The phenomenon of actual word compatibility appearing in current written speech is considered. The term actual word compatibility is introduced into scientific use to denote new or relatively new compatibility of the words breaking their usual syntagmatic connections and identifying changes in people’s value orientations. Analyzing the compatibility of the adjectives with positive or negative meaning in sintagmas like zdorovyj cynizm (‘healthy cynicism’), razumnaja agressija (‘reasonable aggression’), nezdorovaja dobrota (‘harmful kindness’), etc. the author comes to the conclusion that in the present-day perception there are some value orientations not typical of traditional culture. One of them is aggressive cult of force. The study is performed in the framework of language dynamic description on the material of the texts related to several professional communities (lawyers, psychologists, business coaches) and comments on them on the websites, etc. One of the methods applied is the analysis of potential word compatibility.
The authoress focuses on the word przyzwoitość ‘decency, decorum, propriety’ and examines the term on the basis of the corresponding dictionary entries, from the oldest to the latest, PELCRA-searched concordances of the PWN Polish Language Corpus, and Lublin-based Maria Curie-Skłodowska University students’ questionnaire-derived responses. As she concludes, the word przyzwoitość has clearly been evolving. Not only has the number of its referents increased, but also its semantic centre has been slightly shifted. Most recently, the word has been used in some sense of ‘propriety’, that is ‘fitting’, ‘suitable’, or ‘the way that it should be’, which means that something is good/appropriate in some respect but is not of any extraordinary quality. Nevertheless, in reference to selected objects it does amount to more than just the expected norm, or, at least, it resides in the higher limit of normal. Przyzwoitość then implies ‘better than average’, something like norm plus supplementary value, never average or below average. As postulated, this secondary meaning of the word is now gaining popularity at the expense of the original one that embraces moral issues. The latter happens to be appropriated by other domains, which is what probably explains a growing capacity of przyzwoitoœæ to appear in novel idiomatic expressions.
This article is an attempt to linguistically describe the values occurring in the 18th century proverbs excerpted from Nowy dykcjonarz by Michł Abraham Trotz. The author discusses the axiological preferences reflected in the proverbs, shows which categories and how many of them are emphasized in the proverbs, what linguistic and stylistic means are used to express and estimate of the values, and what aspects of the values are present in the proverbs semantic plan.
PL
Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą lingwistycznego opisu wartości występujących w osiemnastowiecznych przysłowiach, wyekscerpowanych z Nowego dykcjonarza Michała Abrahama Trotza. Autorka omawia preferencje aksjologiczne, odzwierciedlone w paremiach, ukazuje, które kategorie i jak licznie eksponowane są w prowerbiach, jakie środki językowe i stylistyczne służą wyrażaniu wartości i ich waloryzowaniu, a także jakie aspekty wartości uobecnione są w planie semantycznym przysłów.
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