The stylistic aspect of Polish wills
The stylistic aspect of Polish wills

Summary/Abstract: Testament in the Polish culture is an administrative-legal genre, accomplished in its ownstyle of the genre, based on the official and legal style. In the stylistic aspect it showsauthoritarianism, impersonality, templatedness and meticulousness of expression. As anexample of the legal discourse it tends to be unambiguous, logical, concrete, and itcontains specialist terminology related to dispositions of the estate in contemplation ofdeath. It refers manly to the material sphere of life, yet it implies abundance of varioushidden feelings: love, gratitude, attachment, hatred, contempt, or revenge. The mostpopular and expansive type of the genre is a notarial will executed in the form ofa notarial deed. Holographic wills are realized more freely, with use of elements ofcolloquial style, may include expressive speech acts or take the form of an informalletter. The stylistic form of allographic and oral wills is similar to a report. Notarialtestaments are becoming dominant and influence the linguistic shape of all other typesof the genre. Lack of legal verbosity in a document, while meeting the requirementconcerning appointment of an heir, date and testator’s signature, does not invalidate thelegal force of the utterance.

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