O postrzeganiu pojęcia POKÓJ w XVI wieku z perspektywy połączeń wyrazowych polskich rzeczowników pokój i mir

On the perception of the concept of PEACE in the 16th century from the perspective of the word combinations of the Polish nouns pokój and mir

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the understanding of the Polish concept of PEACE in the 16th century. Considerations - due to the material base - fall within the mainstream analyses in the field of historical semantics, although they are not subordinated to the dynamic aspect. The article tries to capture the features of the concept on the basis of the semantic properties of words, typical for an arbitrarily selected synchronous plane, and based only on a certain type of linguistic data: collocations of Polish nouns pokój [En. Peace] and mir and their textual use. The research material was excerpted from the Dictionary of the Polish Language of the 16th Century edited by Maria Renata Mayenowa. On the basis of the observed word combinations and their contexts, it can be seen that the sixteenthcentury PEACE was perceived as one of the basic values, a universal and unambiguously positive state. Its positive valorisation can be determined on the basis of collocations with adjectives evaluating positively (dobry [En. good], najlepszy [En. best], najwiętszy [En. most sacred], łaskawy [En. gracious], przyjemny [En. pleasant], wdzięczny [En. grateful]) and taking into account synonymic chains (przyjacielstwo i mier [En. friendship and accord], pokój i bezpieczeństwo [En. peace and security], pokój i jedność [En. peace and unity], zdrowie i pokój [En. health and peace]). In the analysed material, no collocation with lexemes with the opposite evaluation vector has been noticed. Moreover, the excerpted linguistic data made it possible to state that although the 16th-century PEACE was considered a universal value, it was not an absolute and permanent state. This conclusion was confirmed by connections such as pokój złaman jest [En. peace was broken], zgwałcenie pokoju pospolitego [En. violation of the common peace], pokój targać [En. tearing up peace], pokój wzruszan bywa [En. peace is sometimes shaken], recorded in the texts of eminent Polish humanists of the golden age, commenting on the socio-political situation of Poland at that time. Moreover, the lexical data confirmed the internal division of the PEACE category into INDIVIDUAL PEACE and SOCIAL PEACE, which can be considered stable. The analysis of the material also made it possible to conclude that an attempt to approach PEACE holistically in the diachronic aspect requires detailed research that could become the basis of a linguistic synthesis, preceded, however, by an analysis of the literature in the field of political, social and ethical sciences. The description of the variability in understanding the concept would thus complement the state of knowledge about PEACE, developed on the basis of related disciplines within humanities and social sciences.