Frekwencja w badaniach językoznawczych i glottodydaktycznych .......... 17

FREQUENCY IN POLISH LINGUISTICS AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS

The article stems from the linguistic research on frequency and was inspired by the study Język polski jako obcy. Programy nauczania na tle badań współczesnej polszczyzny, edited by Władysław Miodunka. It proves that frequency is the most important cause of any language change. In every natural language, frequently used forms stay, while rare, secondary for the system (e.g. collective numerals in Polish) disappear. Frequent forms on the other hand (e.g. the Polish genitive case) are being simplified and unambiguous rules of their use are sometimes difficult to formulate. The issue of frequency is extremely important in the area of language teaching, because students should learn first, i.e. frequent, things first, and only later on concentrate on what is peripheral.