BIBLIZMY W POSTYLLI MIKOŁAJA REJA
Biblisms in Postil by Mikołaj Rej

Summary/Abstract: The Article raises the issues of formation of Biblisms in 16th-century Polish, understood as single or phrasal lexical units of Biblical origin, though functioning in general language in metaphorical meanings. Assuming that Biblisms were introduced into general language not only by the so-called canonical translations of the Bible, the author considers also spreading the research area on free translations, including postils, as crucial for historicallinguistic analyses. The first part deals with terminological and theoretical issues, associated with functioning of Biblisms in Polish. The latter part of the article analyzes examples of various units, considered by the author as potential Biblisms. The lexical material comes from the first part of phototypic edition of Postil (1566). This is a description of equivalents of contemporary Biblical phrases. The author studies a few types of units: motives working as literary allusions (kamienie wołac będzie - 'he will call stones'), mottoes, exposing quotations characteristic for a particular Gospel (e.g. Jam jest głos wołający na puszczy - 'I am a voice calling in the wood', etc.), units functioning as phrases być ciało z ciała, krew z (czyjejś) krwie - 'be flesh from flesh, blood from (somebody else's) blood' (undergo contamination, occur in the metaphorical meaning). Besides, the article includes an analysis of units, which, though similar to contemporary Biblisms, function in primary meanings in Postil by Rej. There are also units of Biblical origin which used to be Biblisms in the 16th century, though nowadays, they have disappeared or have become replaced by other units (licemiernik - faryzeusz - 'Pharisee').

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