On the language taboo in Trylogia (The Trilogy) by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Abstract

The taboo was identifi ed in the content plan and in the expression plan applicable in the 19th century and in the described period, i.e. in the 17th c. Emphasis was put on the linguistic exponents of the examined phenomenon. It was stated that Sienkiewicz did not care about a pedantic faithfulness to the language and custom of the described period. He selected such a manner of expression as was comprehensible to Polish readers and at the same time hidden from the Russian censorship. The major scopes of the language taboo is the Polish-Russian war and human sexual behaviours. The methods of disguising political contents are persistently repeated, probably in order to draw the reader’s attention. Camoufl aging the Muscovy invasion consists in blending Russia, named with the use of euphemisms, with the background of nationalities which are similar to Russians in some respects, in pars pro toto metonymy, in a metaphor of fl ood and/or fi re that blurs facts, and in periphrases. There is h ardly any periphrasis and manner of concealment in the presentation of eroticism, metaphors derive their vocabulary from various fi elds and various stylistic genres, the metonymy of the effect of an action instead of the action is used frequently