Przeciwstawność determinowana językowo i kulturowo w poemacie Elżbiety Drużbackiej Opisanie czterech elementów szkodliwych i pożytecznych: ziemi, wody, ognia i powietrza

Abstract

In the paper one element, i.e. ziemia/earth, was analyzed. It includes contrasts that are linguistically determined, e.g. useful : harmful, hot : cold. It also includes lexical items used to outline different cultural spheres in an antonymic way, e.g. biblical David and Goliath or mythological Jupiter and Apollo. One (linguistically determined) contrast may be entered in two analytic sequences: a harm and a use distinguished according to hyperonymes accepted in definitions in S.B. Linde's Słownik języka polskiego/A Dictionary ofthe Polish Language. The other (culturally determined) contrast includes lexical items that are subject to axiologization as a result of good and bad meanings overlapping them. In Drużbacka's work there are both a collection and a contrast, e.g. a mother and a father, a son and a mother, children and parents as well as contrasts: a mother (a female parent) and a stepmother showing earth conversely with different roles: to give /a feeder/ and to take away /a stepmother/. The following synonyms: prolific/fat. fecund, good/ earth and barren /unfertile, yielding rare, thin, short ears/earth are arranged in contrastive sequences in the poem. Sequences of synonymic contrasts are a feature of the poetess's style.