"Homo scribens" i "homo legens" w polskim słownictwie i frazeologii

Abstract

The dissertation is devoted to the role of the invention of literacy in the process of formation and evolution of new lexical items in the Polish language. Literacy and its history have been at the center of investigation of many academic disciplines such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, cultural anthropology and even art. Investigating the invention of literacy has resulted in various reflections on the development of civilization, the differences in the mentality of “an oral man” and “a literary man”, and also the changes in the forms of communication. The shift away from orality to literacy initiated a sort of a new era in the evolution of humanity as a result of the significant change of human mentality. Literacy has also been examined from a linguistic perspective, though the disparity between oral and spoken language has been the focus of attention. However, lexical items related to literacy have not been of particular interest so far, in spite of the fact that they originated almost at the same time as literate culture. There has been no extensive research in the field of lexical items related to literate culture in linguistic works although the invention of literacy performs an indisputable and repeatedly emphasized role in the development of lexis. The key aim of the dissertation was to depict constitutive lexical items in the history of the Polish language, namely from Old Polish to Modern Polish. Constitutive — since only the most interesting and the most fundamental to Polish literate culture lexical items were studied. I was mainly interested in verba scribendi, namely verbs denoting the activity of writing (e.g. to write, to note, to scribble, to draw), and also in verba legendi, that is, verbs denoting the activity of reading or somehow related to the activity of reading (e.g. to recite, to cite). Moreover, I was also concerned with the names of writing tools and materials, the names of the letters of alphabet and punctuation marks. This dissertation was a study based on historical semantics, hence a diachronic and synchronic description were provided. A historical approach allows to show the origin and evolution of lexical items related to literacy in the Polish language and is also an opportunity to identify the main directions and evolutionary tendencies of the presented lexical items, conversely the static observation allows to build up a general picture of the state of the presented items in a specified period of time. This dissertation is divided into two main parts, each part is organized into chapters that discuss the lexical material from various points of view. The first part is dedicated to individual lexemes and the method of formation and collection of lexis to investigate a new phenomenon connected with joining literate culture. This part illustrates the method of forming lexis related to the process of writing and reading — namely whether they are borrowed or native words. I also examined the ambiguity of lexical items and the change in the meanings expressed through existing lexis. The second part characterizes phraseological units — the units that are directly related to writing as well as the units that are not directly related to the ability of writing and reading and appear in other spheres of human life, e.g. the influence of literacy on performance, namely how people think and speak using writing technology. I also addressed other issues, e.g. semantic relations between lexical items (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy). Besides, I showed the smooth borderline between speech and writing which is associated with the increase in abstract thinking. Human thinking, for example, under the influence of writing technology has become greatly metaphorical. I analysed the lexical material with the aim of showing that literate culture had a significant impact on the lexical system. Entering the literate culture means changes in lexis. “Oral man” expressed and named situations which were not connected with literacy since he did not have the writing and reading skills. However, when man took a pen into his hand he became a man with the ability to write and read, and hence he acquired new names — homo scribens and homo legens. This situation got also reflected in his language. Our ancestors had to expand their vocabulary through the use of new words associated with literacy that had not been present in the Polish language before. The material presented in the dissertation illustrates how and to what extend literate culture influenced the formation of lexical items in the history of the Polish language.