„Nieznośna lekkość bytu” – skrzydlate słowa w retorycznych interpretacjach

Abstract

The subject of the article is to present a rhetorical approach in linguistic analysis of functioning of culture idioms (winged words) in the contemporary public discourse. The chosen example of the winged words is the Milan Kundera’s novel title The Unbearable Lightness of Being which turned out to be often rephrased/paraphased and used idiom in Polish media (press titles) and commercials (slogans). The main directions of analysis was based on one of the fundamental rhetorical rules – the principle of appropriateness. The principle was recognized as a useful scientific tool in linguistic research because 1) it allows to deeply interpret intertextual games, 2) enables esthetic verification of idioms modifications in public discourse and, 3) lets to assess a communication act based on idioms as coherent or not in context of sender-recipient relations. Paraphases and rephrases of analyzed winged words showed that they include both rthetorical inventio and dispositio techniques but the inventio strategy is crucial here for appropriateness. The main conclusions of the presented research for the analyzed texts of public discourse are as following: 1) appropriate press tittle based on winged words is clear for recipient, and coherent with the article subject; 2) appropriate slogan based on winged words is adequate to target recipient, and understood not only as persuasive but also informational text; 3) intertextual games in both types of public discourse are focused on intriguing the recipient but keeping the principle of appropriateness has different axiological rank in each of them: in press discourse appropriateness is an autotelic value as a kind of cognitive value, in marketing discourse commercial utility is a priority so appropriateness becomes instrumental value there.