“Affectionate” diminutive expletives from the religious name Jezu(s)! in Polish
-
Dorota Lockyer
Abstract
The paper provides a corpus-driven analysis of the emotive meanings and pragmatic functions of Polish ‘affectionate’ expletives from Jezu(s)! ‘Jesus!’ which contain diminutive suffixes, e.g. Jezusku ‘Jesus.DIM’ and Jezusieńku ‘Jesus.DIM.DIM’. While affectionate forms of various names, including Jezu(s), have been frequently discussed in Polish, few studies – if any – have discussed their various uses as expletives in Polish. Because these diminutive forms of expletives (DEs) are used infrequently, this study uses the Internet as corpus by collecting examples from blogs, the microblogging site Twitter, forums, and The National Corpus of Polish (NKJP). It is shown that the force evoked by the expletive Jezu(s) causes the diminutive forms to typically fall on either end of the negative-positive polarity scale; that is, the DEs rarely express neutral force. Rather, they are mainly used to convey strong positive attitude (e.g. appreciation) or negative attitude (e.g. complaint, frustration). Often, the ‘softness’ of the blow and/or degree of positive emotion depends on the diminutive suffix(es) used. This interesting paradox – a lexical item that is a combination of negative expletive force and positive tender diminutives – provides deeper insight into the extent of diminutive and expletive use in contemporary Polish.
References
Aijmer, K. 2013. Understanding pragmatic markers: A variational pragmatic approach. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.10.1515/9780748635511Suche in Google Scholar
Ameka, F. 1992. “Interjections: The universal yet neglected part of speech”. Journal of Pragmatics 18(2–3). 102–114.10.1016/0378-2166(92)90048-GSuche in Google Scholar
Będkowska-Kopczyk, A. 2009. “Przekleństwa jako przykład łamania tabu (nad podstawie języka polskiego i słoweńskiego oraz innych języków słowiańskich)” [Cursing as an example of breaking taboo (based on Polish and Slovene and other Slavic languages)]. Język a Kultura, Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis 3151(21). 209–224.Suche in Google Scholar
Biały, P. 2015. “On the priority of connotative over denotative meanings in Polish diminutives”. Studies in Polish Linguistics 8(1). 1–13.Suche in Google Scholar
Cuenca, M.J. 2000. “Defining the indefinable? Interjections”. Syntaxis 3. 29–44.Suche in Google Scholar
Dąbrowska, A. 1992. “Eufemizmy mowy potocznej” [Euphemisms in colloquial speech]. Język a kultura 5. 119–163.Suche in Google Scholar
Dressler, W.U. and L. Merlini Barbaresi. 1994. Morphopragmatics: Diminutives and intensifiers in Italian, German and other languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110877052Suche in Google Scholar
Gehweiler, E. 2010. “Interjections and expletives”. In: Tucker, A.H and I. Taavitsainen (eds.) Historical pragmatics. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. 315–350.10.1515/9783110214284.5.315Suche in Google Scholar
Gehweiler, E. 2008. “From proper name to primary interjection: The case of gee!”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 9(1). 71–93.10.1075/jhp.9.1.05gehSuche in Google Scholar
Goddard, C. 2014. “Jesus! vs. Christ! in Australian English: Semantics, secondary interections and corpus analysis”. In: Romero-Trillo, J. (ed.), Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2014. New York: Springer. 55–77.10.1007/978-3-319-06007-1_4Suche in Google Scholar
Godyń, J. 1994. “Język intymny w kolędach polskich z XVIII wieku” [Intimate language in Polish carols from the XVIII century]. Język Polski 74. 1–13.Suche in Google Scholar
Gorzycka, D. 2010. “Distance and proximity and diminutive semantics and pragmatics”. In: Ciuk, A., K. Mołek-Kozakowska (eds.), Exploring space: Spatial notions in cultural, literary and language studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 146–155.Suche in Google Scholar
Griffith, T. 1996. “Dirty words”. Perspectives 22. 136–137.10.1016/S0301-9322(97)88488-1Suche in Google Scholar
Grochowski, M. 1991. “Przekleństwo i wulgaryzm jako kwalifikatory pragmatyczne jednostek leksykalnych” [Cursing and vulgarisms as qualifiers of pragmatic lexical units]. Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici, Filologia Polska, XXXVI. 3–26.Suche in Google Scholar
Inchaurralde, C. 1997. “Space, reference, and emotional involvement”. In: Niemeier, S. and R. Dirven (eds.), The language of emotions: Conceptualization, expression, and theoretical foundation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 135–154.10.1075/z.85.10incSuche in Google Scholar
Jucker, A.H. and I. Taavitsainen. 2013. English historical linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.10.1515/9780748644704Suche in Google Scholar
Jurafsky, D. 1996. “Universal tendencies in the semantics of the diminutive”. Language 72(3). 533–578.10.2307/416278Suche in Google Scholar
Kryk-Kastovsky, B. 1997. “Surprise, surprise: The iconicity-conventionality scale of emotions”. In: Niemeier, S. and R. Dirven (eds.), The language of emotions: Conceptualization, expression, and theoretical foundation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 155–172.10.1075/z.85.11krySuche in Google Scholar
Lockyer, D. 2015. “Diminutive interjections in Polish: The case of (o)jejku and (o)jejciu!” Studies in Polish Linguistics 10(4). 197–221.Suche in Google Scholar
Lockyer, D. 2013. That poor little thing: The emotive meanings of diminutives in Polish and Russian translations of Alice in Wonderland. (Unpublished MA thesis, University of Victoria.)Suche in Google Scholar
Lockyer, D. 2014. “The emotive meanings and functions of English ‘diminutive’ interjections in Twitter posts”. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 11(2). 68–90.Suche in Google Scholar
Ljung, M. 2010. Swearing: A cross-cultural linguistic study. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230292376Suche in Google Scholar
Nagórko, A. 2015. “Morphopragmatics in Slavic”. In: Müller, P. (ed.), Word-formation: An international handbook of the languages of Europe (vol. 2). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. 1545–1559.Suche in Google Scholar
NKJP = National Corpus of Polish. <http://www.nkjp.uni.lodz.pl/index.jsp>. (Last accessed 9 Apr 2016.)Suche in Google Scholar
Norrick, N.R. 2015. “Interjections”. In: Aijmer, K. and C. Rühlemann (eds.), Corpus pragmatics: A handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 249–278.10.1017/CBO9781139057493.013Suche in Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. 2009. Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Pęzik, P. 2016. “Exploring phraseological equivalence with Paralela”. In: Gruszczyńska, E. and A. Leńko-Szymańska (eds.), Polish-language parallel corpora. Warsaw: Instytut Lingwistyki Stosowanej UW. 67–81.Suche in Google Scholar
Pęzik, P. 2015. “Spokes – A search and exploration service for conversational corpus data”. In: Selected papers from the CLARIN 2014 Conference, October 24–25, 2014, Soesterberg, the Netherlands. (Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings.) Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press. 99–109.Suche in Google Scholar
Ponsonnet, M. 2014. The language of emotions: The case of Dalabon (Australia). Amsterdam: Benjamins.10.1075/clscc.4Suche in Google Scholar
Schneider, K.P. 2003. Diminutives in English. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Suche in Google Scholar
SJP = Słownik języka polskiego [A dictionary of Polish]. <www.sjp.pl>. (Last accessed 9 Apr 2016.)Suche in Google Scholar
Stange, U. 2016. Emotive interjections in British English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/scl.75Suche in Google Scholar
Stapleton, K. 2010. “Swearing”. In: Locher, M. and S. Graham (eds.), Interpersonal pragmatics. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. 289–306.10.1515/9783110214338.2.289Suche in Google Scholar
Stenström, A. 1991. “Expletives in the London-Lund corpus”. In: Aijmer, K. and R. Altenberg (eds.), English corpus linguistics: Studies in honor of Jan Svartik. London: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar
Sussex, R. and J. Zubrzycki (eds.). 1985. Polish people and culture in Australia. Canberra: Dept. of Demography, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University.Suche in Google Scholar
Tabakowska, E. 1998. “Grammar and ontology: A case study of Polish religious discourse”. LAUD General and Theoretical Paper No. 436. 1–9.Suche in Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 2003. Cross-cultural pragmatics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110220964Suche in Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1997. “The double life of a bilingual: a cross-cultural perspective”. In: Bond, M.H (ed.), Working at the interface of cultures: Eighteen lives in social science. London/New York: Routledge. 113–125.Suche in Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1996. “Między modlitwą a przekleństwem: O Jezu! I podobne wyrażenia na tle porównawczym” [Between praying and cursing: O Jesus! And similar expressions in a comparative context]. Etnolingwistyka 8. 24–39.Suche in Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. 1984. “Diminutives and depreciatives: Semantic representation for derivational categories”. Quaderni di Semantica: Rivista internazionale di semantica teorica e applicata 5(1). 123–130.Suche in Google Scholar
Wikström, P. 2014. “& she was like “O_O”: Animation of reported speech on Twitter”. Nordic Journal of English Studies 13(3). 83–111.10.35360/njes.321Suche in Google Scholar
WSJP ? Wielki słownik języka polskiego [The great Polish dictionary]. <www.wsjp.pl>. (Last accessed 9 Apr 2016.)Suche in Google Scholar
Zappavigna, M. 2012. Discourse of Twitter and social media. New York: Bloomsbury.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2017 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- “Affectionate” diminutive expletives from the religious name Jezu(s)! in Polish
- Acquisition of adjectives in a bilingual setting: A developmental profile of Turkish–Danish bilinguals
- Use of communication strategies in an interactional context: The interlocutor influence
- In defense of linguists’ introspections. A view from a generativist’s perspective
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- “Affectionate” diminutive expletives from the religious name Jezu(s)! in Polish
- Acquisition of adjectives in a bilingual setting: A developmental profile of Turkish–Danish bilinguals
- Use of communication strategies in an interactional context: The interlocutor influence
- In defense of linguists’ introspections. A view from a generativist’s perspective
