Z historii polskich wartości społecznych. Rzeczowniki abstrakcyjne w połączeniach z przymiotnikami opartymi na rdzeniu społ- w staro- i średniopolszczyźnie

A contribution to the history of Polish social values– the earliest abstracta with adjectives which feature the root społ- in the Old Polish and the Middle Polish language

The article constitutes an attempt at discovering the earliest linguistic attestations of concepts associated with the formation of communal ties of the Polish people. One of the clues which hold information about the social nature of a concept is associated with the furnishing of the lexeme which represents this concept with adjectives with the root społ-. The article presents the earliest attestations of abstracta with “social” epithets in the Polish language – the adjectives spolny, społeczny, pospólny, pospolity and their continuants in the Middle Polish language. The collection of Old Polish abstracta which feature the following designations: dobro, pokój as well as wiara, prawo and obyczaj constitutes the core of social values which are universal in nature. Two abstracta – pospolite dobro and pospolity pokój have the nature of ultimate values – they constitute the common goal which unifies the community. The remaining ones are factors which regulate social relations. The fact that they occur as early as in the Old Polish language is probably a result of the importance that was attached to them at that time and of the importance that is attached to them until today.