Miły Sowietniku, szary Kocie, zielona Żabko, kochana Betsy…, how Henryk Sienkiewicz addressed Jadwiga Janczewska in his letters Cover Image

Miły Sowietniku, szary Kocie, zielona Żabko, kochana Betsy…, czyli jak Henryk Sienkiewicz zwracał się w listach do Jadwigi Janczewskiej
Miły Sowietniku, szary Kocie, zielona Żabko, kochana Betsy…, how Henryk Sienkiewicz addressed Jadwiga Janczewska in his letters

Author(s): Katarzyna Sicińska
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Henryk Sienkiewicz; private correspondence; addressative forms; affectonym; idiolect; historical stylistics;

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses forms used by Henryk Sienkiewicz to address his sister-in-law, Jadwiga Janczewska, in his letters from 1879–1916. A special bond between the writer and the addressee (family-based, friendly, full of warmth and manly adoration), as well as the literary talent and linguistic creativity were reflected in the abundance and diversity of addressative expressions used by Henryk Sienkiewicz (about 200 lexical units). The basic group consists of unofficial (diminutive, hypocoristic and augmentative) forms of the addressee’s name, such as Dzinka, Dzinia, Dzidek, Dziduś, Dzid. The second, more numerous, group comprises affectonyms, that is intimate names, which generally are motivated by addressee’s physical or mental features, e.g. Żaba, Mgła, Kot, stworzenie, dziecko, figurka, hadziuś. The writer used some affectonyms in multiple phonetic and morphological variants, e.g. Żaba, Żabka, Żabeczka, Żabeusz, Ziaba.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 50
  • Page Range: 199-222
  • Page Count: 24
  • Language: Polish
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