The Author of the essay asks the following question: do parents have licentia rhetorica for talking about their experience? In her analysis she primarily focuses on an Internet magazine „Bachor. Bezradnik dla nieudacznych rodziców („Brat. Helpless-guide for looser–parents”) which represents a very particular way of talking about the child, a way which varies from parents’ standard linguistic behaviour. The Author traces the fragments which include intentionally created non–literality and subsequently proceeds to reconstruct the types of reception she observed. At the same time, the Author ponders on the reasons why some recipients resist the possibility of nonliteral reading or why they object to it – and, as a result, read messages literally. The considerations are presented in a broader perspective of the reflection upon the media motivated social and cultural transformations of rhetorical standards of talking about the child.
The aim of the article is to present one of the possible ways of reconstructing the notion of STATE (more specifically — one of its spheres: the fragment which is concentrated around the domain [POWER]) based on the assumptions of cognitivism. The study is conducted from the perspective of the history of language as it encompasses the Polish language used in the literal era until the end of the 16th century and includes word-formative relations of words organized around the notion of STATE. The starting point for the author is an analysis of the hyperonym of the notion in question, that is the lexeme state in this case. She examines its word-formative construction by characterising its more closely distinguished components. Then she studies selected derivatives which represent the same conceptual framework. Additionally, her analyses are accompanied by descriptions of formations characterised by adifferent word-formative construction, whose lexical meanings are synonymous to the analysed profiles of the lexeme state. The author is also interested in particular words which are related to the discussed synonyms on the basis of belonging to the same word-formative nest. The presented analyses aim at showing the advantages of using semantics of understanding to study historical materials.
The essay draws attention to the fact that, since the old days, in the case of frustration connected with the child mothers have reached out for words, they have used words to affect both internal, psychic reality and the external one. Magical acts by means of language are based on the world image shared by the sender and the recipient. Polish folk culture positively valued phenomena referring to Polish Catholic symbols, therefore these symbols constitute protective and benevolent powers evoked in folk lullabies. The author suggests looking at contemporary linguistic activities performed by mothers frustrated with staying with the child, which activities are presented in the analysed website magazine Bachor as activities which also make use of the language magic. According to the author, the difference lies in changing the cultural context of linguistic behaviour and associating them in particular with the defining technology. In contemporary mediatised society the power of “obligatory existence”, which was characteristic of magical speech activities, supports and intensifies the equation of media by recipients. Therefore, the author sees Bachor as the act of blocking the language of success which makes room only for parents who are “effective” and affirm positive feelings by introducing into reality — by means of words, words in media — incapable, frustrated parents who are full of negative feelings. The subject is discussed in adescriptive and not in an evaluative way.