Imiona zakonne karmelitanek bosych (od XVII do pierwszej połowy XX w.)

Abstract

Monograph Imiona zakonne karmelitanek bosych (od XVII do 1. połowy XX wieku) is the fruit of almost ten years of research on religious names. The main purpose of the work was to analyze the collected religious names of the Discalced Carmelites from all Polish monasteries from the seventeenth century to the first half of twentieth century (full onimic material for each of the periods). The temporal scope was dictated, on the one hand, by the foundation of the first Carmelite monastery in Polish lands, and on the other hand by the change in the practice of giving religious names in this order, which took place in the second half of twentieth century. The work has an interdisciplinary nature by design, which is caused by the specificity of the social group in which the discussed anthroponyms functioned and function nowadays. The presented monograph consists of an Introduction which includes: the most important information about the purpose and assumptions of the work (among others, the documentative description of the onyms, their diachronic analysis, description of genesis and motivation of the names); methodological basis of the description (in this paragraph I focused on indicating the most important tools for developing the onymic material collected: objective and documentary analysis, statistical method or sociolinguistic approach in onomastic research, as well as auxiliary tools, such as those taken from a theolinguistic approach) and the description of used sources (both printed and manuscript). The subsequent section of the Introduction raises the most important terminological issues, first of all by clarifying the term religious name – it includes definition of the term, the most important functions of the religious name, the specific structure of the analyzed onyms, as well as an attempt to determine to which anthroponyms category the religious names should be assigned. The ways the religious name functions in a social group (religious community) are discussed on the following pages, as well as the differences between religious names and Christian names. Further part of the dissertation presents the most important information about the Carmelite Order – its historical outline, including the reform carried out in the 16th century, significance (both in the Catholic Church and on the Polish lands) and also the crucial points of Carmelite spirituality, which are closely connected with analyzed material (above all with the theological meaning of the analyzed anthroponyms, with the selection of specific denominations or with the shape of the religious name and its predicates). The third chapter is a presentation of the present state of research on Polish religious names, both female and male. The lack of any monograph on this subject is noteworthy, as is the fact that the articles that have appeared so far only constitute fragmentary research (usually names from one monastery of a particular order and a specific one age). Chapter four describes the practice of changing name in the order. It discusses (based on Italian and Polish sources) its genesis and also shows the custom of changing name in various religious communities, with particular emphasis on the Carmelite Order. An important part of this part of the dissertation is the presentation of the evolution of this practice over time. The next chapter of the dissertation begins the analytical part of the work on the collected religious names of the Discalced Carmelites. It discusses the origin and motivation of the analyzed anthroponyms, and – if it has occurred (this does not apply to names transferred from Christian names) – word-formation phenomena used to create individual names. In order to organize the presented material, the division of religious names into names derived from proper and proprietary names was introduced. In the sixth chapter, a diachronic analysis was carried out (each subsection is a discussion of names from a given age, from the seventeenth to the first half of the twentieth century, including the first, second and third names). Diachronic research has allowed to show both the onimic state in particular periods, as well as changes that have occurred over the centuries. It has become possible to indicate the development of the structure of names and to show the most popular units over the centuries. Following passsage shows also permanent names, that is occurring in all subsequent periods, and variables – characteristic for a given time. The seventh chapter presents the results of research on the predicates of religious names of the Discalced Carmelites. Starting from the semantic typology of these units (twelve semantic groups were distinguished, in each group there were structures referring to other theological content), performing the function of definite descriptions, it closes with the presentation of changes that took place in this part of the religious name on the space of ages. In turn, in the eighth chapter, the dependence of the religious names of the Discalced Carmelites from their Christian names was analyzed (also in the diachronic aspect), which allowed to sketch several structural types, according to which the Christian name often went to be the religious one, becoming a part of it. The results of this analysis were compared with the results of analyzes of (in) dependence of male religious names on Christian names. The ninth chapter compares the scope of religoius names of the Discalced Carmelites with the scope of names in other religious orders. Three aspects were particularly important here: the practice of changing the name, the structure of the religious name, and the comparison between religious names of the Discalced Carmelites and extracted from other religious orders. Four other female monasteries were chosen (functioning in Poland in the analyzed period, that is from the seventeenth to the twentieth century) to conduct comparitve study: Augustians, Bernardines, Dominicans and Visitandines. The Summary includes the most important conclusions regarding the religious names of the Discalced Carmelites (including functioning in particular ages, the evolution of the entire system of the Carmelite religious names, resource, structure) and the most important features of religious names. The monograph is closed with a dictionary of discussed religoius names of the Discalced Carmelite nuns (units that appeared as first, second and/or third name), a bibliography and an appendix presenting a list of full religious names given in the congregation of the Discalced Carmelites from the seventeenth to the first half of twentieth century. To sum up, it is worth noting that the results of the analyzes that have been presented in this book may serve as a basis and reference point in research conducted by linguists (but also theologians or sociologists) who will want to undertake research on religious nomenclature. The collected and presented material also opens up perspectives for further research on this branch of anthroponomastics.