Akty XIX-wiecznej etykiety grzecznościowej (w korespondencji Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego do Władysława Chodźkiewicza)

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue from the field of speech act theory including a study of a collection of about 220 private letters dating from the latter part of the 19th century. Several speech acts like greetings, farewells, thanks, apologies, and wishes were arranged to show differentiation of their illocutionary power as well as different character of the studied text types. It was also described how the author of the letters (J.I. Kraszewski) had been using particular traditional expressions of great antiquity giving them not commonplace form if necessary. The relations between types of the analyzed texts and localization of acts of politeness etiquette was also considered. The aim of such politeness acts is to inform about positive emotions that the sender of these expressions feels to the receiver of them. Conventionalisms having been prevalent in the 19th century were considered from the perspective of their primary function of constant creation and maintaining special politeness atmosphere of relations between people.