Ze słownictwa rodzinnego w literaturze epoki pozytywizmu

Abstract

In the paper an analysis of family vocabulary, in particular names of children born out of wedlock, was presented. Research material was excerpted from novels, short stories, and novellas written by the following outstanding writers of the positivism epoch: Bolesław Prus, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Maria Konopnicka, and Adolf Dygasiński. Vocabulary referring to illegitimate children in literary works by Polish positivists of the latter part of the 19th century makes a rich enough and heterogeneous collection. Words referring (with minor exceptions) only to such a group of children, e.g. bękart, bąk, podrzutek, najduch, znajda/znajdek can be found in the vocabulary. Another collection includes words used by adults as both addressed to children born out of wedlock and to their own "legitimate" ones (in a funny, coarse or mischievous way), e.g. bachor, bęben. The word sierota/an orphan, an orphaned person has a special function because of its ambiguity — the word may refer not only to both mentioned above group of children but also to adults in particular situations of their lives. This was vocabulaiy loaded with strong emotions and ways of using particular words most often depended on a given hero of a literary work. On the basis of quotations it is easy to guess both what a given person's attitude towards a given child was and what kind of human the person was. It is interesting that even the same heroes changed their vocabulary after a change which occurred inside of them - from very negative words they passed on to very warm ones, even in a form of diminutives or baby-talk. Gathered in the paper vocabulary excerpted from chosen positivistic literary works makes only a part of a rich collection of words from this thematic range. It is also an illustration of a fragment of literary reality in the latter part of the 19th century. The paper is an approach to the problem of naming illegitimate children in the epoch.