diverse, occasionally opposite directions, affecting all levels of linguistic reality at different speeds, with varying intensity and degree of immunity to external manipulation.