“Shout Over the Radio, when You Are Ready!” Of Emotions in Railwayman’s Sociolect Polish studies related to the Railwayman’s language date back to the 1970s. The most frequently analysed material included proper names of railway connections (i.e. railway chrematonyms), which were excerpted from official railway timetables. However, the research concerning the Railwayman’s sociolect has only been undertaken very recently and is primarily based on the paper by Piotr Żmigrodzki entitled „Uwagi o języku internetowej grupy miłośników kolei” (2006). Thus, the scope of studies on the Railwayman’s sociolect in Polish should be expanded to cover new aspects. I verified the status and role of the Railwayman’s language on the basis of the functional typology of sociolects proposed by Stanisław Grabias. I discussed the relevant background literature and indicated the sources published in the 20th and 21st century by Polish linguistics who focused on the Railwayman’s vocabulary. Also, I distinguished the sources of information which may be used to study the Railwayman’s sociolect (official ones – e.g. dictionaries or journal articles, and unofficial ones – e.g. online fora transcripts). Apart from this, I briefly characterised each of these sources. The article focuses on the analysis of the spoken language – the material was gathered during research conducted between 2017 and 2020 which was interrupted by COVID-19 pandemic. The aim was to verify whether the Railwayman’s sociolect performs an emotive function, and to discuss the ways of conveying emotions in this sociolect. The research material included 150 samples and was divided into 6 categories. The results suggest that the Railwayman’s language cannot be characterised as expressive, and that emotions, though present in some of the collected samples, were evoked only in extraordinary circumstances. As stated in the theoretical section of this article, the Railwayman’s sociolect can be identified as professiolect (i.e., professional slang) used for professional communication. Hence, it is oriented at an effective and concise exchange of thoughts in an explicit way. We exclude the preliminary assumption that the Railwayman’s language is a professional jargon.
The phrase “I love you” is usually associated with a description of the sender’s sentiment. As something that talks about the emotional state of the speaker. However, this is not always the case. There are cases of using this phrase that do not serve cognitive function, when “I love you” does not “inform” about the sender’s feelings state. These words have in these cases the driving force, they are the action. The formulation which is “the doing of a certain action”, John L. Austin calls a “performative utterance,” or a “performative”. “I love you” seems to meet the conditions for such classification in at least three cases, i.e. when this sentence is pronounced to create a relationship (this is usually its first formulation by the sender and the receiver, although the time elapsed between the two statements may be long). Second, when we have the situation of renewing such a commitment – to be in a relationship and take actions for its benefits. And finally, when other forms of showing love are impossible for a variety of reasons.
PL
Sformułowanie: „Kocham Cię” zazwyczaj kojarzone jest z opisem uczuć nadawcy tego komunikatu, jako coś, co mówi o stanie emocjonalnym mówiącego. Jednak nie zawsze tak jest. Istnieją takie wypadki użycia tego zdania, które nie służą funkcji poznawczej, kiedy „Kocham Cię” nie „zdaje sprawy” ze stanu uczuć nadawcy. Słowa te mają w tych wypadkach moc sprawczą, są działaniem. Wypowiedzenie, które jest „robieniem czegoś” John L. Austin nazywa „zdaniem performatywnym”, „wypowiedzią performatywną” bądź, w skrócie, „performatywem”. „Kocham Cię” zdaje się spełniać warunki takiego zaszeregowania w co najmniej trzech przypadkach. Po pierwsze, gdy zdanie to wypowiedziane jest dla stworzenia związku (to zazwyczaj pierwsze wypowiedzenie go przez nadawcę i odbiorcę, choć czas, jaki upłynie między tymi dwiema wypowiedziami może być długi). Po drugie, gdy mamy sytuację odnowienia takiego zobowiązania – do bycia w związku i działania na jego rzecz. Wreszcie w sytuacji, gdy inne formy okazania miłości są niemożliwe z różnych powodów.
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