Słownictwo religijne a reformacja. Głos w dyskusji nad konfesyjnym zróżnicowaniem polskiej leksyki w XVI w.
Religious Vocabulary and the Reformation: A Contribution to the Discussion on the Confessional Diversity of the Sixteenth-Century Polish Lexicon

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the problem of the confessional diversity of sixteenth-century Polish religious vocabulary. It revises the arguments put forward by other academics and formulates new research recommendations. Focusing on the lexicon of Polish Lutheranism, which has so far received little scholarly attention, the article examines the vocabulary used in the polemical texts by one of the main representatives of the Polish Reformation: the Lutheran Erazm Gliczner. Based on the analysis of two groups of confessional terms: 1. repentance [pokajanie] – reflection [upamiętanie], 2. the Catholic church [Kościół] – the Protestant church [Zbór], we claim that the author does not avoid words that belong to the Catholic lexicon, but distances himself from the terminology used by representatives of radical, anti-Trinitarian denominations. Our findings help to revise certain popular ideas, conclusions drawn from the analysis of Polish translations of the Bible, as well as linguistic commentaries of the translators. It is thus essential that the research in the field of the sixteenth-century Polish religious vocabulary should be continued and should include texts other than Bible translations, i.e., texts whose authors’ word choice was determined by different factors.

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